Former Red Wings GM Ken Holland will be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame on Monday in Toronto, and he spoke with the Toronto Sun’s Steve Simmons about the honor:
“This all feels so surreal,” said Holland in a lengthy telephone conversation. “I was a guy who barely made it. I was a minor-league player. And I had a job at the liquor store in Vernon, B.C., when my career ended and Jimmy Devellano and Neil Smith called and offered me a job as the western Canadian junior scout for the Wings. Bill Dineen (his AHL coach) had recommended me. I’d never scouted before.
“Neil had to come out and show me. He showed me where the scout’s entrance was in buildings, where the scouting room was where you picked up the lineups. I didn’t know a thing.”
But he just kept going to work, driving the prairies through snowstorms. That sounds like a cliche, but anyone who has made those treks understands the challenge.
“You go to work every day, and you keep looking for players and then you get a better job and you to work and you’re still trying to find players. And one day turns into a week and a week turns into a month and a month turns into a year and then, one day, you get a call from Lanny McDonald (a former Medicine Hat Tiger himself) telling you you’re going to the Hall of Fame. It’s surreal. It’s more than surreal. I’m very honoured. I’m overwhelmed, really. The Hall of Fame has never been on my radar screen. I still can’t believe this is happening.”
