The Oakland Press’s Pat Caputo weighs in on the Red Wings’ decision to retain Ken Holland’s services today, offering “5 Factors” as to why the Wings kept KH in the fold (though this is more of Caputo offering his own suggestions as to what Holland should do next as opposed to analyzing the reasons why he was retained):
4. There is a silver-lining to this – It’s at least the Red Wings veterans with the over-valued deals still play exceptionally hard. They care about the game, and the Red Wings’ tradition. It should help during the transitional period. Zetterberg is a terrific captain, who plays hard every night and is willing to call out his young teammates when necessary.
Holland needs to display he can make value-for-value trades involving players from other organizations, not just draft picks. Athanasiou and Gustav Nyquist have value and should be moved.
And who would replace them?
5. Evaluating Red Wings’ coach Jeff Blashill has been very difficult – Blashill will be back next season, but whether he is the long-range answer as coach remains the great unknown. He inherited a very difficult situation. He was replacing a future Hall-of-Famer, Mike Babcock, and with a declining team. Blashill has displayed the spine to hold the Red Wings’ younger players accountable, but at times his decision-making involving speciality units and line combinations could be better. His team didn’t quit on him, though.
“Athanasiou and Gustav Nyquist have value and should be moved.”
“And who would replace them?”
Well, it sounds like Caputo is suggesting that those two could be replaced with the players they are traded for.
Personally, I would love to see AA moved even if it’s to dump a bad contract. While he’s a good role player, he really isn’t going to be a first/second line player like he might think he is. Finding a 3rd line winger shouldn’t be that hard. Frk? Svech?
Gus might actually get replaced with the first round draft pick this year.
You don’t trade Nyquist or AA for another middle 6 forward. You trade them, likely with other assets to upgrade your biggest area of weakness…defense!
A deal like Nyquist + Svech for a younger top 4 d-man is what we need. Like how Calgary added Hamilton or NJ added Vatanen.
The gaping hole from losing Nyquist (or AA) just gets filled internally. Rasmussen likely graduates next year into a middle 6 winger. Bertuzzi is already there. Maybe Frk thrives in a larger role. Lots of options. But losing Nyquist or AA is the last thing I’d worry about. But upgrading on garbage like Dekeyser and Jensen and Ericsson and Kronwall should be the main priority. If all else fails you can sign a UFA like Vanek for a year to help replace Nyquist. It’s a shame we didn’t add Vatanen leading up to last year’s expansion draft. He was up for grabs. Anaheim at the time wanted a top 6 winger. Nyquist could have joined a bunch of Swedes there. At least Vatanen gives you a younger top 4 guy.
“You don’t trade Nyquist or AA for another middle 6 forward.”
Interesting. If you read the article you would note that there was no discussion of what a trade involving Gus or AA would look like.
BTW Calgary gave up a 1st and two second round picks for Hamilton. Boston bungled away those picks so that looks like a steal (though all three are playing in the A). If Detroit had those kinds of assets in 2015 they wouldn’t have had a pick in the draft until the 4th round. Not too smart with us fans “knowing” a rebuild was under way. Adding Hamilton would have delayed the rebuild even more causing the 2016 picks to move up (maybe resulting in AZ not making the trade meaning the team would have only landed one of Cholo or Hronek or neither). I’d wager that Razzy would still have been on the board a place or two higher in the draft though. Just saying.