Red Wings interim GM Shawn Horcoff: "A rebuild, to me, is out of the question"

Shawn Horcoff wouldn't divulge his long-term vision for the Red Wings, other than to say that he and owner Chris Ilitch are "aligned." But as long as Horcoff's in charge -- and that could be for weeks or years -- the Red Wings aren't entering another rebuild. At least not this season.

Meeting with the media Wednesday for the first time since becoming Detroit's interim GM, Horcoff was asked how he'll approach decisions for the organization, both big and small, without knowing how long he'll be in his role and whether his vision will mesh with that of the full-time GM -- whoever it is, whenever he's hired -- assuming it isn't Horcoff himself.

The Red Wings, you might have heard, are a bit of a mess.

"My approach is, I’m here," Horcoff said. "It’s my responsibility now to do everything I can to make the best possible decisions for the Detroit Red Wings. My goal is obviously, hopefully in the long-term, prove that I can do a good job and remove this interim tag. But our goal is no different going into this season."

The Red Wings have entered the past several seasons with the goal of making the playoffs. They've come close in recent years, boosted by a solid young core headlined by Moritz Seider and Lucas Raymond. But the captain of those teams, Dylan Larkin, has requested a trade, and the architect, Steve Yzerman, was removed as GM in July and shifted to special advisor to Ilitch. One of the Wings' leading scorers, Patrick Kane, has moved on.

The ceiling of those teams was never all that high in the first place. The floor will be significantly lower without Larkin, their No. 1 center. It would be a fairly natural time to reshape the roster, but it sounds more like Horcoff intends to pick up where Yzerman left off.

"A rebuild, to me, is out of the question," he said. "We have too many good players in that lineup. Listen, we’ve been close, the last three years we’ve been really close. My goal, and I know it’s the players’ goal, I’ve spoken to them, is we’re not looking backwards. We’re looking forward. We want to focus on what it’s going to take for us to get over that hump. We have lots of ideas on what it’s going to take and some of the things we can implement to help the players do that."

Is that what Horcoff believes? Or is it what he believes Ilitch wants to hear? Neither one is particularly reassuring, but Horcoff is a sharp hockey mind. He knows what he's working with. Detroit does not have a glut of good players. It has a handful of difference-makers --- Seider, Raymond, Alex DeBrincat, Simon Edvinsson -- and then lots of interchangeable parts.

Is Ilitch willing to acknowledge that as he selects his next GM? Or will he choose the one who affirms his own hope that the Red Wings are about to break through? The fact that the Red Wings have interviewed several worthwhile outside candidates, only to hire Horcoff in an interim capacity a couple days before camp, suggests that most or all of those candidates had a view of the organization and a plan for it that Ilitch couldn't abide.

Horcoff spent seven seasons under Yzerman, the last four of them as the Red Wings' assistant GM (and GM of the Grand Rapids Griffins). He's been with the Red Wings since September of 2016, spanning the duration of their playoff drought. If he's driven by the same desire as Ilitch to end the drought once and for all -- an urge that can't be shared by outside GM candidates -- it might be that Ilitch views Horcoff as the right man for the full-time job.

But if Yzerman was dismissed because his plan wasn't working, and if Horcoff has the same or a similar plan in mind, involving the same or a similar group of players and prospects, then Ilitch can't in good faith let him determine the direction of the organization. Horcoff on Wednesday called Yzerman "an unbelievable mentor and friend."

"He’s left this organization in a good place. We have good players, we’re close, we’re right there. He’s built our prospect pool," Horcoff said. "One thing I was glad to hear is he is still inside the organization, he’s an advisor to Chris, he is inside the Red Wings family where he belongs, and I’m happy that he’s still a part of that."

Detroit's prospect pool isn't quite as deep as one might think for a team that's stockpiled assets for most of the last decade and that made eight first-round picks in the last six years. Industry rankings place the Red Wings' system in the middle of the pack. It's full of players who project as solid NHLers, none who look like real game-breakers.

The NHL roster has been stuck in the same mushy middle, despite adding several of those first-round picks to the roster. That was with Larkin. Without him, assuming he's traded, the Red Wings will likely regress, even if young players like Marco Kasper and Emmitt Finnie take steps forward. We've seen how they've fared in recent seasons when Larkin's been injured, particularly in March.

The upside to his departure would be in the talent coming back, but therein lies another unknown: Would Horcoff -- who confirmed he has "full authority" of hockey operations to execute a potential Larkin trade -- prefer future assets or proven NHL players in exchange for Larkin? And is that part of the long-term "vision" he apparently shares with Ilitch?

The Red Wings were indeed "close" to the playoffs with Larkin. They were still far from Yzerman's goal of being a perennial contender. Removing Larkin and Kane, for all his warts at this stage of his career, subtracts 50 goals and 124 points from last season's roster, which struggled mightily to produce five-on-five offense as it was. If not a rebuild, a reboot is in order.

Is Horcoff the man to do it?

He's getting a chance to prove it, for better or worse.