The Sheet with Jeff Marek - On the Sheet: Max Bultman on Simon Edvinsson Preferring a Trade, Larkin Getting Booed, and More

Episode Date: October 5, 2026

Jeff Marek is joined by Max Bultman to break down the latest news surrounding the Detroit Red Wings, starting with Simon Edvinsson and reports that the unsigned restricted free agent would prefer a trade out of Detroit. They discuss how the relationship reached this point, why Edvinsson may be looking for a fresh start, what the Red Wings could be seeking in return, and which teams could emerge as potential landing spots. Max also dives into the ongoing Dylan Larkin situation after the Red Wings captain was booed during Detroit’s home opener, whether his future with the organization is becoming increasingly uncertain, the possibility of his trade list expanding, and what Detroit’s asking price could look like as the situation develops. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

To the topic at hand, and I mean, it's been a story all summer, and it continues on this Monday, October the 5th. Max Bolton joins me from the Athletic. He covers the Detroit Red Wings amongst other NHL issues and prospect issues as well. Max joins me now. Max, how are you today? Never a busier, boring time these days in Detroit? No, certainly not. So where do we begin on this one?

I sort of said cheekily off the beginning of the program here. I'm old enough to remember 2009 when Mike Gillis flew to sweet. Sweden to convince Henrik and Daniel Sidene, who were represented by J.P. Barry, to stay with the Vancouver Canucks and re-sign. I don't know why I felt like mentioning that on today's program, but there it is. We'll get into the GM talk in a couple of seconds, but the Edvinson news. I'm under the impression of the belief that Detroit knew about this before Edvenson went back to Sweden. But here we are after the weekend that was, and then Elliott put the report out about preferring a trade. I'm convinced Detroit already knew about this, but where are we at right now with Detroit and

Edvenson? And is the threat of an offer sheet legit out there right now? Well, let's put a pin in the offer sheet for a second. Where things stand, nobody's commenting on this. So it's hard to kind of ascertain where things stand. But I think the obvious that he's in Sweden tells you that it's not in a good place. That's a deteriorating situation for a player who was in camp, who showed up without a contract. That's not something most players do. Adam Fantilli was not. in Columbus until he had a signed contract. Edmondson goes all the way back across the ocean without his.

So certainly it's a negative trend line there. But on the question of the offer sheet, it's an interesting one because if, you know, you mentioned Elliott's report. If that's the case and you sign an offer sheet, well, you're kind of just ending the saga there and you could get that business squared away. Detroit can match, right? So like, it's kind of a complicating factor to me there. Can I pause on that for one second?

Because there's a lot of people that have talked to about this with, other teams who bring up the idea of the one-year offer sheet for someone like Edvenson and also informing the team that all you're doing is kicking the can down the road because he's not going to resign with this team. Even if you match the one-year offer sheet, you're still going to have the drama. There's also the idea of a team that wants Simon Edmondson but doesn't have the requisite draft picks for it could offer multiple. draft picks or players or whatever to a team that does offer sheet the player because you are

allowed to trade him if you if you offer sheet the player and you get him thereby opening up the potential for division rivals to get involved as well like there's a lot of the offer sheet thing I know that edvinson has sort of downplayed it too but the conversation at least outside of Detroit is still very much alive and I think a lot of people have some curiosity about how this might work. But you're right. He could, Detroit, if he does get offer sheet, could just match. And then that's the end of that, even though they wouldn't be able to trade him until next October. Right. And then a one year offer sheet. And July. And the one year offer sheet is fascinating. That's the one. I don't know. Because if he wants term, he's not getting it. Right. It's like,

so it's like you're going to solve the problem by signing the deal that you, the short term deal that you in theory don't want. Right. So true. But the other thing that it doesn't want is to play there. So if you do the one year, you're escaping. And all. also protecting yourself in case they match. And you say to the team, I have no intention of resigning. Let's see where it goes here. Because like I, even I look, I believe the reporting, but I'm just saying that these situations are volatile.

And like it would not shock me for for this to still work out in a way that Detroit signs it. We'll see where it goes. But I'm not ready to call it on that yet. Right. And so it's, to me, what it comes back to is these are the situations that are supposed to play out in the quiet of all. or the quiet of July.

