from Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press,

“Our team owner, Marian Ilitch, myself and Ken we are completely aligned on the strategy to build the Detroit Red Wings into Stanley Cup champions,” Ilitch said. “It’s going to be a process. We are all going to need patience. But he has the skill and the experience to lead us through that process again.”

Ilitch and Holland appeared at a press conference together a little more than an hour before the season finale at Little Caesars Arena. Holland said numerous times over the past couple months he was not concerned that he appeared to be a lame-duck manager, and Ilitch iterated the late announcement reflects the closeness between Holland and the Ilitch family.

“We know each other so well, I wasn’t real concerned and I don’t think Ken was real concerned,” Ilitch said. “We thought, geez, you know, it’s getting up towards the end of the season, we ought to tell everybody what we’re thinking of here and what the plan is. We just didn’t have any concern to bring anything out publicly before this time, but it was nothing more than that.”

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Below, watch the FoxSports Detroit crew discuss the Holland extension and the future of the Wings.

added 8:34pm, Watch the full press conference below...