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Holland Interview on Red & White Authority Holland reiterates that the team is currently focused on building out with youth, but also emphasizes that veterans are still important, basically says: Can't just throw a buncha kids on the ice and expect them to have it all figured out on their own 4 years later. Young players need examples/mentors/leaders. They talk about the many puck-moving D-men in this draft. Holland states the Red Wings need this, but he also doesn't want a team of all 5'10" puck movers. He says we also need some, and this is the exact quote from Ken, "Trees" that can take on the bigger forwards in the league. Ken expects to take 2-3 D-men in the first 3 rounds (we have 7 picks in the first 3 rounds total) I thought this was kinda telling, because Holland kept mentioning it without really being asked. He says the Wings have an abundance of wingers they like in the system, but that if a good winger becomes available (someone who he thinks can net 30 goals and 60-70 pts a season) he's going to take him. Really gave me the impression that the Wings have their eye on a particular winger. Holland is expecting 1, maybe 2, young Dmen to make the team next year (Hicketts, Cholowski, Hronek, Sulak, or our 2018 1st rounder) They talk about Michael Rasmussen's personality and injury this season. They joke about how serious Rasmussen is about his profession, and about how he's so serious that he doesn't laugh. Holland says his personality and leadership was a real part of why the Wings liked him at the draft. Apparently Ras had the option to wait to do his surgery in the summer, but instead wanted to do it immediately this season so that he could rehab before the WHL playoff run and so he would be 100% ready for off-season training in which he intends to train to become a Red Wing. If Tri-City gets eliminated in the playoffs Ras will go immediately to GR to be the second line center according to Holland per Todd Nelson. Horcoff has been working closely with Cholowski to get him stonger. Dennis has added 20 lbs of muscle since we drafted him. Sounds like Holland really likes Ty Bertuzzi. Says 2uzzi has always gone deep in the playoffs wherever he's been and has never had a full summer to really put strength and weight on. That's what motivated the Red Wings to keep him off the Griffins playoff run this year. Blashill made the decision on Torchetti. Wings want to be better at special teams and Blashill wants to try something different on the PP. Holland is handing more responsibilities to Ryan Martin. Once the personnel market shakes out this summer, Holland would consider bringing on another assistant GM, specifically someone who has past experience as a head GM or assistant GM. Holland says Blashill is a young coach still learning everyday, but is a better coach today than when he took over the team. In regards to FA this season, Holland says some guys will be back, some guys won't (bye bye Green??) and will be replaced by younger players. He's hoping to have more cap flexibility next season.

If the Blackhawks or Habs win the draft lottery, imma throw up. Habs don't deserve jack s*** after trading away the likes of Subban and Sergachev in favor of an older, slower, defensive blueline. Edit: the Oilers winning would also be pretty gross at this point

The worst part is you'll know the top 3 long before they're annpunced. So if I don't see detroit I know they get a top 3 pick. Otherwise I break my tv cause we end up in like 8th spot

I'm more impressed by your ability to bullet point the hell out of this interview. Clearly you didn't do s*** at work today.

The fate of an elite franchise Swedish defenseman will be decided today. Today is Lidstrom's birthday... Coincidence? I don't think so...

A 1st round pick for a 13th forward. Good job Ken.

Since game 2 of the first he hasn't even been a top 12 performer

One happy Red wings fan, we are now promoted to the top Pool for next year's World Champs, first time in 24 years, hope we fair better than last time.

Cholowski looked good for his 2nd ever pro game, first ever pro playoff game. The thing that always impresses me with this kid, is his poise with the puck, he never seems to get rattled under pressure. He got some power-play time at the end of the game, and looked good out there. The thing I didn't like, was he seemed reluctant to shoot the puck, always deferring, even with a grade A opportunity. I hope that's just nerves, and he becomes more willing to throw pucks at the net. He did make a couple untimely pinches at the blueline. One that caused the Moose' 4th (game winning) goal. Overall, I think he played a good game, and although I doubt he'll play game 5, he'll likely get another look next round, if they win Monday night. I agree on Foote. He looks like he's going to be a good one for sure. I'd give up quite a bit to get him in Detroit.

