Hockeytown is hurting.
The Detroit Red Wings have been moribund at home. They are listless offensively. The Arizona Coyotes came into the Joe Louis Arena and pummeled them 4-1. Playoff hopes are precarious. And their power play is more of an advantage to their opponent.
The mainstream media has taken note, as Sportsnet’s Dimtri Filipovic has a lengthy write up on how the Red Wings’ inevitable downfall in a parity based league was coming. 25 straight years of making the playoffs, including 11 of those seasons being in a salary cap era is unbelievably impressive. But over the last five seasons, the Red Wings have only made it out of the first round once, losing by an eyelash to the eventual champion Chicago Blackhawks in seven games–after blowing a 3-1 series lead.
Already through the midway point of December, the Red Wings hardly appear to be a playoff bound team. Should their current streak of poor play continue, it has to be a message to general Ken Holland and company that a true rebuild must be embraced. The “rebuild on the fly” strategy Holland has embraced no longer looks feasible.
Reading the tea leaves, however, the Wings don’t act like a team looking to change strategies. The fear in Detroit by many is that the Wings could hang around and make another puzzling trade for a washed up veteran to try and get them over the hump. Deals for David Legwand and Erik Cole were damaging since they lost prospects and neither had any impact on the playoff push. Damien Cox wrote at length about this as well, wondering why the brass is so hesitant to build a stronger future when right now, the team is a few matches short of a tire fire.
More curious was Holland on a radio show the other day. Appearing on Sirius XM, Holland kept repeating the company line of “draft and develop” through the 15 minute segment. The problem? When he points out Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk, who Holland said didn’t reach their true abilities until 25, he forgets that Datsyuk at 23, was surrounded by a roster of hall of famers from Steve Yzerman to Nicklas Lidstrom. Zetterberg, who came up full time in 2002-03, also was flanked by all-stars. Being around that type of pedigree certainly helps develop talent. But it was also nearly 20 years ago, when the Red Wings were mining talent in Europe (and Russia) thanks to Hakan Andersson, that the Wings drafted that talent.
But in this league, it’s not possible unless you have that talent surrounding you. Which they don’t. Teams can’t afford to have that collection of talent anymore.
Holland has crippled the team with a number of contracts that are long in duration and high in compensation. It’s long been said that Holland falls in love with his own players and his re-signing of Darren Helm was example of that. Helm, who for several seasons couldn’t stay healthy, has never scored 20 goals in a season or exceeded 33 points. Instead of letting him go, Holland re-upped with Helm for five seasons at $3.85MM per year. Though he boasts speed and is productive on the penalty kill, Helm’s output is hardly worth nearly $4MM AAV. Helm’s contract is just one of many examples of Red Wings paid for loyalty instead of skill. Justin Abdelkader ($4.25MM AAV), Jonathan Ericsson ($4.25MM AAV) Danny DeKeyser ($5MM AAV), and Luke Glendening ($1.8MM AAV starting next season) are examples of loyalty over value. Glendening, an undrafted signee, has one goal this season. Yet he’s due nearly $2MM annually for the next four seasons.
This doesn’t factor in Frans Nielsen, Zetterberg, Niklas Kronwall, or Jimmy Howard, who are all owed substantial amounts of money, too. Holland has painted himself into a corner, and those contracts, should he try to move them, will not give them much in return for salary dumps.
Holland has always believed in loyalty since he took the reins in 1998. This is not necessarily a bad thing. But in their case, it certainly handcuffs them for seasons to come.
In addition to liberal spending, the Wings have insisted on playing players like Glendening, Drew Miller and Steve Ott instead of giving more time to Andreas Athanasiou, and Anthony Mantha, players who have added a spark when given the chance. This may be more on Jeff Blashill, but at the end of the day, he can only use what he’s provided.
Change is difficult–but often it’s necessary. In Detroit’s case, it’s certainly looking more like the latter is needed. It’s almost as if the Red Wings are scared of realizing that their plan isn’t working. And maybe, that’s just it. Maybe it’s the idea that what’s worked for so long doesn’t anymore.
One thing is for certain: if the Red Wings brass continue to keep their heads in the sand, not only will the playoff streak come to an end. So too, will future success in Hockeytown.
All photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Yes. Embrace it.
I hate saying yes, but honestly we do, it’s a change of ERA for Detroit.
Good article man
We are stuck with the current pile of shit roster for at least the next 5-6 years, if the wings want a proper rebuild EVERYONE in upper management needs to go bye bye… Holland is a fucking moron and you can definitely see he had nothing to do with the wings rosters during the glory days; we can thank Devlanno, Bowman, Nill, even Yzerman for all of the championship squads. The Illitch family will never clean house, Wings and Tigers are going Robb’s celebrating mediocrity and ruining talented athletes for the next decade or more…
Shouldn’t have signed Helm. No issue with Ott and Miller playing as they’re 2/3 of a decent 4th line. Glendening is a worth 1.8 a year…we lost that Tampa series two years ago when he got hurt and Tyler Johnson went off and we blew a lead in the close out game. Glendening is the other 1/3 of your 4th line.
