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.