Last month, Nick Kypreos made a comment on Hockey Night in Canada that sent shivers down my spine by mentioning Ken Holland and Seattle in the same breath. Holland was a fantastic General Manager — in fact, one of the best — but has shown no resemblance to that in his recent years. He has yet to receive a new offer from the Detroit Red Wings ownership as his team spirals down a path of certain destruction. It would behoove Seattle, in my humble opinion, to scratch his name off the list of potential GM’s.
Detroit Red Wings General Manager Ken Holland was once considered to be the best in the business. His teams reached the playoffs for eighteen straight years and advanced to the Stanley Cup Finals four times — emerging as champions in three. The locker room housed legendary players such as Steve Yzerman, Pavel Datsyuk, Sergei Fedorov, and Chris Osgood.
Fans and opposing front-offices loved to hate them.
“I spent my 17-year career in different NHL front offices during this historic Red Wings run,” wrote Frank Provenzano in an article for the Athletic. “We would emulate Detroit. We would hate them. But we didn’t often beat them.”
It seems like yesterday that Sergei Fedorov, with his two-piece stick and white skates, was carving circles around my beloved Bruins. The reality is that his thirteen-year career with the Red Wings ended a decade and a half ago and those dominant years in Detroit are only visible in the rear-view mirror.
Last year, they missed the playoffs for the first time since 1989.
Any fan of the game understands that you can’t stay on top forever and that with regression comes rebuild. It’s an ebb and flow that drives our emotions and encourages a love-hate relationship with front-offices.
Teams in “rebuild mode” will generally drop the contracts of older players by trading them away for young prospects and draft picks. As their talent drops, so does the teams place in the standings — increasing their chances of gaining higher picks in the Entry Draft lottery.
Ken Holland seems to have missed the memo.
The Red Wings currently have 10 players with no-trade clauses, all of which are assigned to skaters over the age of 27.
Additionally, four players over the age of 30 have contracts which extend to at least the 2020-21 season.
The destruction isn’t all on the hands of Holland — he has after all attempted to right the ship over the last couple of years — but he played a major role in handcuffing the franchise with bad contracts and a limited prospect pool.
“Denial is a powerful thing. It kept the Detroit Red Wings in the playoff picture for an astonishing 25 consecutive seasons,” wrote Matt Larkin of the Hockey News. “Now it threatens to bind their feet in cement for years to come. The Wings’ post-season streak finally ended in 2016-17, but GM Ken Holland remains committed to keeping his team competitive in the present.”
The first few years will be challenging for Seattle and they need to have someone at the helm who can build prospect depth and handle contracts with the future in mind. I would be very hesitant to say that Holland fits that bill.
“Let’s make no mistake about it, Kenny Holland is out there,” Kypreos said on Hockey Night in Canada. “His contract is going to expire at the end of the year. No talks at all scheduled. It appears it might go all the way to the end of the season before it gets addressed. You’ve got to put him at the top of the list.”
While being a GM concerns a lot more than just contracts, it’s the on ice results that matter and Ken Holland is failing his team in that category.
Comments
My Question
I don’t follow Detroit (I hate that team) but I ask this: Has he evolved with the game or has he remained the same in his approach?
My example is the Seattle Thunderbirds. Russ Farewell has been the GM for years. It appears that he values size over speed just in the people he has picked up over the years (There are always exceptions). With there being more rules to protect the players it’s speed that now kills not a big player crushing someone into the corners. Now last year they may have finally won a championship but it can be said that was due to being so horrible for such a long time they were able to pick up players like Mat Barzal.
That being said with Detroit not being relevant over the past few years has the game outgrown him?
By Kodi on 03.05.18 2:03pm
He has struggled in the salary cap era
That’s not to say he can’t turn it around.. just that there are questions to be asked first.
By Doug Mellon on 03.05.18 7:26pm
I think this is just Hockey Night In Canada own speculation
and nothing comes out of OVG/ownership group.
