The Hockey News has released its archive to all THN subscribers: 76 years of history, stories, and features. Enjoy this sneak preview of one of our most notable releases in our Money & Power Issue featuring an in-depth piece on the Detroit Red Wings organization.

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$2.5B FORBES

$2.11B SPORTICO

$3.0B ROUSTAN

SINCE THE DEATH of his father, Mike Ilitch, in 2017, Chris Ilitch has taken over as majority owner of the Red Wings. The club’s fan base tends to view Chris as being more frugal than his free-spending father, who never shied away from making a major trade or free-agent signing if he thought it would put the team over the top.

They say that timing is everything, however, and certainly in the case of Chris Ilitch and the Red Wings, the timing of his takeover couldn’t have been worse. His first season in charge saw the club’s 25-year run of consecutive playoff appearances come to an end, and the Wings have been trying to get back to the NHL post-season since. When drawing parallels between Mike and Chris Ilitch, it’s easy to forget the lean years the Ilitches endured in the early days of ownership after purchasing the Red Wings from Bruce Norris in 1982. The Wings built slowly and steadily, and by the mid-1990s, they were a model NHL franchise.

The current struggles, though, are real. According to NHL insiders, the Wings’ season-ticket base has slipped from 18,000 in the glory days at Joe Louis Arena to just 10,000 inside the swanky state-of-the-art Little Caesars Arena, which opened in 2017. The Ilitch family has taken heat for the lack of progress on the District Detroit project, which was supposed to spur development in the area surrounding the new arena. Vacant lots and vacated buildings remain prevalent in the neighborhood, and it’s this blight that is believed to be the reason why the Red Wings haven’t been awarded an NHL All-Star Game or NHL draft since opening the new rink.

The Ilitch family has a reported net worth of $6.9 billion. Along with the Red Wings, the Ilitches also own MLB’s Detroit Tigers, MotorCity Casino and Detroit’s Fox Theatre.

Chris Ilitch’s mother, Marian Ilitch, has been co-owner and treasurer of the Red Wings since 1982. She’s a leading entrepreneur in the food, sports and entertainment industries and is widely recognized as one of the most successful businesswomen in the U.S. The Ilitches grew a single, family-owned Little Caesars pizza store that they opened in 1959 in Garden City, Mich., into the third-largest pizza chain in the world, trailing only Domino’s and Pizza Hut.

PRESIDENT AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER

RYAN GUSTAFSON WAS PROMOTED to president and CEO of Ilitch Sports & Entertainment in March 2024. He previously served as executive vice-president and COO, a role he assumed in March 2023. Gustafson has an MBA from Harvard and more than 15 years of experience in pro sports. He has worked for the XFL’s Seattle Dragons, MLS’ Seattle Sounders and MLB’s San Diego Padres. He was instrumental in the latest addition to the Ilitch sports empire, as Ilitch Sports & Entertainment invested in the Los Angeles Golf Club of The Golf League. The company will serve as LAGC’s sponsorship agency of record.

Gustafson leads all business operations involving the Red Wings, Detroit Tigers, Little Caesars Arena, Comerica Park and the Fox Theatre, as well as the Ilitch family joint investment in 313 Presents.

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ALTERNATE GOVERNORS: Jim Devellano, Ryan Gustafson, Steve Yzerman

GENERAL MANAGER

AS THE CAPTAIN OF the Red Wings from 1986 to 2006, Steve Yzerman led the team to the heights of NHL glory. Hired as GM of the club in 2019, he’s been charged with building the team back to the lofty perch the Wings reached when ‘Stevie Y’ was their on-ice leader.

From the outset, Yzerman has preached patience to the masses of Hockeytown. It’s a notion that’s grown tiresome with parts of the fan base, who’ve called for the team to bring a halt to the so-called ‘Yzerplan’ and remove him as GM. Amidst the criticism, however, there’s evidence of Yzerman’s plan finally coming together. Ten of Yzerman’s draft picks have already played for the team during 2025-26. “Rebuilds take time,” Yzerman said. “Ultimately, the goal here is to build a team that can compete for the Stanley Cup. And you can’t compete for the Stanley Cup, obviously, until you make the playoffs.”

AS YOU WOULD expect from a tradition-rich club that’s a charter member of the NHL’s Original Six, the social-media strategy of the Red Wings is carried out with class. You aren’t going to find the Wings’ social-media team getting into a public beef with another NHL club’s social-media outfit.

Social-media policy in Detroit is cute rather than caustic. Emphasis is placed upon the positive rather than the performative. An example of this was a recent post featuring the Wings’ Mason Appleton at the hospital posing with his newborn son, Teddy.

In-game posts keep it simple, highlighting Detroit goals and the updated score. The Wings’ social media is playing a pivotal role in promoting the many activities during the club’s current centennial celebrations. The Conversation Line is a biweekly feature in which players, coaches and front-office personnel sit down to talk with the members of the club’s broadcast team.

When the club’s social-media team has made attempts to think outside the traditional box, they’ve been quickly shut down. A few years back, the MoJoe Show featured defenseman Moritz Seider and center Joe Veleno partaking in antics both at home and on the road, such as going on quirky tours of cities the club visited on the road. After just a few episodes, it came to a sudden halt. Word from sources inside the organization was that the order to cancel the show came from the team’s front office.

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