The Detroit Red Wings’ search for a new general manager has lasted long enough to create questions. New comments from two of the NHL’s most connected insiders are now creating questions about the process itself.

Frank Seravalli said some executives publicly connected to Detroit’s opening apparently have not even been interviewed.

“The names that have been reported and connected to this search, some of them haven’t even gotten interviewed,” Seravalli said during an appearance on the FAN Morning Show. He added that, based on the calls he has made, he does not know who Detroit is preparing to hire.

That is striking considering Detroit had previously targeted roughly Labor Day to have its next hockey operations leader in place, a timeline that already came and went without a hire.

Friedman Adds Another Strange Layer

Elliotte Friedman offered a different detail that raises the same concern.

Detroit has requested permission from other NHL organizations to speak with certain executives, but some of those conversations apparently never progressed to actual interviews.

“One of the things out there is that Detroit has asked for permission from some people and hasn’t interviewed them,” Friedman said on the 32 Thoughts podcast.

That does not mean Detroit is mishandling the search. Executive searches can involve background work, changing priorities and candidates who become unavailable before a formal interview takes place.

It does mean the public picture has become unusually difficult to follow.

Detroit started with a broad pool, eventually identified several concrete candidates, began eliminating names and then watched one of the most intriguing possibilities disappear when Tigers general manager Jeff Greenberg withdrew from consideration.

Training Camp Is Now Six Days Away

The calendar is making the uncertainty harder to ignore.

The Red Wings officially open main training camp on Sept. 17, with sessions running through Sept. 20 at the BELFOR Training Center, according to the team’s official schedule.

Detroit also has major hockey decisions waiting for whoever gets the job. Dylan Larkin’s trade request remains unresolved. Simon Edvinsson is unsigned. Alex DeBrincat is eligible for an extension and has publicly said he wants to remain in Detroit.

A deliberate search is not necessarily a bad search. Hiring the wrong person because camp is approaching would be worse than waiting another week.

The unusual part is that two prominent NHL insiders are now describing a process in which some reported candidates have not been interviewed, while Detroit reportedly sought permission on others without following through.

Seravalli summed up the uncertainty more sharply than anyone else.

“I’ve never seen anything like this in terms of how long this has gone on,” he said.

Detroit will eventually announce a general manager.

At this point, figuring out how the Red Wings get from this process to that decision might be almost as interesting as the name itself.