Let’s establish some facts.
The Detroit Red Wings don’t have a general manager yet. Shawn Horcoff is handling things in an interim-role, but even that is a loose title. The seat has remained vacant since Steve Yzerman’s departure, even with NHL training camp scheduled to open on Thursday.
The Red Wings have also hired a consulting group ZRG Partners, to run the GM search, and that search has, at some point, involved interviewing current Detroit Tigers GM Jeff Greenberg, who took his name out of the running for the NHL job last week.
We also know the Red Wings/ZRG Partners have asked other NHL teams for permission to interview people, but we don’t know exactly who or how many people they have officially interviewed.
Stars assistant general manager Scott White, who has been mentioned as a candidate for the job, has been in Detroit this weekend for the NHL prospects tournament, which leads to some curiosity on whether he’ll get Yzerman’s old post at some point.
Those are facts, as I understand them at this point. It’s a limited list of facts, however, because Red Wings ownership, particularly Chris Ilitch, have effectively hidden from the media or answering public questions for a long, long time.
All of that being said, I figured it’s probably a good idea to lay out things I’ve learned and been able to establish this when it comes to the Red Wings, Scott White, and his potential candidacy.
To be clear, this is based on my reporting in the past, and conversations I’ve had, including with White, this past weekend.
White has interviewed for other NHL jobs this summer, including the opening with the Nashville Predators, while he was also linked to the opening in Toronto.
Stars GM Jim Nill has a pretty open policy about allowing Stars employees to interview for roles with other NHL teams if it means career advancement.
White has not been interested in pushing any of this himself, both publicly or privately. When we spoke this weekend, he was pretty adamant that he’s both very happy and focused on his role with the Stars. For example, when we chatted about the October 31 NCAA game in Texas between North Dakota and Michigan State, he was already mapping out his plan to attend another college hockey game on the Friday before.
Nill declined to comment whether he specifically gave the Red Wings permission or not to interview White, noting that he lets people handle their own situations on that publicly. But Nill did say he’s spoken to the Red Wings consulting firm about some of his people and the open job. Nill has also said that he believes that White is ready and has been ready for a GM job.
Again, no one, including White has been willing to say whether he actually has officially interviewed for the Red Wings job. There have been conversations on the matter, I know, but I don’t feel comfortable calling anything an official interview because I don’t have that confirmation.
That’s what I have right now. When or if I have something more, I will report it.
In the meantime, for more on White, here is something I wrote about him back in April.
Scott White never played the media game, maybe that's why you haven't heard enough about him
Maybe this is feeding the SEO machine, maybe it’s a public service. Either way, after texting with my pal Stephen Meserve today, I felt compelled to write a bit about Scott White, the Dallas Stars assistant GM, who has interviewed this spring for both the vacant GM position with the Nashville Predators and Toronto Maple Leafs.
I have a lot of respect for Jim Nill's willingness to make room for people to advance their careers. What would keep this from being standard practice for GMs? For example, I'm curious about how much any chatter about front office turnover affects the coaches and players. Is that a risk?