Detroit Red Wings: Ken Holland is too attached

Detroit Red Wings general manager Ken Holland is going on to his 35th season with the Wings, but his 35 seasons in the front office have been questionable.

There is no doubting that Ken Holland is one of the best general managers in the history of the NHL. However, it seems his craftiness and ability to make successful moves is in decline, leaving the Detroit Red Wings to struggle financially and on the ice.

Holland’s downfalls are obvious to the naked eye. He signs players for too long, he gives out too many no-trade clauses, he signs too many in-state players, and he signs too many veterans.

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Johan Franzen, Stephen Weiss, and Niklas Kronwall are just some of the many names Holland has signed to long-term deals. One of his biggest flaws as a general manager is his loyalty to players. Now, loyalty to a player is one thing. Giving them extensive contracts that end up hurting the team is quite another.

Take Weiss as an example. Holland signed him as an unrestricted free agent on July 5, 2013, from the Florida Panthers for five years and $24.5 million. From the start, this signing was more risk than reward, as Weiss only played 17 games the season before with the Panthers. The wise (pun intended) thing to do would have been to sign Weiss to a short-term deal to ensure he was registered back to full health. Instead, Holland took the gamble and signed him long-term.

In his first season with the Wings, Weiss only played 26 games before being sidelined in order to get hernia surgery. After returning from his hernia surgery, he was unproductive and not the player he was with the Panthers. Due to his lack of performance and nagging injuries, the Red Wings bought out the remainder of Weiss’ contract.

Currently, the team is stuck with the contracts of Johan Franzen, who was forced into retirement for health reasons, and Niklas Kronwall. At the time Holland signed both of these players, they were in their 30s and were experiencing health issues.

The contracts of Franzen and Kronwall are coming back to haunt the Red Wings. The latter is done with hockey and is seeking medical treatment for his head injuries. Meanwhile, the Red Wings are still paying his contract. Kronwall has not played a full season since 2011-12 and is limping to the finish line this coming season (2018-19), the last year of his contract.

Holland is also notorious for signing in-state players. For the 2017-18 season, the Red Wings had a total of six roster players (Justin Abdelkader, David Booth, Danny DeKeyser, Luke Glendening, Dylan Larkin and Luke Witkowski) from Michigan.

Now, there is inherently nothing wrong with signing players from Michigan. However, it seems to be that Holland is afraid to go outside his comfort zone and acquire players from different areas. He tries to please the people of Michigan by acquiring one of their hometown boys, but while doing this, he often misses the opportunity to claim a quality player.

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For too long, the Red Wings have been known as the older team in the league. This is largely due to Holland signing so many veterans. During his tenure, he has preferred to have a veteran lineup rather than a youthful and promising team.

As a result, a lot of young, promising talent has been oversaturated in the minor leagues. Players like Mitch Callahan and Tomas Nosek were guys in the organization that had massive potential but were never utilized because they had to wait while veterans got the majority of the ice time and opportunities. It is because of Holland’s old-school mentality that the Red Wings have struggled.

It is likely that when Holland’s contract with the team expires in two seasons, he will join the Seattle expansion team. As for now, Red Wings fans must be hopeful because there is a good nucleus to this team.

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Guys like Tyler Bertuzzi, Dylan Larkin, Anthony Mantha and Andreas Athanasiou are the future of this franchise and possess all the tools to be leaders and stars in the NHL. Not to mention the strong 2018 draft class shows a lot of promise. In the meantime, Holland must be consciences of his signings and help improve this team.

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