from Ansar Khan of Mlive,
The Red Wings could have waited to see how Mrazek played until the end of the season before deciding whether to make him a $4 million qualifying offer. But Holland said a decision needed to be made Monday, when the Philadelphia Flyers, whose top two goaltenders (Brian Elliott and Michal Neuvirth) are out for an extended time with injuries, came calling.
"I'm not sure what's going to happen in the next 25 games," Holland said. "I don't have a crystal ball. I can't read the future as to how everyone is going to play, but certainly at this stage, right now, Petr is playing very well. Certainly, that will be part of the reason why Philadelphia had interest and we made the decision to acquire a draft pick.
"Could I have waited three, four, five more days? I guess, but (Flyers GM) Ron Hextall) told me that he wanted to acquire a goaltender yesterday. I can't wait until Saturday or Sunday."...
Asked about why Mrazek's play had declined the past two years, despite the recent surge, Holland said: "Certainly, I've got ideas. Sometimes I've got ideas I think about certain situations I can't tell you people. I don't think it's fair to all the people involved. I like Petr. I think this summer he really dug in. He understood that he was in competition with Jimmy Howard coming into this season. Certainly, when we signed him two years ago, the thought, the plan, the hope was that he was going to take this team over and play 60 games a year and we were going to go on that direction."
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