What Chris Ilitch's tone deaf LinkedIn post says about his vision of the Red Wings

Detroit Red Wings CEO and owner Chris Ilitch is worth $3.9 billion. Despite this, he can't afford to ice a competent roster. It doesn't seem like he's capable with the Detroit Tigers, either. Don't even bother getting me started on District Detroit.

Ilitch will happily shake down Detroiters for every penny they have just to park, attend games, purchase concessions and memorabilia, while he makes it difficult to consume the product. It seems that Ilitch wants to find out how badly Red Wings fans want to consume his less-than-adequate product, when a better business model would be making the products (both games and merchandise) accessible to anyone from anywhere. 

With all the money he’s saving on cost cutting between the $1.8 billion Tigers and the $2.5 billion Red Wings, it would be logical to assume he would spend the bare minimum on a decent public relations team. It’s easy and cheap to find a PR professional (full-time or otherwise) who can release a statement or perform a formal interview. It's easy to at least give the appearance of attempting to care. 

In his only public interview since former general manager, Steve Yzerman, was relieved of his duties, Ilitch was as tone deaf as he could be—or so we all thought. 

Ilitch is on a slippery slope to worse than nowhere

Instead of creating any confidence in his (lack thereof a) plan, Ilitch doubled down on his previous statements. Brad Galli (of The Brad Galli Show on YouTube and Facebook) shared Ilitch’s LinkedIn post:

In his opening paragraph, Ilitch chose a blatant lie. 

“Opening night in the NHL is always something special…Hockeytown showed up.”

No. Hockeytown didn’t show up.

The people who missed the deadline to opt out of season tickets went. People getting a steal of a price for opening night tickets (starting at just $26) ventured to downtown Detroit. 

Meanwhile, folks who have attended in person for opening night for 10+ seasons stayed home. Boycotts are being demanded, and Detroit fans are as upset as they’ve ever been. 

Ilitch doesn’t seem to get (or care to understand) the frustration of his fans. He’s dismantling the trust and good faith his parents built brick by brick.

Red Wings fans who lived through the “Dead Things” or “Dead Wings” era (pick your poison) have said this historic playoff drought is worse than anything they’ve witnessed. 

It wasn’t the free cars that Mr. Mike Ilitch gave away (though they certainly didn’t hurt his cause of buying faith from Motor City faithfuls). The biggest calling card of Mr. and Mrs. I was investing in the team. Mr. and Mrs. I poured money and themselves into their “little” Red Wings as Mrs. I so fondly refers to them.

They were dedicated to ponying up the funds as the market saw fit and to think outside of the box—not just pinching pennies or seeking data analysts. They sought after experts of their craft, and allowed them the freedom and as importantly, the time—even if it took longer than anticipated to succeed. These experts could see their vision through to the end with free rein.

There was never a suggestion that the Tigers general manager should manage more than a single team. Why would he? Maybe if it was a wagon of a team they could bring in someone who could model the Red Wings after the Tigers. Clearly, the Tigers aren’t that and the baseball organization is working to build a championship level team. Let them cook in their kitchen and let them stay out of the way of the ice hockey arena. There are plenty of other candidates available (lots that Wings reportedly never even interviewed) from both within the hockey world and outside of it to choose from. 

Further illustrating his disconnect from Red Wings fans, Ilitch cites the accomplishments of the past. We know. Many Red Wings fans lived through those incredible seasons. The tears, joy and memories can be overwhelming at times with just how much was accomplished.

Comparing it to today’s version of the Wings that is so incompetent they can’t even sign a guy who paid his own insurance and signed a professional tryout. Originally, the Red Wings tried to bridge him to at most half of what Edvinsson’s going value would be on the open market. It’s absurd that any business would even try to succeed with such horrendous choices.

We can blame Yzerman for the failed contract talks initially, but when it continues to this moment without any end in sight, it’s no longer on the general manager. 

Red Wings blogger George Malik says it best:

“If Mike Ilitch were still around, he’d be flying the corporate jet to Gothenburg, Sweden to iron things out with Simon IN PERSON.”

We can even look to Kirill Kaprizov’s contentious contract talks. Granted, this situation involved the general manager, rather than the owner, but the idea is something the Red Wings should have done two weeks ago. 

With the Minnesota Wild and star forward Kirill Kaprizov, things seemed quite volatile (maybe not to the same degree of, alleged, frustration from Kaprizov as their is with Edvinsson currently). Maybe it can illuminate a way the Red Wings (owner and/or management) could stabilize their fans’ faith in the organization. It might not restore faith, but it might help what little goodwill remains from dwindling even further down to a pile of ashes. 

Wild general manager, Bill Guerin, flew to a neutral meeting spot. In the Miami area, Guerin met face-to-face with Kaprizov to get a deal worked out. While phone and video calls can be effective, Guerin felt it was important to have that interpersonal interaction. 

From the player’s standpoint, Kaprizov was thrilled with the interaction. The negotiation lasted two days, and they inked a five-year, $45 million contract (the highest contract in the NHL at the time).

Hockey insider, Pierre LeBrun, stated that, the Red Wings’ only priority right now is to sign Edvinsson. 

If that’s the case, interim general manager Shawn Horcoff has to get this done. Get on a plane to Gothenburg, Sweden, and hammer out this contract. Or, maybe Ilitch could step in, if he is actually committed to this Red Wings franchise. At the very least, Detroit can make contact with one Whack-a-Mole before another head (or problem) pops up.

After his failed attempt to walk through memory lane, Ilitch attempts to empathize (at least, I think that was the goal of his next phrasing). Although, it can’t even be called hollow. It’s not lip service. It’s just  a sad attempt at building blind faith. 

“…I recognize fan frustrations. I get it and certainly feel the same…I remain focused on building the championship-level organization that our Red Wings family and fans deserve.” 

If Ilitch understood fan frustration, he wouldn’t be bobbing for apples in an empty bucket -- or, in this case, not signing his top-two defenseman. There would be a clear ask of what their number one center is worth in the trade market (teams around the league, apparently, have no clue what the Red Wings are looking for). 

While championships would be nice, Detroit fans are reasonable. The first ask would be to continue to be a serious franchise.

At this point, it’s painful to watch this once-magnificent ship floating the seas sink faster into the ocean at speeds nobody knew was possible. There are mountains that everyone can see except the captain and its first mate—maybe because they’re not even looking (or care to do so).

Detroit Red Wings fans deserve better than a ridiculous interview followed by a pathetic LinkedIn post that misses every point possible. 

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