I have been saying since the Detroit Red Wings fired Stevie Yzerman that i believed it was more than likely that they had already selected a G.M. to take over for the job but were delaying the announcement. 

On June 4rth when Dylan Larkin made his trade request public I think it sent shock waves through the Red Wings organization. At that moment and maybe even sooner I felt that Stevie Yzermans tenure was under a microscope. Whether they should have seen the signs of coming or not might be best for another article, but it really did seem that this set in motion serious look into the relationship Stevie Y had with Larkin and possible communication their might have been. It would seem to me that the relationship with the captain and Yzerman was at least strained and possibly worse for quite some time. This combined with the fact that the team was floundering below expectations probably got the ball rolling for them to be looking a different direction long before they made the announcement to let Yzerman go. This would explain the odd timing of the firing as the NHL draft and free agency were ongoing and it would have been pretty tough to have serious discussions with the candidate, they were thinking about besides maybe a reach out or two to let them know they were. When they were comfortable the person was on board they made the announcement of Stevie's firing

In my estimation the Dylan Larkin situation is of the utmost importance right now and announcing the G.M. replacement would have meant that the new person would have to attend to many media distractions as well as talking to players on the team, taking calls on the Larkin situation and so on. This gave all of them a full concentration on a possible reconciliation with Larkin which is probably their most effective way to come out of this the least scathed. What it also does is buy them time and an excuse as to why things are not getting done as well as giving a sense of uneasiness to potential trade partners (Minnesota) that Larkin may not be able to be moved before the start of the season. Detroit could also hope that Larkin gets cold feet and decides to work with the Red Wings on a trade to a different destination if not reconciliation. So they float a few names out there that they do not get back to. Name an inside guy in Greenberg who is already the G.M. for the Detroit Tigers which seems highly unlikely and hire a search firm that has a long link with the organization to do..well.. nothing. Probably more of a tax right off handshake thing than anything but keeps the optics up.

I realize that what I saying i a lot of speculation but besides the fact that I am usually pretty accurate when putting dots together it makes a lot more sense than the alternative conclusion, which would be Chris Ilitch and his staff basically chasing their tail and having no foresight whatsoever in anything they are doing. I usually give successful NHL executives significantly more credit than that. If it is the case that they have just bungled their way through this and did virtually no due diligence at all I am not sure it matters what they do from here. It probably will not end well anyways.