'Sell the Team' Chants Return in Detroit as Edvinsson Reportedly Prefers a Trade

Detroit Red Wings fans chanted “sell the team” again on Sunday during a 3-2 loss to the Winnipeg Jets, one day after Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported that unsigned restricted free agent Simon Edvinsson would prefer to be traded. The chants greeted the first drop of the puck at Little Caesars Arena and resurfaced when Winnipeg scored three straight goals, the Detroit Free Press reports, as a team already missing Edvinsson and former captain Dylan Larkin fell to a second straight defeat. Winnipeg won with Stuart Skinner in goal, because the Jets have a trade-request standoff of their own: franchise goaltender Connor Hellebuyck is suspended in a holdout his general manager says has no timeline.

What did Detroit fans do on Sunday?

They picked up where Friday left off. More “sell the team” chants greeted the opening faceoff and returned during Winnipeg’s three-goal run in Sunday’s matinee, the Detroit Free Press reports. On Friday, the same chant cascaded from the stands during a 2-0 loss to the New York Rangers, and injured captain-turned-trade-requester Dylan Larkin was heavily booed during introductions, Reuters reports.

On the ice, Detroit nearly rescued the afternoon. Viktor Arvidsson scored the club’s first goal of the season, Emmitt Finnie made it 3-2 early in the third period with the team’s first 5-on-5 goal, and the Red Wings pressed with an extra skater for much of the final five minutes, segued into a power play at 15:53 and pulled goaltender John Gibson at 17:58, the Free Press reports. It was not enough.

What has been reported about Simon Edvinsson?

Friedman reported on Saturday Headlines that Edvinsson has indicated he would prefer the Red Wings to trade him, according to theScore. That is a reported preference, not a signed contract or a completed deal, and the distinction matters: Friedman also noted that Detroit has told inquiring teams its priority is to sign the 23-year-old.

The stalemate is about terms, not money. Edvinsson was eligible to sign during the offseason, returned home to Sweden as negotiations stalled, and has now missed both games of the season. Detroit holds more than 16 million dollars in space under the NHL salary cap, per PuckPedia figures cited by theScore, for a 6-foot-6 defenseman who averaged over 22 minutes a night last season and led the team’s defensemen at plus-12.

Why are fans chanting at the owner?

Because the Edvinsson report landed on top of a miserable summer. The chants are directed at owner Chris Ilitch, Reuters reports. Detroit missed the NHL playoffs for the tenth consecutive campaign, Larkin requested a trade, and franchise legend Steve Yzerman was reassigned to an advisory role after stepping down as general manager in July.

The front office is still interim. Shawn Horcoff was named interim general manager before training camp after the job sat vacant until September, and Ilitch still has not hired a permanent replacement, Reuters reports. For one of the franchises near the top of the most Stanley Cups by team list, a decade without the playoffs and two cornerstone players wanting out is the whole protest in one picture.

Where does Dylan Larkin fit into this?

Larkin is the other half of the story. The former captain requested a trade after last season, has yet to be moved, and is currently out with an upper-body injury that also kept him out of Friday’s opener, Reuters reports. He was booed when introduced as a scratch on Friday.

Update, October 7: Larkin returned against Ottawa on Tuesday and scored a goal with an assist in a 5-3 win that turned the boos into cheers, while the trade request itself stayed exactly where it was.

His coach is not shielding him from it. “Obviously he has to live with the ramifications of asking for a trade,” Todd McLellan said, per Reuters. “It’s not comfortable for anybody and I feel bad for him, I do.” Defenseman Moritz Seider took the team line: “Everyone has a right to express their feelings and we just have to deal with it.”

What happens next for Detroit?

The short answer is a signing, a trade, or a louder arena. Detroit’s stated priority is signing Edvinsson, and the cap room exists to do it, so the next move is a negotiation rather than a roster problem. Larkin’s return from injury is the second thread: McLellan hoped before the weekend that his center might be ready for game three.

Until one of those threads resolves, every home game doubles as a referendum. A young defenseman in Sweden, a former captain in the stands, an interim general manager and an owner being told to sell: that is the micro story of Detroit’s season, and Sunday showed it is not quieting down. Detroit fans had company in their misery that weekend, too: Saturday was the first Saturday without Hockey Night in Canada on CBC since 1952, and fans across the country spent the night refusing to use the replacement’s new name.