By gstommylee on 03.05.18 3:28pm
Nothing has been said from the OVG camp
This is 100% speculation which comes natural with any expansion.
There is a lot to get through before they start talking GM’s.
By Doug Mellon on 03.05.18 7:27pm
Don't jump the on anyone!
I think it’s important that we look at everyone! I don’t want to get stuck with the wrong guy because he’s friends with someone or he owes something!
We will only get one chance to get this right from the start
It took the Seahawks 30 years to get to the Super Bowl because they didn’t get it right for a longtime!
The Mariners haven’t got it right for themselves, but continue to send the Yankees championships.
The Sounders have done a very good job.
Take your time.
By AZSONICFAN on 03.05.18 4:09pm
I think if there is anyone who understands doing it the right way
it is the group we have steering this process.
By Doug Mellon on 03.05.18 7:29pm
Julien BriseBois?
Highly thought of as a bright up and coming executive in the hockey community. As the assistant GM of the Tampa Bay Lightning/GM of the Bolts AHL team he’s worked with Steve Y to not only draft and deal the bolts into a Stanley Cup contender, but build a solid pool of talent in their AHL pipeline. Worked as a VP of Hockey Operations for Montreal; Nearly got the Pens job in 2010 before Rutherford got the position. Stevie speaks highly of him and knows that he will lose him sooner or later. If Seattle ownership is interested, they better move quick cause the Canadians are rumored to want to bring him back as Gauthier’s successor.
By NWEastcoaster on 03.05.18 11:23pm
Rumored to want to bring him back as Tremblay's successor:/
what I really meant.
By NWEastcoaster on 03.06.18 6:15pm
I need a vacation
I really meant Bergevin
By NWEastcoaster on 03.06.18 6:19pm
Anyone's better than the current Habs GM
Marc Bergevin is someone you don’t want as a GM. If JB goes to either MTL or SEA, I’d be pretty happy.
By julien! on 03.06.18 3:56am
Let's look at the total resume of work rather than just the last few years
As a Caps fan, I saw George McPhee trade Filip Forsberg (today a star in Nashville and nicknamed "Prince Filip") for table scraps in the hopes of making a deep playoff run. It was, as fans knew as soon as the trade happened, a disaster.
But look now at what McPhee has done in Vegas. He’s a lock for GM of the year. I thought McPhee was a great match for Vegas from the start since McPhee did a great job guiding the caps through a fire sale in the early 2000s, which netted high draft picks that turned into Ovechkin, Backstrom, Mike Green, etc.
McPhee showed he could build a playoff team, but was unable to make it over the hump in the playoffs. I suspect Ken Holland had tremendous pressure from ownership to keep the Wings as a playoff team at all costs, and now we see the result of years of those costs piling up. Did he actually want to keep all those players or did he feel he had to do so to continue making the playoffs?
So let’s not totally discount Holland just yet. He got 3 draft picks out of Vegas for Tomas Tatar which helps kickstart their rebuild. Seattle should look at everyone, including assistants who are ready to jump to GM on their own, and find the best person.
By Kyle_G on 03.06.18 9:34am
Agreed
A fresh start from scratch can make a difference
By gstommylee on 03.06.18 10:14am
GM kept up with the game.
He adapted post-lockout by designing a salary cap plan and churned out players like backstrom and ovechkin. They struggled with some draft prospects and I’m sure we all remember the media frenzy when hunter replaced boudreau and the locker room turmoil it caused. McPhee’s biggest issue was a style of play which clashed with how the team was built and eventually led to his final days.
Using the Forsberg / Erat trade, as awful as it was, as any indication of his time there is a VERY FAR stretch. Every scout on that board voted unanimously for the trade when it happened.
The ability for GM to adapt to the changing game is night and day with Holland, and even though he is just now begging to pick up the pieces, that front-office is going to have issues for a VERY long time.
I agree the ownership group needs to look at every possibility, but I don’t see how anyone can compare post-lockout GM with post-lockout Holland.
By Doug Mellon on 03.06.18 10:41am