Detroit Signs Tarasov. Someone Has to Mind the Net.

The Red Wings added goaltender Daniil Tarasov on a one-year contract, and his KHL rights changed hands shortly after the signing was processed. It is a modest, low-commitment move — exactly the kind of bridge you make when three goaltenders have left the organization in the span of a few weeks and nobody has been hired yet to make bigger decisions.

I wrote last week about the scope of that goaltending exodus: Cossa traded, Campbell retired, Hutchinson retired. The crease went from thin to bare in a hurry. Tarasov fills a roster spot. Whether he fills a role is a different question, and one that belongs to whoever eventually gets the GM job.

That is the small wrinkle here. The search firm Ilitch hired is still working. The incoming GM had no hand in this signing — it predates the hire. So the new front office will arrive to find Tarasov already on the books for a year, a placeholder decision made in a vacuum. Not a problem, exactly. Just the reality of running an organization without a general manager through a summer this chaotic.