The Detroit Red Wings are in the throes of the interview process, hiring an outside firm to conduct interviews on their next general manager. A few names, including Florida Panthers assistant general manager Brett Peterson and San Jose Sharks assistant general manager Jeff Kealty, have come up a few times. On their long list of things they'll need to accomplish, the next GM has to re-sign Simon Edvinsson, figure out a Dylan Larkin trade and determine the fate of Alex DeBrincat.
But there's one thing they have to do that, believe it or not, is more important than any of those tasks.
It's transparency.
Where the last administration failed
For better or worse, the Steve Yzerman administration kept secrets like Fort Knox. Nothing - from potential trade ideas to opinions on prospects - got out. In the early years of the Yzerman era, this was extremely beneficial. It allowed the team to quietly shop Anthony Mantha, securing a bevvy of picks and a few roster players as a result.
But, on the flip side, it created a few PR disasters.
We'll never know what caused Yzerman to trade Jake Walman so abruptly. It was clear he still had value, especially after seeing what the San Jose Sharks got for him. Yzerman's refusal to communicate this, especially after the Jakub Vrana fiasco, created its own set of problems. Fans began to conceptualize theories of their own. The locker room began to feel disjointed.
Without answers, frustration quickly fomented.
This lack of transparency all came to a head this summer when disgruntled captain Dylan Larkin requested a trade. In an early press conference, Yzerman refused to provide more than basic information, creating more tension in an already tense situation. This, in turn, caused a bad situation to get worse until, finally, Yzerman stepped down from his role.
What the next GM has to get right
The Red Wings don't have to be an open book. They can still keep their cards close to their chest, if needed. But they can't repeat the same mistakes the Yzerman administration did. When issues happen (as they inevitably do), the next GM has to approach the situation and deliver a statement up front. There's no reason fans and media figures should be delivering contradicting information during an extremely tumultuous period in the organization's history.
Two things need to be prioritized in this next administration: transparency and setting expectations.
Nobody is expecting the next GM to bring the Stanley Cup in their first season. But they're going to want answers. They're going to want to know what the plan is moving forward and how the team plans on addressing current issues.
A tight-lipped administration would do very little to address that.
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