OT - Babcock addresses future with Detroit

Submitted by poseidon7902 on

ESPN article:  http://espn.go.com/blog/nhl/post/_/id/35672/mike-babcock-on-coaching-fu…

Essentially says what is most likely to be expected of him to say, but it's at least an answer trending toward him staying.  

I’ve got a great family and my wife loves me and [if the Red Wings] like me enough they’d keep me here -- to be honest with you. The rest of the stuff doesn’t matter, we’ve got a game today and that’s my total focus.”

denardogasm

April 18th, 2015 at 6:16 PM ^

The only truly bad moves I remember him making are over paying Mule and Howard. Franzen was somewhat understandable because the injury bug hit him right after the contract which was unforeseeable, but the Howard deal was a little optimistic. Otherwise he's just been unwilling to trade away the team's youth, and I am totally ok with that. The Wings' main problem for a long time was age, and he's certainly addressed that. We're a couple enforcers and a few less injuries away from being dominant. We saw that during the great run earlier in the year.

tricks574

April 18th, 2015 at 6:43 PM ^

either that or you've forgotten about signing Weiss, or trading for Legwand, or lettting Filpulla go, or going half a decade needing to add defense and somehow not managing to do it once. He's drafted well and managed to not make any super nova fuck ups with a core of established players but it's a stretch to say he's done a particularly good job lately, especially considering his great drafting is due in large part to Andersson's excellent scouting.



It's probably time for him to move on to greener pastures and let someone who can actually go out and get some free agent or trade help take over. He's set them up nicely for the future, but the team is going to need a change of leadership from the top down if it wants to bring this young group of players to cup contention.

Autostocks

April 19th, 2015 at 12:48 PM ^

I assume you mean "hasn't" done jack.  In that case, may I remind you he hasn't done jack except to keep the longest playoff appearance streak in major sports alive, while turning over the roster multiple times.

Hannibal.

April 19th, 2015 at 1:32 PM ^

I am essentially agnostic on Babcock staying in Detroit at this point.  He has won one playoff series in the past four seasons, assuming Tampa Bay knocks them out which seems pretty likely after how they have played the past two months.  I think that his career here has run its course and a change of scenery might be good for both him and Detroit.  I wouldn't complain if he stayed but the Grand Rapids coach seems like he has potential to be a great one and maybe this is his time.

 

Re Holland:

He has had some very poor offseasons over the past five years but with all of the good and bad, it's still 24 years in a row in the playoffs while Boston and LA just missed them.  San Jose missed them too despite looking like they were on the cusp of breaking through five years ago and Toronto hasn't done jack shit in 20 years despite being perfectly willing to spend lots of money.  The Avs are poop again.  Anaheim never got close to the Cup after 2007.    Things could be worse.