Simon Edvinsson would rather get traded than keep negotiating with the Detroit Red Wings. Elliotte Friedman put that on the record Saturday night, and the franchise already drowning in its own noise just found a new bottom.
“Apparently his frustration at the entire situation has led him to indicate he would prefer a trade,” Friedman said on Sportsnet. The team and the agents are not talking. Detroit still tells other clubs that signing him remains the number one goal. Prefer is the polite word. Trust is the missing one.
Edvinsson is 23, 6-foot-6, a left shot taken sixth overall in 2021. Last season he delivered 25 points, led the blue line with a plus-12, and averaged 22:21 a night behind only Moritz Seider. Since the start of 2024-25 he has 16 goals and 56 points in 150 games with a plus-24 while starting most of his shifts in the defensive zone. Detroit sits on more than $16 million in cap space. His camp has looked at the long deal, max seven years, in the $9 million to $11 million AAV range depending on structure. The Wings want the short bridge. Stalemate. He reported to camp without a contract, skated, sat out the games, then went home to Sweden and started practicing with Frölunda. December 1 is the hard stop. Miss it and he cannot play an NHL shift this season.
The Building Chanted Sell Before He Even Asked
The home opener on Friday was a 2-0 loss to the Rangers. Fans booed Dylan Larkin when he was introduced as a scratch and chanted “sell the team.” Larkin’s trade request went public in June. Steve Yzerman confirmed it, then stepped down as GM in July and moved into a senior adviser role under Chris Ilitch. Shawn Horcoff is the interim. The team opened the year without a captain after stripping the “C.” Ten straight seasons out of the playoffs. Longest active drought in the league. That is the environment a top-pair defenseman is being asked to bridge through.
Horcoff faced reporters before the opener and tried to sound calm. “We’re doing everything we can, working closely with the agents,” he said. “He’s a big part of the club and we’d like to get him signed.” Fair sentence. It collides with Friedman’s update that the sides are not talking and that Edvinsson’s preference has already shifted to a trade. The market will hear that. Contenders with cap room and a need for a big left shot just got a free scouting report on Detroit’s leverage.
I hear the counter already. Bridge deals protect teams when young defensemen still have questions. Edvinsson’s even-strength numbers are solid, not superstar. Patience is the responsible move. The problem is the calendar and the trust ledger. He arranged his own insurance just to practice. He is already overseas. The agent, J.P. Barry, declined comment. When the player’s side stops negotiating and starts preferring the exit, the bridge argument stops being shrewd and starts looking like a franchise that cannot close on its own talent while the building calls for new ownership.
Yzerman Left. The Drought Did Not
Larkin still has five years left on the eight-year deal he signed in 2023. He is hurt, scratched, publicly known to want out, and now watching the next cornerstone signal the same direction. Yzerman’s exit did not reset the culture. It advertised the vacancy. Horcoff inherits a mess he did not create and a December 1 clock he cannot ignore. Sign-and-trade remains possible. So does a pure trade of the rights. So does the ugly version where Edvinsson sits in Sweden all year and Detroit burns another developmental year of a sixth-overall pick while the drought hits eleven.
This is how rebuilds calcify. You draft the big Swede, you ride him 22 minutes a night, you watch him lead the defense in plus-minus, then you fight him over term while the captain asks out and the fans tell the owner to sell. Friedman said we will see how it develops over the next few days. The next few days are already late. The preference is public. The sides are silent. The cap space is real and unused. Every team that has been quietly calling Detroit just got louder permission to keep calling.
December 1 does not care about interim titles or bridge philosophy. Either Edvinsson is under contract in a winged wheel or he is gone, and the Red Wings will have turned a core piece into another chapter of the same ten-year story. Ilitch owns the decision now. The chants already wrote the review.
