Former Red Wings Exec Saddened by State of the Team

During his time with the Detroit Red Wings, Neil Smith served as head scout and assistant GM. He ran the club's farm system.

Smith was instrumental in Detroit's masterful 1989 draft class. It was he who insisted that the team had to draft Sergei Fedorov.

In short, the franchise means a lot to him.

"I have great affection for the Ilitch family," Smith said during the NHL Wraparound Podcast that he co-hosts with Vic Morren.

"Mr. and Mrs. Ilitch bought the team from the Norris family back in 1982, and it has done nothing but go up, up, up in prestige and in value ever since that time. Unfortunately, Mr. Ilitch has since passed, and Mrs. Ilitch is now 93 years old and still hanging in there.

"It's run now by their son Chris Ilitch , who is obviously one of the Ilitch family and has the same brains and acumen."

Smith left the Red Wings to take the position as GM of the New York Rangers. In 1993-94, he led that club to their most recent Stanley Cup win.

However, Smith never lost his affinity for the Red Wings. And that's why he finds the current state of the team to be distressing.

Detroit captain Dylan Larkin has asked for a trade. The club removed Steve Yzerman as GM in July and, with just a few weeks until training camp opens, still doesn't have his replacement in place.

"What I'm really sad about is where the hockey team is right now," Smith said. "Dylan Larkin, a player that has given everything to the Red Wings, played on their last playoff team, is the captain of their team, has told the team way back that he wanted to be traded.

In the Red Wings, Smith Sees A Franchise in Chaos

"That was sad enough. Then Steve Yzerman , a player that I drafted for the Detroit Red Wings , who became general manager after being in Tampa with the same role, has been let go after seven seasons of no playoff hockey. And now we're coming up to the end of August.

"They don't have a general manager. They're still on the lookout for a general manager. I don't know how it's possible that you could be at this point in the summer without a GM.

"The Dylan Larkin saga continues to go on. He's going to have to either expand his list of teams that he'll let Detroit trade him to or just resign himself to the fact that he's coming back to training camp and going to play on the team.

"And until those two things are ironed out— who is the GM and where is Dylan Larkin going to be this year— the team will stay in chaos until those things are figured out. And to me, having worked for that great Original Six team, that's very sad."