No problem with paying Abdelkader…he’s the one guy with size and skill that plays a physical game.
What’s killed this team is a lack of juice from Sheahan, Nyquist and Tatar. The thinking was those two would be solid top six forwards scoring @ 80 goals a year between them. That hasn’t happened. Tatar’s hat trick on 12/17 aside. Woukd love to see Athanasiou/Larkin / Mantha as a #2 line. Nyquist/Shehan/Tatar as #3 and Z/Neilsen/Abby as #1. Bertuzzi works in as an extra. Vanek gets dealt for a mid round pick as he’s proved the skills are still there and he’s on a one year deal. Helm…why did we sign him?
The defense is a mess. I would like to see them roll Sproul and Oulette as a 3rd paring for the rest of the season. Green and Dekeyser is the top pair. Kronwall/Ericsson/Marchenko is your 2nd set. Brendan Smith …..trade bait in his contract year?
Howie has shown he still has value and the contract isn’t as bad now. He may have some trade value. Vanek may have some value. Ericsson may have some value as he’s looked better this year. Smith may have some value…or you can sign him cheap for a year or two since he’s pretty much blown his contract year.
Helm…why did we sign him? Not much use other than PK, no business being anywhere near the top six but he’s being paid like a top six guy.
Dump Blashill and hire Gallant
Dump Holland and hire anybody.
You asked a question, but did not provide any answer, or even options. The article was just a re-hash of what fans already know.
Seems like the two factors prohibiting a rebuild are Holland’s unwillingness to go through a rebuild at this point in his career and the fact that the Wings are going into a new building next year. The former is easily fixed with Holland being pushed into just a team president role and bringing in a GM with the stomach for a rebuild. The latter is the tough one, although I do think fans will accept a true focused rebuild and pack the new building at the same time.
They also need a GM with the ability to oversee a rebuild which Holland lacks.
Make Smith a power forward!
Everyone is so quick to point a finger at Kenny Holland. We question his expensive, unmovable, contracts and his head scratching trades. As stated, this is a team with aging stars and unmovable contracts, an organization with a delpeted farm team due to a desire to do whatever it is necessary to win now so we make bad trades and their loyalty keeps dead wait around. Plus the keys to the Ferrari are given to an unproven Coach to manage this dumpster fire….Hmmmm, doesn’t this sound familiar? Similar to the Owners other franchise, the Tigers? Why doesn’t anyone talk bad about Mike Illitch? The owner is who is making the final approval of all of these moves and bad contracts. Both of his teams are spinning in the mud! It’s not a coincidence that his GM’s are soing just about the exact same thing in their perspective sports, it’s Mr I. Hey, as fans he is not afraid to spend the money to get us to pay for a ticket to see super stars which is great for us. But in today’s world, you can’t just buy championships. I really don’t thonk this organization understands how to build a team in the current climate. This is new territory for them.
I wouldn’t call the Red Wings club a Ferrari, but rather an Oldsmobile.
Hasn’t drafted an impact player in the 21st century. I don’t know how anyone can defend Holland.
Exactly… both wings and tigers need a rebuild. Mediocre teams that have a mix of guys past their prime or slowing down, and young guys. You need to choose one or the other, and the old guys aren’t getting any better…… Illich can’t be signing deals like Upton either, epically when the tigers are already handcuffed with the GIGANTIC contracts of Verlander and Cabrera.
I imagine that the move to the new building and the need to generate excitement to sell tickets and luxury suites is the main factor in sticking with middle to late career players rather than embracing a rebuild.. He may be able to dump one of the long-term high–priced contracts to Vegas, but that won’t get the Wings out of their salary cap mess.
We have to many penalty killers and not enough finishers ! Smith can play forward and I believe he would be invaluable as a power forward! He would be a top six forward in awhile. We need size and a mean streak? Nyquest and Tatar are two small won’t do the dirty work of driving the net! Sheahan , Glendening and Helm can’t finish? Miller is getting old. Nielson not the answer? I’m on board to rebuild! I’m spoiled by the success of the red wings and that’s what makes it hard
Even if Smith can perform that job it isn’t nearly enough.
I just don’t know how they’ve managed to get to the point where they have no cap space and such an awful roster. I agree with Phil, who mentioned Sheahan, Nyquist and Tatar as real issues. I think the team counted on those three producing a lot of goals and to an extent bet their future on them, instead they produce almost nothing. If it weren’t for, somewhat unbelievably, Howard this season the Red Wings would probably have the worst record in the entire league.
The future of the team appears to be three forwards who don’t score, one decent defenseman and a goalie who is either brilliant or terrible, never anything in between.
2016 has been a very strange year, I can’t imagine many people would have thought the Lions would be on the cusp of making the playoffs and the Red Wings would appear to be one of the worst teams in the league.