Dylan Larkin wants out. Simon Edvinsson reportedly prefers a trade. Detroit still doesn’t have a permanent general manager. Fans are openly targeting ownership — and two games into the season, the Red Wings are already searching for answers.

The Detroit Red Wings are only two games into the 2026-27 NHL season.

Normally, that sentence would be enough to shut down any suggestion of panic.

This doesn’t feel normal.

Detroit opened its season with back-to-back losses at Little Caesars Arena, but the 0-2 record barely begins to explain the tension surrounding one of hockey’s most historic franchises.

The former captain has asked to leave. One of the organization’s most important young defencemen reportedly would prefer to leave, too. The general manager’s office is operating on an interim basis. The team has gone a decade without playoff hockey.

And now the people in the stands are making their frustration impossible to ignore.

For the second consecutive home game, “Sell the team” chants echoed through Little Caesars Arena.

The Dylan Larkin situation changed everything

For years, Dylan Larkin represented the bridge between Detroit’s past and whatever the franchise hoped its future would become.

A Michigan-born player, drafted by Detroit, developed by Detroit and eventually made captain of the Red Wings.

Then came the trade request.

Larkin asked Detroit for a trade following another season without playoff hockey. The Red Wings subsequently entered this season without him serving as captain, and the organization still has not named a permanent replacement.

The situation became even more uncomfortable on opening night. Larkin, unable to play because of an upper-body injury, joined Detroit’s inactive players for introductions — and was met with loud boos from the home crowd.

It was an extraordinary scene. A player who spent his entire NHL career in Detroit and wore the captain’s “C” for six seasons was suddenly being treated like an opposing player inside his own building.

Whether fans agree with Larkin’s trade request or not, the relationship between player, organization and portions of the fanbase has clearly changed.

And Detroit still hasn’t resolved it.

Then came Simon Edvinsson

If the Larkin situation wasn’t concerning enough, another significant piece of Detroit’s core is now surrounded by uncertainty.

Simon Edvinsson entered the season unsigned as a restricted free agent and returned to Sweden while negotiations remained unresolved.

Then Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported that Edvinsson would prefer to be traded. Neither Edvinsson’s agent nor the Red Wings publicly confirmed a formal trade request when the report emerged.

That distinction matters.

But so does the larger picture.

Detroit now has uncertainty surrounding two players who were supposed to be major pieces of its present and future.

Larkin wants a change. Edvinsson reportedly prefers one.

That’s difficult for any organization to ignore — especially for a franchise that has spent years telling its fanbase that patience would eventually produce something sustainable.

The Yzerplan ended without ending the drought

The frustration goes much deeper than either player.

Detroit has missed the Stanley Cup Playoffs 10 consecutive seasons, the NHL’s longest active postseason drought entering this season.

Steve Yzerman returned to Detroit in 2019 with enormous expectations attached to what quickly became known as the “Yzerplan.”

That chapter effectively ended this summer. The Red Wings removed Yzerman from his positions as executive vice president and general manager on July 15, although he remained with the organization as a senior adviser.

In September, Shawn Horcoff was promoted to interim general manager while ownership continued its search for a permanent hockey-operations leader.

Think about the situation Detroit entered opening night with:

• No permanent GM.
• No permanent captain.
• Its former captain awaiting resolution of a trade request.
• One of its best young defencemen unsigned.
• Ten straight seasons without playoff hockey.

The anger inside Little Caesars Arena didn’t appear overnight.

Now the losses are making everything louder

Winning wouldn’t eliminate Detroit’s organizational problems.

But losing makes every one of them louder.

The Red Wings opened the season with a 2-0 loss to the New York Rangers, getting shut out at home while fans booed Larkin and directed “Sell the team” chants toward ownership.

Game 2 offered more fight — but the result was the same.

Detroit fell behind Winnipeg 3-0 before goals from Viktor Arvidsson and Emmitt Finnie made it 3-2. The Red Wings pushed late but couldn’t complete the comeback.

Their penalty kill was the biggest problem. Winnipeg went 3-for-4 on the power play, with Kyle Connor scoring twice with the man advantage.

And once again, the chants returned.

“Sell the team.”

Two games. Two losses. Two home crowds making their displeasure known.

Todd McLellan sees something worth fighting for

Here’s where the situation gets more interesting.

Detroit’s results have been bad, but there are signs that the actual hockey may not be quite as disastrous as the atmosphere surrounding the franchise suggests.

The Red Wings haven’t been getting overwhelmed at even strength. Against Winnipeg, the biggest damage came on special teams, and Detroit still showed enough pushback to turn a 3-0 deficit into a one-goal game.

“The guys on the bench are pissed when we’re down… no one is digging graves. They’re trying to dig themselves out.”

Todd McLellan

That comment matters because this does not look like a team that has stopped playing for its coach.

It looks like a team trying to play hockey while an organizational storm swirls around it.

The biggest question isn’t whether Detroit can win Game 3

Detroit’s next victory will matter.

But it won’t solve what is happening here.

The bigger question is whether the Red Wings can finally provide some direction.

• What happens with Dylan Larkin?
• Can Detroit repair its relationship with Simon Edvinsson and get one of its most important young players signed?
• Who becomes the permanent general manager?
• Who eventually wears the captain’s “C”?
• Can this roster finally end a playoff drought that has already reached a decade?

Interim GM Shawn Horcoff has already said another rebuild is “out of the question,” arguing that Detroit has too many good players and has been close to breaking through.

If that’s the organization’s position, the expectations change.

Detroit can’t simply ask its fans for another few years of patience.

Eventually, progress has to become results.

Detroit’s fans have reached their breaking point

There’s something different about hearing “Sell the team” chants inside Little Caesars Arena.

This is Detroit.

This is an Original Six franchise with 11 Stanley Cups and generations of supporters who remember when making the playoffs wasn’t considered an accomplishment — it was expected.

Nobody should expect that history to guarantee present-day success.

But that history helps explain why ten straight years without playoff hockey have become so difficult to accept.

The first two games of 2026-27 haven’t created Detroit’s problems.

They’ve simply put all of them in the same building at the same time.

Larkin’s uncertain future. Edvinsson’s contract standoff. A temporary general manager. No permanent captain. A decade-long playoff drought. An 0-2 start. And thousands of fans who have decided they aren’t going to stay quiet anymore.

Todd McLellan says nobody inside Detroit’s dressing room is digging graves.

They’re trying to dig themselves out.

For the Red Wings organization, that may describe much more than what’s happening on the ice.

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Sources & reporting

• Detroit Red Wings / NHL.com — Larkin addresses trade request
• Sportsnet — Simon Edvinsson reportedly prefers a trade
• NHL.com — Shawn Horcoff named interim GM
• NHL.com — Red Wings confirm Larkin trade request
• Reuters — Jets 3, Red Wings 2

HockeyGamedayTV analysis combines publicly reported developments with original context and commentary.