Red Wings significantly screwing up Simon Edvinsson negotiations

Hockeytown is a mess right now, and things don’t seem to be getting any better anytime soon.

Along with failing to find a permanent replacement for Steve Yzerman as general manager and the Dylan Larkin debacle, the Detroit Red Wings face the possibility of missing one of their best blueliners when the regular season begins.

As of Thursday morning, defenseman Simon Edvinsson remains without a contract. The restricted free agent attended training camp without a deal, saying his camp was waiting for the GM situation to be figured out before continuing negotiations. However, the two sides are clearly not on the same page, as Edvinsson has traveled back to Sweden, with the Red Wings set to open the 2026-27 campaign on Friday.

On Thursday’s edition of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Jeff Marek joined Tyler Yaremchuk and Carter Hutton to explain why the Red Wings are screwing up the Edvinsson contract talks.

Jeff Marek: If you’re Simon Edvinsson, to me, to me the question is, ‘You you don’t want a bridge, right?’ So, you’re not looking at like a three-year deal, a four-year deal. You’re probably looking at, ‘I’m either going to take a two, which gets me to arbitration, or you’re going to take a seven, and a big number.’ We know what the comparables are now, starting with Zeev Buium. After Zeev Buium signed that ticket, I think we all looked around and said, ‘Oh man, what is that going to mean for Simon Edvinsson here, and the Detroit Red Wings?’

So, it feels like it’s one of the two. I understand Detroit’s position in the sense that they have an interim general manager, and they don’t want to get locked into long-term decisions made by someone who’s existing in an interim capacity or a caretaker’s capacity right now. But every time I hear that, I say, ‘Well, that’s the corner you’ve driven this car into, and somehow you have to get it out, right?’ There’s been a whole lot of like rake stepping that happened all summer long with the Detroit Red Wings, and it’s brought you to this. Now, this is only one piece of the puzzle, and you can make the argument that they’re all joined, but there’s Dylan Larkin, there’s Alex DeBrincat, etc., and there’s finding a full-time general manager.

You can watch the full segment and entire episode here…