Report: Holland On The Hot Seat

Four of the Detroit Red Wings’ past five postseason appearances ended in first-round exits.

 

Pavel Datsyuk, arguably the biggest Detroit Red Wings fan favorite over the course of the past ten years and more, left the team to join the KHL after opting out of the last year of his contract. Frans Nielsen was signed in an effort to make up for Datsyuk’s loss.

 

Captain Henrik Zetterberg, who turned 36 two days ago and is recovering from a knee injury suffered during World Cup of Hockey training, is slowly on the decline. He posted 13 goals and 50 points in 82 games last season, as well as a shocking -15 rating.

 

Long-serving defenseman Niklas Kronwall, who turns 36 in January, was placed on the injured reserve for an undetermined amount of time. He has also been slowing down recently, with a -21 rating and only 26 points in 64 regular season appearances last year.

 

Thomas Vanek was signed on a one-year, $2.6 million contract; a low-risk, high-reward gamble that could pay dividends should his work ethic reflect the daring promises he made last week.

 

Promising sniper prospect Teemu Pulkkinen was claimed off of waivers earlier today by the Minnesota Wild, while 22-year-old Anthony Mantha was sent down to the Grand Rapids Griffins in order to potentially play big minutes. He will surely be recalled at some point during the season, but there are questions surrounding preferences: are Steve Ott and Drew Miller, for instance, better choices than Pulkkinen and Mantha? Could Martin Frk, who was lost to the Carolina Hurricanes (also) on waivers, been a better option up front that Luke Glendening? 

 

 

In his 20th season as general manager, it’s safe to say that Ken Holland is under a lot of scrutiny. In fact, he’s in a hot seat right now.

 

There were rumors of Holland trying to sign the most highly-coveted unrestricted free agent Steven Stamkos last summer, which amounted to nothing. The GM reportedly wanted to bring in Montreal’s P.K. Subban, but Marc Bergevin did not see anything he liked in Detroit. Finally, up-and-coming defenseman Jacob Trouba has not been convinced to join the Red Wings, as Holland failed to address the glaring blue-line weakness that plagues this team.

 

It’s understandable that general managers will never succeed in every attempted trade or free agent signing. What seems to be unacceptable to fans, however, is the very mediocrity that Holland has admitted to by telling NHL.com in August that Detroit fits within “…20 teams with not much difference between them.”  

 

Now, there are fears that the 25-year consecutive playoff streak might be coming to an end this upcoming season, which begs the question: is Holland stuck in the past? In the last campaign to ever be played at the Joe Louis Arena, one has to wonder if a return to glory- without necessarily winning a Stanley Cup- would be the perfect way to say goodbye to the building that has become a landmark for the Original Six club.

 

Drew Sharp of the Detroit Free Press believes that this is the first time in Holland’s career that he’s entering a regular season with this much criticism, and Red Wings fans are hard-pressed into thinking that Sharp might be onto something…