By Jeff Moss
March 2, 2012
DetroitSportsRag@gmail.com 

I am not going to lie to you.  Being a fan of the Detroit Red Wings was A LOT more fun prior to 2005 when Gary the Actor, errr, I mean Bettman, instituted a hard salary cap which lowered the team’s total salary by about TWENTY MILLION dollars.

With the introduction of the airtight wage ceiling, the Wings no longer co…uld go out and sign the pick of the free-agent litter in July nor could the franchise make multiple February trade deadline moves due to the new restraining CBA.

So dates like July 1st and February 26th, which in the past were almost national holidays for Wings fans, became just random days on the calendar where we were once again reminded that the days of $80 million payrolls and the additions of three Hall of Famers (Luc Robitaille, Brett Hull and Dominik Hasek) in ONE offseason were never going to occur again.

And because Ken Holland and Company have spent the last six years operating on a budget like some sort of fixed income septuagenarians at Del Boca Vista, I was extremely excited last summer when the team was going to actually have some cash to throw around at potential UFAs.

Heading into the offseason after another crushing defeat at the hands of the San Jose Sharks in the second round was made a little more palatable by the unprecedented salary cap space the team was about to enjoy for the first time since the NHL’s new austerity program commenced.

Would Detroit add a top six forward to the roster to compliment Pavel Datsyuk, Henrik Zetterberg and Johan Franzen?

Maybe Holland could pluck a potential Top 4 defenseman from the rival Canucks and ink “Goyim” Ehrhoff or Kevin Bieksa to solidify the Wings blueline.

I didn’t have any Brad Richards delusions of grandeur, but I figured the Original 6 team would be in the mix for ONE of the upper echelon free-agents on the market.

When the summer ended and the Wings reported to Traverse City for training camp, the organization had made a lateral signing for Ian White (a cost effective replacement for Brian Ralfalski), re-signed the human turnover (Jonathon Ericsson) for a ridiculous sum of money and added spare part defenseman, Mike Intellivision.

The acquisitions were anything but awe-inspiring, but I didn’t freak out because the Wings were still $5 million under the cap heading into the season.  Meaning, if the team could hang around with the elite of the Western Conference until the trade deadline, Holland would have the equivalent of $50,000 to spend at a Tijuana whorehouse.

And the plan was coming together perfectly as the Wings approached the deadline stretch with the most points in the league.   Now, all Holland had to do was get a little creative and acquire a couple of pieces to compliment a team that had played very well all season long.

But other than acquiring a #5 defenseman who the team gave up on a few years ago (Kyle Quincey) in exchange for a first round pick, once again Ken Holland failed to add a difference maker who could play on his team’s top two lines.

So basically, a franchise whose pre-cap spending led to the prohibitive limits we don’t enjoy today ended up with nearly $5 million of cap space while being outspent by such notorious spendthrifts like the Columbus Blue Jackets, Tampa Bay Lightning and Calgary Flames.

I mean, ending the year FIVE MILLION DOLLARS under the cap for the Wings is the equivalent of showing up in a couple of weeks at your Fantasy Baseball Auction and only spending $200 of the $260 funds you have been allotted.

The only thing missing from Holland’s embarrassing failure at the deadline to spend the cash he had at his disposal was to make a $42 bid for Yunel Escobar at 2:59 pm on Monday.

So, as I am wont to do, I went on Twitter Monday afternoon and started ridiculing Holland’s anemic deadline performance which I soon discovered is about the same as walking into the Sistine Chapel and going all Sinead O’Connor on the Pope.

The jackass (Jamie Samuelsen) who once suggested that Ken Holland should replace Matt Millen as the DETROIT LIONS GENERAL MANAGER tweeted: “Fans should never have blind loyalty. But if there’s one guy who’s earned the benefit of the doubt – it’s Ken Holland.”

Now, I am not about to go on a full-out diatribe to convince you that Holland is a bad executive because he clearly is more than capable.  But the man is not a god.   He isn’t flawless and the real truth of the matter is he is EXTREMELY LUCKY to employ one of the greatest scouts in the history of professional team sports.

If you really want to know why the Wings have been among the upper echelon of the NHL for twenty seasons it can be mainly explained by the following three things:

1)      The selection of Steve Yzerman in 1983 when their intended target (Pat LaFontaine) was picked right before it was the Red Wings turn.

2)      The 1989 Entry Draft when European scout Christer Rockström helped the team select Nicklas Lidstrom, Sergei Fedorov and Vladmir Konstantinov.

