Abel to Yzerman

Abel to Yzerman

It's Monday and Ken Holland Still Has a Job

04/24/2017 at 10:43am EDT

It doesn't appear that George pointed you to this over the weekend, so I will (sorry, George, if you posted and I missed it).

Wojo wrote a column Friday that points out the various reasons (Ken Holland) that the Red Wings seem to be stuck between gears. The article discusses the Wings and Pistons and shows the disgusting similarity between the two poorly-managed franchises.

How's it feel missing the playoffs?

It’s an empty feeling, a strange feeling, and you never want to experience it again.

Piston fans will definitely experience it again.

Unfortunately, we probably will too. Why?

Because Ken Holland is still the general manager. I had a fantasy yesterday that he would be fired today and no odds as of yet at Bet365, but it is early. Did I say "yesterday"? I meant every day.

A few snippets from Wojo and my reaction...

The issues for both are similar and not easily fixed. Young players regressed for various reasons...

Ken Holland hired Nice Mike Babcock just like he hired Nice Scotty Bowman and the results speak for themselves. Fire Ken Holland ASAP.

Holland overvalued his own players, believed his core would improve with experience, and was slow to react when it didn’t happen. Because of that, he feels the heat entering the final year of his contract.

True. I have a solution: Fire Ken Holland. ASAP.

Wings owner Chris Ilitch expressed “100 percent confidence” in Holland, who in turn pledged support for coach Jeff Blashill.

He sure did. In his first real move since his dad passed, Christopher guaranteed that he, on the surface of things, has no idea what the hell he's doing. If he wants to change my opinion on that, he should fire Ken Holland as soon as possible and then Steve Yzerman should fire Jeff Blashill.

Cumbersome contracts and underperforming players hamper their flexibility. Do the Wings need a shakeup, now that their 25-year playoff streak is over?

Cumbersome contracts that are directly the fault of Ken Holland, not his team of advisors. Not Ryan Martin, not Kris Draper. Not a posse. Holland's fault. Yes, the Wings need a shake-up. It should start with Ken Holland, who needs to be fired ASAP.

Holland must get bolder, more creative. With so many players on bloated contracts — due to Holland’s miscalculations — it’ll be difficult to make trades. That means he might have to take a risk and deal one of the promising youngsters — Dylan Larkin, Anthony Mantha, Andreas Athanasiou — for a much-needed defenseman in a value-for-value blockbuster.

That's cute. Tell me one time Ken Holland has been "bold" or "creative." One time. We are now in a position where a pretty smart guy is pointing out that in order to get a quality defenseman, we'd have to trade one or a few of our only truly quality, young players. Not Nyquist or Tatar, or any of the golden children some claim are "ripening", but Mantha, Larkin or Double A.

“Would I like to shuffle the deck? Would I like to make some changes? Yeah, I would,” Holland said. “In order to shuffle the deck, you gotta have a partner."

I've given this a lot of thought. Trades are hard for Ken Holland. Trading people is part of a GM's job. Any GM who finds trading players to be too hard should be fired immediately.

...the Pistons and Wings have arrived at the same spot, soon to be in the same arena. The atmosphere will change, but if they want to be back in the spotlight next April, the thinking at the top has to change too.

The mere fact that the Red Wings and Pistons are mentioned in the same article, much less on the same day, is reason enough to fire someone really soon. Somebody needs to be fired. Excused. Relieved. Shitcanned. Promoted to a harmless job with lots of money and time and zero responsibility.

Ken Holland has ruined this organization.

It's time for Chris Illitch to be "bold" and "creative" and "logical" and "not a dumbass".

Fire Ken Holland ASAP.

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Welcome to Abel to Yzerman, a Red Wing blog since 1977. No other site on the internet has better-researched, fact-laden and better prepared discussions than A2Y. Re-phrase: we do little research, find facts and stats highly overrated and claim little to no preparation. There are 19 readers of A2Y. No more, no less. All of them, except maybe one, are juvenile in nature. Reminding them of that in the comment section will only encourage them to prove that.

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