Holland on rebuilding the Red Wings, Babcock's future

Detroit Red Wings GM Ken Holland was on Calgary’s Sportsnet 960 on Friday morning.

On Mike Babcock’s future, and if Holland himself is still engaged and challenged by what’s going on in Detroit:

“Yeah, I’m having fun. I enjoy the challenge. Certainly since 2005 when – there was a time here in Detroit when I took over in ’97 until ‘05 when we had a core of people that were in their prime. Fedorov, Yzerman, Lidstrom. There were 8-10 teams that had a financial - we spent more than other teams. It was a different world.

“Since ’05 obviously we’ve changed our philosophy. We’ve hung onto – I think we traded eight first round draft picks between 1995 and 2005 to acquire guys like Shanahan and Hasek and Chelios and Robert Lang, trying to pursue the Stanley Cup.

“So I’m enjoying the challenge of trying to rebuild the team and be a playoff team. Obviously we haven’t had a lot of success playoff time here the last three years. We’ve won one playoff round in the last three years. It’s part of the reason, I guess, why we made the deals at the deadline.

“Mike Babcock – we’ll address it at the end of the year. We talked a little bit last off-season. I’d like to think that he’s going to stay. I’d like to think that he’s happy. But we just felt that let’s get through the year. It’s an opportunity for him to see our young people in our organization, see where our organization is headed.

“We’ll sit down at the end of the year. I’m hopeful that we’re going to find a solution to keep Mike here because he’s been a big part of – he’s been here for 10 years. We’ve made the playoffs every year. He’s been a big part of it.”

Source: Sportsnet 960/ Transcript: Nichols on Hockey

Nichols on Hockey

Nichols on Hockey

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