On Friday, the Detroit Red Wings will play their first regular season game of the 2026-27 campaign, and interim general manager Shawn Horcoff has his work cut out for him with the Simon Edvinsson contract situation still lingering.

Edvinsson, 23, remains a restricted free agent who is without a contract; just another hallmark of what ended up being a terribly unproductive summer for the Red Wings.

The breakout defenseman did the organization a favor in recent weeks, taking part in training camp without a contract with Horcoff and the rest of the Red Wings front office scrambling to play catch-up, but those days are over.

On Monday, the Red Wings announced in a statement that Edvinsson would no longer be practicing with the Red Wings until a contract is reached.

“As of today, Simon is not practicing with the team. The organization will continue conversations with Simon and his representatives," Horcoff was quoted as saying in the Red Wings' statement by Max Bultman of The Athletic.

Additionally, the Red Wings released their opening night roster ahead of Monday's 5 p.m. deadline, and Edvinsson, without his contract, was left off. Recent waiver claim Andreas Englund is listed as non-roster for immigration reasons, and Jacob Bernard-Docker will start the year on injured reserve.

As a result, the Red Wings' current defense core consists of Ben Chiarot, Moritz Seider, Albert Johansson, Anton Johansson, Axel Sandin-Pellikka, William Wallinder, and Justin Faulk.

How Red Wings Line Up Without Edvinsson

According to Bultman, it was Albert Johansson who lined up next to Seider to form Detroit's top defense pair, with Englund and Wallinder skating as the seventh and eighth defenders for Monday's practice.

Alex DeBrincat - Andrew Copp - Lucas Raymond; Emmitt Finnie - J.T. Compher - Viktor Arvidsson; Michael Rasmussen - Marco Kasper - Keegan Kolesar; Mason Appleton - Nate Danielson - Michael Brandsegg-Nygard were the Red Wings' four forward line combinations, with captain Dylan Larkin and Carter Mazur as the extras.

In addition to Albert Johansson and Seider, Anton Johansson was paired with Faulk, and Chiarot was paired with Sandin-Pellikka.

It's a bad situation for the Red Wings, who play their first regular-season game in just four days and still need to re-sign Edvinsson in addition to finding some kind of solution for the disgruntled Larkin, whose awkward press conference earlier this month only added fuel to that fire.

Of course, all eyes will be on the Red Wings until then, but the increasing volume of the outside noise is not something conducive to a successful season.