OT: Fire Holland already
February 4th, 2017 at 8:56 PM ^
He has ruined the team, and the sad part is, if they sell everything today they won't be ready to truly compete for another 5 years
February 4th, 2017 at 9:03 PM ^
What truly bothers me is we had a glut of forwards last year and no defenseman...no trade to correct the imbalance. Instead, we signed more forwards in free agency and still can't score, lost young guys on the waiver wire, and didn't play young talented guys until late in the season. It is like Holland truly believes this team can compete...it can't...Go for the cup. This streak is over and the situation we are in now is simply do to him managing his team with the streak in mind instead of the cup
February 4th, 2017 at 11:25 PM ^
I've been saying we need Stevie Y back for years.
February 5th, 2017 at 5:27 PM ^
Holland would step aside for a graceful transfer of power to Yzerman. Im sure I wasnt the only one
February 5th, 2017 at 5:27 PM ^
Holland would step aside for a graceful transfer of power to Yzerman. Im sure I wasnt the only one
February 4th, 2017 at 8:56 PM ^
February 4th, 2017 at 8:59 PM ^
I'm not even a hockey guy, and even I can tell that he's been an abomination over the past decade. Poor personnel decisions, settling for mediocrity, lack of moves when needed. Wings fans must be besides themselves with Holland...if they aren't, they're deifying him for successes from over a decade ago.
Longshot that Stevie Y ever comes back to take the helm, but Holland has to go.
February 4th, 2017 at 9:03 PM ^
Yzerman is not coming back here with Chris Ilitch at the helm. Why would he leave? He has a good core in Tampa and the Wings are a mess. People need to get off this pipe dream.
February 5th, 2017 at 12:09 PM ^
Holland is terrible in the post-salary cap era. When he could just buy the best possible, he was successful. The team has been in constant decline since the implementation of the cap.
February 4th, 2017 at 9:01 PM ^
February 4th, 2017 at 9:04 PM ^
February 5th, 2017 at 2:43 AM ^
It seems to me that Jim Nill was the real brains of the operation and the wheels have really come off since he's been gone. I really hope Stevie comes home soon.
February 4th, 2017 at 9:05 PM ^
He deserves the benefit of the doubt for leading a team that makes the playoffs 25 years in a row. Nobody is satisfied with losing in the First Round but there is a lot more parity in the NHL under the new Salary Cap. I'd say give him a chance to reload.....some deals haven't worked out for him (Franzen especially) but he still deserves a shot.
February 4th, 2017 at 9:14 PM ^
He's had the chance since Lidstrom retired and has completely failed (making the playoffs with Z and Datsyuk was not that hard). I believe the Wings are at the top of the league in salary and we have zero top level d-men or centers. The amount of money wasted on average players like Abdelkader, Ericsson, Helm and Howard is absurd.
February 4th, 2017 at 9:24 PM ^
There are some bad contracts but each team has those. Either way, don't think it will happen as Ilitch would second guess firing an experienced and respected GM after what he did with the Tigers and Dombrowski and how that has worked out so far.
February 4th, 2017 at 9:38 PM ^
Not the good teams.
February 5th, 2017 at 12:22 AM ^
Next year will mark 10 years since the last Stanley Cup. Getting in as a 7 or 8 seed on the second-to-last day of the season, only to get boat-raced in the 1st round, doesn't cut it.
February 4th, 2017 at 9:06 PM ^
Literally every other fanbase in the NHL would kill to have Ken Holland. 25 straight fucking years in the playoffs!!! There is way too much parity in the league to be at the top every year. I'm guessing you all wanted to fire Bowman back in the day as well.
February 4th, 2017 at 9:15 PM ^
February 4th, 2017 at 9:54 PM ^
February 5th, 2017 at 2:57 PM ^
February 5th, 2017 at 4:49 PM ^
Gee, I wonder who coached that team. Oh, yeah.....
But I guess since then Blashill's brain has run down his leg and he's forgotten how to coach.
February 7th, 2017 at 12:23 PM ^
You live in the GR area or at least are from there, go watch them play. They play well enough as a team but are not even one line full of NHL players that will make a noticeable contribution. The Calder team is in Detroit. How's that transitioning going?
February 4th, 2017 at 9:28 PM ^
His job is to position the team to either win a Stanley Cup or build a team until you can. His current team is made up of these bad decisons:
1)This team has only 6 players who are 24 or younger on a roster that will miss the playoffs. Only half of these are guys you could build a roster around
2) By overvalueing our players, we are saddled with players who never truly developed and who earn WAY more than market value (Nyquist ~5million, Abdelkader ~4.3, Ericcson-4.3mil, Kronwall).
3) We have 10 million combined into two goalies who either can't play or don't appear to be able to carry a team. Pay one goalie big money at a time...only one can play at a time.
4) We spent too much to keep Zetterberg and he is a burden on our salary cap structure. It would have been a hard decision to see him go but it would have been the right one.
