As the calendar creeps toward September, the Detroit Red Wings are still conducting their search for their next general manager.It’s late for an NHL team to still be looking for such an important top decision-maker; training camp opens in three weeks, and important business is still looming.So, what are the new GM’s biggest tasks once the search concludes? Here’s an outline of the key components of that person’s first year on the job.1. Finalize the 2026-27 rosterReally, there’s only one true “must” on the to-do list before camp opens on Sept. 17: the Red Wings have to get Simon Edvinsson signed.The good news is, it should be a fairly straightforward deal. Detroit can take a few different approaches with the 23-year-old defenseman: a short-term bridge, a long-term extension or the five-year middle-ground deals that have been en vogue around the NHL this summer.A five-year deal would be an interesting outcome in the Red Wings’ case, considering fellow defenseman Moritz Seider has five years left on his own contract, and having both top defensemen expire in the same summer wouldn’t be ideal. From a team perspective, the general wisdom is to sign building-block players for as long as possible. Still, there are enough comparable deals out there, so this one shouldn’t be too hard to put together.Last summer’s long-term extension for Luke Hughes at $9 million annually provides a solid peg on a seven- or eight-year deal — the latter of which is only possible through Sept. 15, after which the new collective bargaining agreement takes effect. This summer, Brandt Clarke, Pavel Mintyukov and Šimon Nemec all signed five-year deals with cap hits between $7.2 and $7.4 million out of their entry-level deals. Edvinsson’s heavier role likely slots him in a bit higher, but still in the ballpark of $8 million annually.A two- or three-year bridge is a bit murkier because fewer and fewer teams are taking that approach with top players. The most recent notable examples were Philip Broberg and Thomas Harley in 2024, with Broberg getting just under $4.6 million on a two-year offer sheet that brought him to the St. Louis Blues, and Harley signing for $4 million for two years. While Broberg’s circumstances with the offer sheet make him ill-suited as a comparable, the Dallas Stars surely would have been better off going longer with Harley back in 2024 — just a year into that deal, they extended him to a long-term contract paying him nearly $10.6 million.With two years of cap growth, Edvinsson would likely hit at least $5 million on a bridge — and then likely eight figures annually coming out of it, which is why most teams go long out of an ELC — but it is technically an option if the Red Wings want to go that route.