What’s Ken Holland’s Legacy?

There’s just one teensy little problem with this, though. Being sellers at the deadline means admitting the team’s playoff chances are dead, which in turn means their prestigious twenty-five year playoff streak comes to an end.

For Ken Holland, keeping this playoff streak alive is everything. It’s part his legacy as general manager of the Detroit Red Wings.

Let’s talk first about his loyalty. The list goes on of players who spent their entire careers in Detroit. And it’s not just elite talent, either. Kris Draper, Kirk Maltby, Tomas Holmstrom, Danny Cleary are some bottom-6 names that Holland was responsible for keeping around their entire careers. And the loyalty didn’t end with their retirement. Most of these guys are still with the organization in one way or another.

So really, Holland hasn’t changed much since the glory days in the sense that he’s still incredibly loyal to his support talent. But back then, they all had an elite-level player to support. First it was Steve Yzerman, then Nick Lidstrom, and finally Pavel Datstyuk. These guys carried the teams they were on and elevated their teammates. Justin Abdelkader is someone who is really starting to feel the pressure now that he doesn’t have Datsyuk to prop him up.

This is where the playoff streak is really starting to hurt the Red Wings. Because they fall so low in the draft order every year, all they do is pick support talent. Their highest pick at the NHL Draft in the last twenty five years was Dylan Larkin at fifteenth overall and, while he showed glimmers of greatness last season, I’m not sure Larkin is elite. Gone are the days where the Red Wings are drafting Datsyuks and Zetterbergs in the sixth and seventh rounds of the drafts. Scouting around the league has gotten to be too good.

Without these late-round gems, Holland has run out of options to build the team around, which makes it harder and harder for them to make the playoffs every year.  That doesn’t stop them from trying, though. Last year, the Red Wings backed into the playoffs after losing their final two regular season games. This year, they’ll need a miracle run to make it. The wise thing to do would be to plan for the long-term health of the club by selling the pending UFAs, ridding themselves of some of the contracts weighing them down, and collecting assets for a rebuild.

But Ken Holland won’t do that because the short-term success of this team is more important to him. Holland’s got one season left on his contract and then he’s likely out. The playoff streak is one of the bigger parts of his legacy as GM of the Red Wings. He doesn’t want his last seasons in the position to be remembered as the ones where the streak died and the team fell to last place. He wants to be remembered as the guy who kept the team so competitive during his tenure as GM that they never fell out of the playoffs.

But here’s what I never understood about the playoff streak. What’s the point of competing when you know you’re not good enough to win the Stanley Cup? The Red Wings made a first round exit in each of the last three seasons, winning a total of five games. I would rather see them acquire picks and prospects along the way even if it meant missing a year or two of postseason action. They’d be in a healthier place now, likely ready to compete.

Plus, Ken Holland’s legacy isn’t going to be tarnished by missing the postseason once or twice. He led the team to three Stanley Cups, ten Central Division titles, five regular season Conference titles and four President’s Trophies. He’ll be remembered as the GM who assembled The Avengers of hockey teams in 2002 by adding Brett Hull, Luc Robitaille, and Dominic Hasek to his already star-studded roster. And, of course, he’ll be remembered for the loyalty he showed to his players and coaches.

Holland was one of the best GM’s in the league in the pre-cap era and he’ll be remembered as such. Unfortunately, he hasn’t been able to adapt to the new way of managing a team in the NHL. Contract extensions and high AAVs will be weighing down this team’s salary cap for many years.

Fortunately for Ken Holland, that will be someone else’s problem.