The hot seat Detroit Red Wings GM Ken Holland sits upon just got hotter

Steve Yzerman is among the most popular Detroit Red Wings of all time and has already proven himself as a skilled general manager.

Ken Holland is the most controversial team figure as he pieces together a rebuild, for good or for ill.  Buckle your seat belt Detroit Red Wings fans.  Everyone is in for the ride ahead as Steve Yzerman now moves back to Detroit to “spend more time with family.”  Does anyone believe that?

Yzerman became a star performer and legendary captain after 14 years of being described as an almost-but-not-quite superstar, contemporaneous with the likes of Gretzky and Lemieux.  Alas, he has never won a Stanley Cup with Tampa Bay, as Yzerman himself willingly reminds the press.

Holland’s role in the rebuild is recently the most debated issue surrounding the Detroit Red Wings. His stewardship of the team has boiled furiously as the front-burner issue in the off-season’s Hot Stove.  To be fair, cooler heads remind us, he already boasts three Stanley Cups as the Wings’ GM.

More from Red Wings News

• Detroit Red Wings forward Carter Mazur injured in Prospect Tournament
• Detroit Red Wings: What does Klim Kostin’s role look like in 2023-24?
• Detroit Red Wings: 3 players who will make biggest impact in first year
• The Detroit Red Wings need Andrew Copp to start fast in 2023-24
• Detroit Red Wings had a busy off-season; but was it enough?

Let us reassess Ken Holland in light of this recent news.  Most glaring among Holland’s failures is drafting the likes of Brendan Smith, Jakub Kindl, and Thomas McCollum. Trailing those flubs are lengthy contracts or no-trade clauses handed out like Trader Joe’s food samples to sub-par complimentary players who require elite players nearby to perform passably.  Admittedly, this leaves a bad taste.

Exultant memories of Holland’s Stanley Cups and his part in the 25-year playoff run mean less to younger and more fickle fans.   Agonizing memories of 40 years wandering in a hockey wilderness and Holland’s part leading us out of it are more distant than his impressive list of championships.

The first feature we must notice in assessing Ken Holland is how long he has held the job of GM, over two decades, in a class by himself here.  If we can’t recognize that over 21 years the things which cycled up must eventually cycle down, then we fail to understand the nature of leadership.

Why have the llitches remained so patient with Holland in the face of hockey mobs with torches and pitchforks?  Growing Little Caesars from a mom and pop shop into a world chain, the llitches made their share of errors despite doing a bang-up job selling pizza.  The Ilitches ‘get’ leadership.

What precisely does that mean?  Leaders are human, not robots.  Not every risk gets vindicated.  Only a mediocre man is always at his best.  If fans forget these things, the llitches wisely do not.

We’ll soon know more about Holland.  After badly faltering drafts, then a heralded crop of difference makers like Dylan Larkin, Anthony Mantha, and Andreas Athanasiou, Ken Holland and his team knocked the ball out of the park in the 2018 draft.  Fans complain it is luck, not skill.  Of course, it is always both.

We’ll never see another draft like 1989, plucking Hall of Famers from the latter rounds.  That is an unfair standard.  But this most recent draft crop impresses particularly Holland’s discipline in not drafting according to need and position, but to excellence and hoped-for upside over long careers.

Scotty Bowman became celebrated by his ability to transform along with an ever-changing game.  Ken Holland now has the same chance, transitioning from tired veterans to rising young turks. This will secure his fate.  Ken is right that players must earn jobs in the Detroit Red Wings scheme of things.

But Jeff Blashill is also right, as we endure a new playoff wilderness. The benefit of the doubt must shift from fading standbys to burgeoning players of promise.  Bowman’s genius included his rather careerist cleverness, by always moving on to a new team before his existing squad entered decline.

We shouldn’t hold Holland’s longevity against him, but he must master the tipping point from the tried-and-true to fresher players bursting with talent,  describing our offense more than defense.

If Holland cannot perform, but stubbornly clings to faded memories of how the Detroit Red Wings were, then the availability of Yzerman could prove irresistible.  If Holland nurtures speedy new talent in timely increments, the star of the Red Wings will rise again, and we will be grateful and follow it.

What is the most likely scenario?  Yzerman was always the unselfish superstar, and Holland was always self-effacing in welcoming collaboration with other great leaders, like Jimmy Devellano. I could easily see them working out an arrangement where one is GM and the other rides shotgun.

This lack of ego, the presence of vast experience, and abundance of hockey intelligence is promising.  However we slice it, this moment feels good, even if the on-ice product isn’t palatable this year.