The Detroit Red Wings will not make the Stanley Cup Playoffs this season, their first miss since 1990. But don’t expect the end of the streak to also bring an end to Ken Holland’s tenure as the team’s GM.
Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman touched on Holland’s future during Hockey Night in Canada’s Headlines segment Saturday night.
“I asked him was there any chance he’d step away, he’s 61 years old, had a great a career, was there any chance he felt it was time to do something else and he said no,” Friedman said. “He’s got another year under contract, he plans to return, and he said he still loves it. He was with the Red Wings in the great years and he wants to take them back there.”
Holland has been with the Red Wings since joining the team as a scout in the late-1980s. He was promoted to GM in 1997 and has held the position ever since, winning three Stanley Cups in the process.
With the Red Wings missing the post-season, there has been speculation on how the team will move forward. While they will get a high pick in the draft this year, fans shouldn’t expect the team to settle into a long-term tear down and rebuild like we’ve seen from Edmonton or Toronto in recent years.
Speaking on 590 The Fan’s Prime Time Sports this week, Holland said he’s not a believer in ripping apart his roster.
“I think we want to be competitive,” he said. “I’m a general manager and as long as I’m a general manager I want us to be the very best we can be. I don’t believe in tear downs and massive rebuilds because I don’t believe you can just guarantee the end result is going to turn out to be Stanley Cups and dynasties. You could go in the wilderness.
“I look around professional sports and there’s other teams in other sports that were great teams for a long time and now it’s three, four, five years, they can’t get the culture back. Once you lose it, you’re chasing.”
The Red Wings do have some exciting young players including Dylan Larkin, Anthony Mantha and Andreas Athanasiou and 20 draft picks over the next two years, including 11 so far this year.
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