October 29, 2026

"My phone rang a lot today" — the call, the statement, and the GM at the mic

Well, folks, now we know how Thursday actually went down — and it started the night before. Dylan met with his agents, Pat Brisson and Matt Williams, on Wednesday evening, and that's when the decision landed: no more reporting, no more waiting around. There were talks between the two camps late Wednesday and again Thursday morning, and the message from Dylan's side, as Pierre LeBrun reported it, was simple — he'd given Detroit ample time since his trade request back in May to get a deal done, and in his camp's view, trades with teams on his ten-team list had been close enough to finish.

Then came the phone call. Interim GM Shawn Horcoff told reporters the club got the word Thursday morning straight from Brisson: Dylan wasn't coming to the rink. In Horcoff's words: "We received a call from Dylan's agent today just saying that Dylan wasn't going to be coming to the rink and no longer wanted to be a part of the Red Wings."

Brisson put his client's side in a short statement of his own: "Dylan's had enough of the situation. We believe he's been very professional and cooperative through this process."

Detroit's written answer arrived before the Chicago game — you've seen the heart of it up top: suspended without pay, disappointed, and any trade needs Dylan's approval and has to serve the club's long-term goals. Then Horcoff stepped in front of the microphones for about eleven minutes and filled in the rest.

He said he's worked at this "extensively, exhaustively" with Brisson's agency since the day he took the job — talked to the teams on Dylan's list, taken calls from teams that aren't on it. And on the market for a franchise centre, holy mackerel: "The truth is, when you have a player of Dylan's caliber available, your phone rings daily. And my phone rang a lot today."

He admitted his first instinct was repair, not rupture: "My initial plan was to try to fix it. I wanted to try to do what I could to keep Dylan here in a Red Wing jersey, and clearly that was unsuccessful." Thursday morning still caught him off guard — "it was a bit of a surprise" — even if he'd sensed the frustration building on the last road trip.

And if Dylan's camp is hoping the unpaid meter hurries Detroit along, Horcoff poured cold water on that one: he's "prepared to wait as long as necessary" for the right return, he wants players who can help right away rather than futures, and "with the teams on his list, a trade is difficult." He gave the kid his due, too: "I've got to give Dylan a lot of credit — he went out and played hard for us. Dylan's been here for 12 years."

As for the room Dylan left behind: Horcoff said the feelings are "pretty raw," most of the boys found out on their phones, and he couldn't say enough about a leadership group that welcomed Dylan back with open arms after the summer trade request and now has to digest all this.

So there it sits: one side saying the deals were there to be made, the other saying it won't be rushed into one — and in between them, a meter running at $41,237.11 a day. Detroit went out and beat Chicago 4-1 without him. Now we wait.