(If the DSR was as technically advanced as Grantland.com I would add a footnote here that the Wings were three picks away from selecting Pavel Bure in the sixth round of the ‘89 draft, but instead had to settle for Dallas Drake.  I puke in my mouth whenever I am reminded of this.)

3)      The insane work of Rockström’s replacement, Hakan Andersson, who has largely been responsible for discovering Tomas Holmstrom, Pavel Datsyuk, Henrik Zetterberg, Johan Franzen, Niklas Kronwall, Jirí Hudler, and Valtteri Filppula among others in the last 22 years.

Seriously, if you removed just some of the players that Andersson unearthed in Europe from the current Detroit roster you might have the current Detroit Pistons talent level.

And I know what you are saying.  But, Moss, Holland is the GM so doesn’t he get credit for delegating properly and utilizing Andersson’s talents?

I guess you COULD make THAT case if it was Holland who hired Andersson in the first place, but that isn’t the reality.  Andersson has been the team’s chief Euro scout since 1990.  Holland didn’t even get the GM gig until 1997!!!!

As a matter of fact, when Rockström left Detroit for a higher paying job with the Rangers it was Rockström who suggested the team replace him with Andersson.

To this day, Holland continues to enjoy the benefit of decisions that were made when he was still a lowly Western Canadian scout for the Wings.

How much credit should I give Ken Holland for drafting Pavel Datsyuk? I mean, Andersson was the ONLY scout who had ever seen him play before his draft year.  I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say if Håkan Andersson was the head Euro scout for the Toronto Maple Leafs, Datsyuk, Zetterberg and Franzen would be on the Leafs and their fans wouldn’t currently be planning  a Jim Jones-esque mass suicide at the Air Canada Centre.

To say that Ken Holland is the answer to why the Wings have sustained their supremacy for three decades would be like stating that Kevin Pollack’s character in “Casino” was the reason the Tangiers Casino flourished.

Seriously, in the last decade or so the Wings have basically lived on their European sleepers while Holland and Jim Nill have been mainly responsible for selecting third-liners (Darren Helm, Justin Abdelkader, Cory Emmerton) or total busts (Landon Ferraro.)

I mean, inheriting Lidstrom and being gifted Datsyuk and Zetterberg is like going on Wheel of Fortune, reaching the final puzzle and getting the R, S, T, L, N and E handed to you with the answer being “Steelers.”  YOU BETTER WIN THE $25,000 PRIZE OR YOU ARE A FUCKING RETARD.

Look, this is a team that in the last two seasons wasn’t good enough to beat a San Jose team that wasn’t even in the same class as the eventual winners of the Clarence S. Campbell bowl.

And even though the Sharks dispatched of the Wings in the last two seasons, San Jose didn’t feel like they could remain complacent entering the 2011-2 season.

While Holland twiddled his thumbs, Doug Wilson moved Dany Heatley and Devin Setoguchi for Brett Burns and Martin Havlat among other tweaking of a roster that couldn’t get past Chicago or Vancouver in the last two WCFs.

I have a feeling that the Wings long home winning streak(*) has distracted the fan base from the simple fact that this is basically the same team that couldn’t get out of the second round in the last two seasons and who just sat on their hands with EIGHT PERCENT of their cap space still available.

Oh, and did I mention that the Western Conference is tougher than ever and the Canucks and Predators both made moves to improve themselves at the deadline?!?!

And I love this conventional wisdom that if there was a trade to be made that Holland would have made it.  Umm, there are 29 other teams in the league and you’re telling me there wasn’t ONE deal to be made with all of those possibilities?

My favorite post-deadline quote from Holland after his abject failure was the one where he claimed recalling Brendan Smith from Grand Rapids was just like making a trade.  Uh, no, calling up Smith was just like adding a guy who may or may not be ready for his first postseason.

Fuck, why didn’t Holland also recall Tomas Tatar and Gustav Nyquist and declare that he basically just received the Eric Lindros to Quebec haul?

And it isn’t like the team’s window is slowly closing with their best defenseman inching closer to AARP eligibility while Datsyuk is entering the age where most centers start heading downhill.  Oh wait…

It is totally inexcusable that Holland had eight months to substantially improve this team and he came up with bupkis.  Or maybe I am just being too rough on Kenny.  It is possible that he has a trick up his sleeve that none of us know about.

Maybe, just maybe, Håkan Andersson will deliver the team an NHL ready Teemu Pulkkinen or Calle Jarnkrok on the eve of the postseason thus saving the day once again for his boss.

It sure as hell wouldn’t be the first time.