The Detroit Red Wings still do not have a general manager, and one of the biggest names in franchise history keeps turning up on the short lists. Brendan Shanahan won three Stanley Cups in Detroit and then spent 11 years running the Toronto Maple Leafs. Now he is being floated for the job Steve Yzerman left behind.
Yzerman has been out as general manager and executive vice president since July 15, 2026, roughly seven years after Detroit hired him on April 19, 2019. The 2026-27 season is closing in and the chair is still empty. On Monday, Sept. 7, Tigers general manager Jeff Greenberg told the Red Wings he was not pursuing the position, taking the most talked-about outside candidate off the board.
The Hockey News Puts Brendan Shanahan in the Mix
Adam Proteau of The Hockey News ran through the candidates left in a search that is running out of runway, with training camp closing in. Alongside internal options in director of amateur scouting Kris Draper and Grand Rapids Griffins general manager Shawn Horcoff, Proteau added a name from outside the building.
“Meanwhile, it’s this writer’s opinion that Red Wings icon and former Toronto Maple Leafs president Brendan Shanahan would also be a candidate for the GM job. Shanahan has significant experience as a manager and he knows the Detroit market like the back of his hand.
The next GM will be under the gun immediately to bring an end to the Larkin era and put together a trade that helps the Red Wings in the long haul. Whoever is next has to hit the ground running and immediately start pushing this Detroit team in the right direction.”
Proteau’s larger point is that the patience Detroit has asked for is spent, and that captain Dylan Larkin’s trade demand is a problem the next general manager inherits on day one rather than something the new hire gets a grace period to study.
Shanahan’s Front Office Resume in Toronto
Shanahan played for the Red Wings from 1996 to 2006 and won Stanley Cups in 1997, 1998 and 2002. He knows what the standard is here, which is the part of the pitch that sells itself.
The harder question is the record. Shanahan ran the Maple Leafs front office as president from 2014 to 2025, and Toronto drafted Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner and William Nylander on his watch. He also signed off on the boldest move of that rebuild, shipping Phil Kessel to the Pittsburgh Penguins on July 1, 2015 in a six-player deal that brought back prospect Kasperi Kapanen, Nick Spaling, Scott Harrington and a 2016 first-round pick.
Shanahan Already Has a Foot Back in the NHL
He is not sitting idle, either. TSN’s Darren Dreger reported in October 2025 that Shanahan had joined the league’s hockey operations department in an advisory capacity, attending general manager and board meetings. Dreger compared it to the path Ken Holland took before landing the Los Angeles Kings job, which is the kind of holding pattern a candidate leaves the moment the right team calls.
If Detroit does hire him, the Larkin situation is waiting. Trading a captain who has asked out means turning a star into futures, which is exactly the trade Shanahan made with Kessel. That is either the experience the Red Wings need or the reason to look somewhere else, and whoever Chris Ilitch picks is going to answer for it quickly.