And instead, because the Red Wings waited as long as they did, they're playing out in very much kind of public with the urgency of a team playing games without him, with a team getting booed on its home ice, with fans chanting, sell the team. That's a lot of noise that I don't think if this similar saga was happening on August 14th, I don't think it would be taking up quite the oxygen that it is. I don't know that it would be all that unusual kind of in the course of a negotiation. Obviously, when you start talking trade, you're in bad waters no matter what. but you don't have the visual of him going back to Sweden if this is August.

I mean, I think we all look at Edvinson showing up in Detroit and saying like that's the good faith move. Yes. I'm here and I'm here to do business. I don't know what the offer was, how low it was, if it was an offensive. I don't know any of that. But again, it was enough for him to say, thanks, but no thanks. And I'm going back to Sweden. Let's get to the weekend here.

I don't know that I've ever seen on opening night sell the team chance. Like opening night is like that's, that's optimism night. Even if you think your team's going to be a lottery team, day one, game one is all about optimism. The booze for Larkin, expected. But I didn't, I'll be honest with you, Max. You tell me whether I'm way out of touch with Detroit then.

I didn't expect to hear sell the team chance. It didn't expect that one. there's a lot of frustration with ownership right now. And it kind of goes back to what I was just talking about, where there's just all these unresolved things that, you know, you feel like an organization should have at least a few of these things resolved by opening night, right? Maybe the Larkin one you say, hey, there's a lot of balls in the air on that. There's moving parts.

There's a trade list that's kind of, you know, even expanded is it's still pretty restrictive with the teams that are on it and what kind of capital they could offer. That's where you get the booze at Larkin. But the way that the search process played out this summer, I think, is a real hot button thing in Detroit. And there is a lot of frustration over how they could kind of be not naming an interim GM until September. And then because you're going through the whole search for a permanent one.

And then when the search seemingly kind of turns up empty, then you go to that well. And as a result, you're behind the eight ball and you get a core pillar in Edvenson unsigned into the season. I think that's where the frustration and ownership really comes up. So the way that it, again, the way that it feels to me, the way this all went down, is they thought that they thought Greenberg was their guy he was going to be the next general manager

they were going to run the management group with the Red Wings as they do with the Detroit Tigers and everything was going to be fine or as fine as possible considering the situation with Dylan Larkin. And when Greenberg pulled out it was essentially pulling the pin out of a grenade and after that it seemed like they didn't have a plan B.

That's the way it felt. Do you think that's accurate? One of the issues here is there was no plan B. It was Jeff Greenberg or this. That's how I read it too, just because the timing of him pulling out in early September, and then you get to kind of this point, and then you name the interim a week later, that that's certainly the way I read the situation too.

And you can understand from their standpoint if that is the case, right? If you think you're pretty much locked in. What I can't understand is that you went through this process for this long, were there no other people you liked? Was there not kind of a plan B, for lack of a better word there? Yeah. And you don't really want to sell, hey, yeah, we got our plan B, right? But that's kind of where my head goes.

It's like, how can you have had a search this long? You hire a search committee and then something like that, like a candidate pulling out, can have that level of impact if that is indeed what happened. A quick thought on Eisenman. And I've had differing people tell me differing things about things like, how much money he's still owed. I've heard a couple of different numbers, safe to say, all the numbers that I've heard are double digits,

and I don't think that should surprise anybody. I don't think that that factors into who they're going to name as their next general manager or president of hockey operations or whatever, but you're closer to it than I am. Is there a sense that they may want to do this a little bit cheaper because they do owe Steve Eiserman so much money here? I don't know if that's been part of the discussion at all. do know it's in double digits.

I think that, look, you're always, with ownership, you're always going to have that question of like, are they willing to spend what it takes? I just don't think that you make that move if you're not prepared to do that. I don't know how you can expect that you're going to make a move of that magnitude. You know what you owe Steve Eisenman. You're not doing that to save money. If you're making that move, you know you're spending money. So, like, you can never discount it, but it's not my read on it.

