- Red Wings acquire forward Sutter Muzzatti from the Predators for future considerations
- Detroit signed the 6-foot-6 Okemos native to a two-year entry-level contract
- Read below for what the deal says about Detroit’s front office
Detroit made a trade Thursday, its first since Steve Yzerman stepped down as general manager in July.
Sutter Muzzatti is headed to the Red Wings from the Nashville Predators for future considerations, and Detroit signed the 23-year-old forward to a two-year entry-level contract right after. Both clubs put out releases Thursday afternoon.
The interesting part is who runs Detroit’s front office right now. Shawn Horcoff picked up day-to-day hockey operations when Yzerman moved into an advisory role, and reporting at the time said the interim job came with a catch, that Horcoff could not make trades. Detroit’s release on Muzzatti does not say who signed off.
Chris Ilitch still has not hired a permanent GM, and the vacancy has left Simon Edvinsson’s extension talks frozen with camp about a month out.
Nashville was running out of runway on its end. Muzzatti went in the fifth round of the 2023 draft, 143rd overall, and finished college without signing, so Chris MacFarland turned expiring rights into something instead of nothing.
Start with the frame: 6-foot-6, 241 pounds. Muzzatti spent three seasons at RPI from 2022 to 2025, put up 50 points in 78 games and made the ECAC All-Rookie Team as a freshman.
Transferring to Notre Dame paid off. He set career highs last season with 13 goals, 19 assists and 32 points in 37 games, finishing second on the Fighting Irish in scoring for a team that came last in the Big Ten.
Home is part of this one, too. Muzzatti grew up in Okemos, an hour or so west of Little Caesars Arena, and came through the Meijer AAA program in East Lansing. His father Jason played 62 NHL games in goal for Calgary, Hartford, the Rangers and San Jose between 1993 and 1998, and before that he was a Michigan State Spartan.
That made last February a strange week. Notre Dame drew Michigan State, which sent Sutter back to the rink he grew up in to face his dad’s old school. Watch WILX in Lansing catch up with him before it:
Grand Rapids is the likely first stop for Muzzatti, who arrives with four years of college hockey and a frame nobody teaches. Horcoff happens to run the Griffins too.
