Dylan Larkin is still waiting as the Red Wings hunt for an analytics-driven GM.
According to Bob Duff of Detroit Hockey Now, owner Chris Ilitch is genuinely enamored with how his other team runs its front office.
Ilitch owns the Detroit Tigers too, and Duff says he's specifically drawn to how Scott Harris and Jeff Greenberg lean on analytics there.
"That was definitely another flaw with Yzerman," Duff said. "He just didn't want to hear about analytics, didn't want to learn about it."
Yzerman was let go from the GM chair earlier this year and moved into a consulting role, and that disconnect is reportedly part of why.
Detroit has now narrowed its list of candidates, and some believe a hire could come as early as next week.
The list has included names like Scott White, Brett Peterson, Jeff Kealty, Shawn Horcoff and Kris Draper, though the last two are reportedly no longer in the running.
Why an outside analytics hire changes everything for Larkin
Larkin put up 67 points last season, 34 goals and 33 assists over 74 games, still performing like a genuine first-line center.
He requested a trade earlier this summer too, and that situation hasn't moved simply because the GM chair sat empty.
Whoever gets this job inherits Larkin's future immediately, along with Simon Edvinsson's contract standoff as a restricted free agent.
Edvinsson put up 25 points in 72 games last season with a plus-12 rating, still unsigned heading toward training camp.
Detroit finished 41-31-10 last season, 16th overall, and closed the year on a three-game skid that summed up a frustrating stretch.
It's been 10 years since the Red Wings made the playoffs, exactly the kind of drought that pushes an owner toward a different model.
Analytics carries more weight in a game like baseball than in something as fluid as hockey, and even Duff acknowledged that directly.
But the league has already shifted this direction, with Eric Tulsky in Carolina and Sunny Mehta in New Jersey both running analytics-forward front offices.
Is Detroit actually solving its real problem here, or just importing a buzzword from a different sport across town?
Whoever walks into that office next inherits Larkin, Edvinsson and a fan base that's waited a decade for real answers.
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Is an analytics-driven GM actually the right fix for the Red Wings' decade-long playoff drought?
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