Overall, Holland has lost several young players over the waiver wire for nothing. Instead of trading from a glut of forwards to rebalance the roster, he kept signing forwards in free agency. I just don't see any direction
February 4th, 2017 at 9:30 PM ^
I bet there aren't more than five. Heck, I'd like to see you identify five that his recent performance (last five years, in total performance) is better than.
February 4th, 2017 at 9:30 PM ^
But a lot changes in a few years. For one, Holland's top men have moved on. Yzerman is killing it at Tampa Bay (except this year for some reason) and Nill has done some nice things in Dallas. During this same time Holland has shown an inability to trade, has given out some awful contracts, mismanaged the prospects; and looks like he swung and missed on Blashill (a coaching search in which they didn't even interview another candidate).
Even if I'm way off on Holland, it is clear the Wings aren't going anywhere and are headed for a rebuild. Do you think a 60 year old GM is going to want to go through with a rebuild? On way or another, its time for something new.
February 4th, 2017 at 9:39 PM ^
February 4th, 2017 at 9:40 PM ^
Can someone who has been able to follow the team closer than I please explain why, with all of the noted and obvious personnel issues this team has, Blashill is considered a major part of the problem?
I'm not snarking, I am legit curious. I would like to know if blame really rests on Blashill or if people are just lending him responsibility for a roster that nobody could make a solid winner out of.
February 4th, 2017 at 9:49 PM ^
February 4th, 2017 at 10:31 PM ^
There seems to be a willingness among Wings fans to give Blashill a pass and instead just blame performance on talent and the GM. When the Wings parted ways with Mike Babcock there was much discussion on these boards that he was the problem, that Blashill would be an able replacement and that talent acquisition and Holland were the difference between the Wings and then more mediocre operations like Toronto etc.
Talent/Contracts is a problem but a combination of Yzerman/Nill/Jesus isn't going to solve the issue that Blashill has not accomplished anything of note at the NHL level.
February 5th, 2017 at 12:09 AM ^
February 5th, 2017 at 2:07 PM ^
Actually Blashill is getting a lot of blame too. Yes, he can only coach up the roster he is given by Ken Holland. But some of his in-game personel decisions have been...questionable at best.
February 4th, 2017 at 11:43 PM ^
Scotty didn't just make the playoffs. He had us in the conference finals and Cup finals damn near every year. Plus he was the coach, not GM.
Every other fanbase can have Ken Holland. If you looked at our cap space, you would see how he screwed up. He whiffed on just about every big FA signing for the past seven years. Since the Salary Cap came in, and he couldn't just outspend other teams, he has been below average.
We traded a first round draft pick to reacquire Kyle Quincey. We have Steve Ott because of "grit". We're the only franchise giving out multi-year, multi-million $$$ contracts to guys because of grit.
February 5th, 2017 at 12:06 AM ^
February 4th, 2017 at 9:06 PM ^
At best he's a 3rd pairing d-man, which means he's no better than Sproul, Jensen, Oullet, etc. But I totally agree with you on Holland and that it's time to get rid of him. At this point, he's becoming Joe Dumars at the end of his reign with the Pistons. After other GM's figured him out, he had no clue what to do and just kept signing overrated free agents that never worked out.
February 4th, 2017 at 9:18 PM ^
Didn't he just turn 25? I think he's got a ton of upside, calling him "overrated" might be a bit strong.
Watch what he does in Toronto.
February 4th, 2017 at 9:32 PM ^
He was a 7th round pick for a reason. Played for CSKA Moscow (which is one of the best teams in the KHL) and was a -6 there. He did OK in Grand Rapids, but has been below average in nearly 80 NHL games. Was a turnover machine this season before getting injured. Maybe he'll do better in Toronto, but I doubt he's anything more than a 5th or 6th d-man on a good team.
February 4th, 2017 at 9:44 PM ^
February 4th, 2017 at 9:55 PM ^
If it was about the cap room, I agree. Ericsson has the worst contract on the team and Kronwall is finished. DeKeyser is not playing well this season, but he's contract is not that bad if he reaches his ceiling (which is a top 4 d-man).
February 4th, 2017 at 9:29 PM ^
February 5th, 2017 at 2:41 AM ^
I bet if Ericsson was put on waivers, no team would take him. Turnover machine with his patented blind pass up the ice from the defensive zone. He costs way more than Marchenko and is almost 10 years older I believe.
February 4th, 2017 at 9:26 PM ^
February 4th, 2017 at 9:36 PM ^
February 4th, 2017 at 10:38 PM ^
I'll take Lou Lamoriello, Dale Hunter, Brendan Shanhan and Kyle Dubas over the Wings front office all day and it's not even close.
February 4th, 2017 at 9:55 PM ^
February 4th, 2017 at 11:16 PM ^
do you live in Detroit?
February 5th, 2017 at 12:24 AM ^
He's probably right, though.
And that's the problem.
February 4th, 2017 at 9:59 PM ^
Ferraro, Pulk, Frk, and now Marchy are borderline nhl players. No competent GM will trade anything for them when they know they'll be able to get them on waivers.
February 4th, 2017 at 10:04 PM ^
February 4th, 2017 at 11:09 PM ^