So two losses over the weekend. Larkin-bood. I don't know where the Larkin thing ends up or where it ends up eventually is going to come to a head and they're either going to make the decision. They have the deal that they want or it's just a law of diminishing returns, not just for the player, but for the organization as well. Like here's the thing, Max, like I'm watching this game. I'm watching the opening game and I'm thinking to myself, like there are people that, you know, talk about brand value, brand equity for a living and will tell you like a dollar amount for, you know, what brands are worth and what devalues brands, etc. etc, et cetera, et cetera. Winning cures everything,

but I don't think anyone expects the Detroit Red Wings to start winning necessarily. But at a certain point, is there not an even bigger issue than just a hockey trade here that this is affecting not just the Detroit Red Wings on the ice,

but the Detroit Red Wings as a brand? Dylan Larkin's getting booed, sell the team chance, all of it, like everything. The vibe in the rink is just so awful watching both these games. Yes, and that is one of the cruxes of their big picture problem here, is that you can't really make that go away until you start to solve some of these issues. You also can't solve the issues with the intent of just making this go away, right?

You can't just say, oh, it's things have gotten out of hand. Let's, you know, let's trade these guys and get it done and then we can start fresh. Well, if you do that and you take a worse return because you're doing it under duress, you're doing more damage to the long term and you're making a bigger mess for yourself in the future. So look, part of the problem here is that the Red Wings want to, want to prove that they're like a first class job, a good situation. This isn't helping that. But they can't just, you know, Sean Horkoff can't just go in this and say, okay, I need to solve all the problems today and make this quiet down. Because if you take that tack to it, you're going to get ripped off. The big word from the summer for me is cascade.

That an event happens and there's, and the obvious one is Leo Carlson. And we're still feeling the cascade from that offer. sheet and you know everybody got paid more than they were expecting and more than teams are expecting because of it when you look at the red wings with the dylan larkin situation now the simon edvinson situation how much are people in detroit thinking if this then what's next larkin wants out edvinson wants out is there a concern like do you go around the room and say like okay whoever wants out just tell us now so we have all the car on the table. Is that a legit concern in Detroit right now? Or is it too early in the season to tell?

Well, I think you have Alex De Brinkett, who was that was a big storyline coming into the year, is can you get him extended and that squared away? And they didn't get that done. They didn't get that done before the eight-year contract maximum was still in play. And now you go into the season with it. And you're asking him effectively, like, hey, you want to sign up for seven more years of this, right? This is not the time I would want to be making that ass to Alex Debrinket. But in terms of other guys who have term, I think it's a little different conversation. I'm not, I wouldn't go into the locker room every day worried about, you know, as more at sight are going to be here. But you have guys who this is going to be a very real, very looming decision for them.

And those are the ones that I'm watching. Last one for you. The interim tag is, again, like just sort of splashed on there because they had to have someone to make these decisions. Dylan Larkin is not a situation for a rookie general manager. Simon Edvinson is not a job for a rookie general manager, but here we are. You know, Elliot floated the idea of bringing in a senior advisor. I've mentioned a few different times and again today on the program that, you know, Mike Gillis could make a lot of sense here since you're going to be dealing with a lot of agents.

And he's kind of seen, you know, as the elder statesman amongst agents. A lot of agents, they'll call Mike for advice on different things. do we know that first of all, is there a chance that the interim tag just gets taken off and he's a general manager for this season period.

Do we know anything about bringing an advisor? Do we know anything about what's going to happen here with Sean Horcough? I have not heard anything about a senior advisor above him. I mean,

I think Sean Horcoff has to look at this as an opportunity and to try to navigate this and it is a brutal opportunity. I mean, they've handed him about the toughest possible audition. and you could give an executive.

But I think if you brought in someone else, that would kind of be kneecapping him even further to what has happened already, right? You're going to throw him in two days before training camp starts with all these problems to fix. And now less than a month into that, you're going to go over top of them and say, okay, we think you need someone else here.

Like I understand the practical, you know, have more wisdom, more voices in there. And maybe you can just add to the front office on a permanent basis, right? Like to me, that's one of the ways that the Red Wings, whoever they make their permanent GM, whether it's Horkoff or someone else. And I do think that that is in play that it could be him. I think they just need to build a lot of more robust front office period. So if you wanted to go make a hire and say, hey, this person's going to be an AGM,

a vice president, whatever, special advisor, you know, whatever. That's fine as long as it's on a permanent basis. But I don't think you can bring in like a temporary president now over top of him, that kind of thing. But if you wanted to bring in like a senior staff member, who's going to stick around to the next front office no matter what, that's a different matter. Right. That's more worth considering. always appreciate having you on to sharpen the pencil on these stories.

It's the biggest one in hockey right now. So thanks as always for stopping. Bye, Max. You'd be well. Thanks so much for doing this. My pleasure, Jeff. You too.