​The shock of the week in the hockey world is Steve Yzerman stepping down as the Detroit Red Wings general manager. It’s not a shock in the sense that many saw this move as possible, yet for it to come at this point in the offseason says a lot about the growing frustration that the ownership had with the “Yzerplan” and how he operated.The Red Wings are looking for a new GM, and it’s a great excuse for hockey people to start naming names. Some of the names thrown around include Chris Draper, Niklas Lidstrom, Brendan Shanahan, and other franchise icons. Admittedly, hiring one to replace Yzerman doesn’t seem like the right direction since the recent run showed the downsides. Instead, the Red Wings might take the opposite approach.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementThis is a good opportunity for the Red Wings to bring in a younger GM, one who fits the Sonny Mehta, Mathieu Darche, or Ryan Johnson mold. It’s about bringing in a GM who operated differently and can take all types of data to build a contender. Ryan Martin checks off that box for the Red Wings as a younger hockey mind who has already interviewed for GM jobs around the NHL.Martin’s time in the Red Wings organization put him on the map. As the Grand Rapids Griffins GM, he built them into a perennial Calder Cup contender and won the title in 2017. In 16 years with the Red Wings, he climbed up the ladder from the scouting department to the assistant GM, and one with plenty of big team-building ideas as well.His time with the Griffins also made him look like one of the next young GMs in hockey. Martin was using analytics before many executives were, and more importantly, he was processing information the same way a lot of the new GMs in the NHL are. Teams are starting to look for their version of Eric Tulsky or Bill Zito, someone who takes data from all aspects of the game and then makes the right call.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementMartin returning to the Red Wings would be a feel-good story if it works, of course (if the fans can run out of patience with Yzerman, they’ll be quick to judge him as well). He can take a rebuilding team that’s staggered in recent years and get them over the hump.Martin left the Griffins in 2021 and joined the Hartford Wolf Pack. He was their GM and the New York Rangers assistant, a much tougher task than the Griffins job. Martin joined a Wolf Pack team with only one playoff appearance since 2012-13 and made it competitive within a few seasons.AHL Notebook: Non-Playoff Team Postmortems, A Fair Assessment of Ryan Martin as an NHL GM & More AHL Notebook: Non-Playoff Team Postmortems, A Fair Assessment of Ryan Martin as an NHL GM & More The 2026 Calder Cup Playoffs are here, and the matchups are set. It’s this time in the <a href=”https://thehockeynews.com/ahl”>American Hockey League</a> season when the focus shifts to the bracket, which teams can go on a run, and which prospects can put themselves on the map for the