I absolutely have not found the energy to write on this blog during this hockey season, but one idea for a blog that I've had for some time is looking at how Ken Holland has managed the Detroit Red Wings in the post Lidstrom era. The trading of Calle Jarnkrok for David Legwand this past trade deadline coupled with Legwand's current demotion to the third line (losing his spot to Helm and Sheahan) with Jarnkrok's quick NHL success has kicked me into writing mode though.
As opposed to making this a novel, I'm going to write these as a series of posts. This one will be on the 2011 offseason.
Before I get started, I want to say that it's widely acknowledged that Ken Holland is one of the best GMs in the game. I can only think of a few people who have been critical of him (Ryan Lambert, Greg Brady, the Winging It In Motown blog at times). However, I really think that there's been some major mismanagement of the Detroit Red Wings in the post Lidstrom era.
For me, this era starts with the somewhat surprising early retirement of Brian Rafalski in the spring of 2011. His retirement resulted in the loss of a top four defenseman, and a right-handed puck mover. It was also easy to see that Lidstrom's years were limited at that point (in fact, it was unknown for a while if he would retire that same summer). It was also known that Brad Stuart was on the last year of his contract going into 2011/2012. Needless to say, the Wings were facing uncertain times.
Ken Holland didn't make a big trade at the draft to replace Rafalski, where Brent Burns was traded. That was fine, as the Wings didn't really have the assets to make a blockbuster trade. However, he did miss out on acquiring the rights to Christian Ehrhoff, a defenseman whom the Wings were linked to this past (2014) trade deadline. Ehrhoff is a left shooting D, but he would have easily filled the void created by Rafalski's departure. Instead, Holland decided to see what he had in Ericsson, Kindl, and Smith while pursuing cheaper and lesser defensemen. All three of the previously mentioned players were worth giving more of an opportunity to at that point, though obviously Kindl and Smith have turned out to be quite disappointing. He re-upped Ericsson with what was at the time a controversial contract, but one that looks fine now as Ericsson has developed into a solid top four penalty killing defenseman. Holland did sign two defenseman during the free agent frenzy - Mike Commodore and Ian White. Commodore was an absolute disaster, which was predictable. He had previously had issues with coach Mike Babcock and those issues didn't go away when he joined the Red Wings. Still, Commodore was signed on a cheap one year contract. Ian White meanwhile took Rafalski's spot in the lineup, was a right-handed shot, and was quite serviceable his first year with the Wings.
It's also worth noting that Holland made a tiny little trade at the draft, where he traded Detroit's first round pick for two second round picks from Ottawa. He then used those picks to select Tomas Jurco and Xavier Ouellet - both of whom look to have bright futures at this point (with Jurco currently playing comfortably as a top six forward in the NHL).
All things considered, I'd say the 2011 summer was a solid offseason for Ken Holland, with the ill advised signing of Commodore being but a small blemish.