We need to hope all teams ahead of us in the standings get announced in reverse order 15-6. As soon as a team doesn't get announced, we know they have jumped into the top 3, which decreases our chances of jumping up and increases our chances of falling back. Each time a team is selected in the correct order, it increases our chances of a top 3 pick. But as soon as one team is skipped over, it drastically decreases our chances of a top 3 pick. If we haven't been selected by the time the 5th pick is announced, we know we're picking in the top 3. If three teams don't get announced before they get to 8, we know we'll be picking 8th... I really have a feeling we're jumping up today...

Eichel's a really good 1C. I'm not sold on Ristolainen. So I'd be giving up on the most promising teenage defenseman in decades for a really good 1C and an I-don't-know defenseman. My name is Peter Chiarelli. Don't overthink this. You keep the prospect with the blank check potential. There will always be an Eichel and a Ristolainen available. It's taken decades for a Dahlin to emerge. Is Dahlin guaranteed to become a perennial Norris finalist? No. But he's as close to being a sure thing as teenage defensemen get.

He's definitely saying the right things (in my opinion) and the talk about Rasmussen/Cholowski is equally as good to hear. Hopefully we can walk the walk now and take some solid steps forward.

This is the type of stuff I wanted to hear from him last year once the playoff streak ended, but i'll take it.

Oh yeah, don’t get me wrong, I’d love Grubauer or another younger guy with future starter potential.. but I don’t think we’ll find one cheap enough tradewise (or in free agency at all) to make sense. Would love to be wrong on that of course, but a cheap one year backup is the route I think we’ll go.

I forgot all about David Pope. It seems he has had a nice little college career, good on him for wanting to finish his college off and "walk" in graduation with his friends. That is something that can never be replaced. I hope he signs a contract, but would he really have a legit shot at making the club? Or would he just turn into another 20-something career AHL'r with a few call ups here and there? I hope he doesn't become a UFA and sign with another team and then becomes good. Let's at least give him a contract and see if he can be good for us first.

First try. Keeping the dream alive!

Statistically, it's the most likely scenario... There's a 65.5% chance we move back to 6 (34.5%), 7 (26.7%), or 8 (4.3%)... There's only a 26.1% chance we move up to 3 (8.9%), 2 (8.7%), or 1 (8.5%), and an 8.4% chance we stay at 5... F*** the stats though! We're moving up into the top 3!

The fundamental problem here is that the Wings' system is extremely low on players with really substantial trade value. (Another way of saying we don't have enough high-end talent.) This means that in addition to our trade options being incredibly limited, any big trades that we could pull off probably wouldn't do much for us -- and, indeed, could easily hurt us. Trade Larkin for a stud defenseman and now we're in need of a stud centerman, with only one other high-end centerman in the system (Rasmussen) and with no guarantee that the stud defenseman we're getting is going to work out for us the way we're hoping he will. Trade Mantha for a stud defenseman and now we're in need of a stud scoring winger, with essentially zero comparable wingers in the system and, again, with no guarantee that the stud defenseman is going to be a stud for us. Trade Svechnikov and you're not even getting a 1st-round pick in return. Nyquist might get us a 1st at next season's trade deadline. Trade Hronek or Cholowski and you're giving up one of our top two D prospects. This is why I'm so excited about the next couple of drafts. The Wings have learned to scrape by in drought conditions, but now they're finally in for some heavy rain. 21(+) picks across two very deep drafts means a hell of a lot more to the Wings than it would to most other organizations. The 2018 draft alone could totally reshape our talent pool. We could double the number of Rasmussen/Cholowski/Hronek-tier prospects in our system practically overnight.

Right. There's the rub again. AA + late 1st for a quality defenseman sounds reasonable enough...but when you start combing through organizations' depth charts and you consider the way GMs are fetishizing young defensemen, there are exceedingly few realistic matches that would clearly justify moving AA and the late 1st, i.e. we're probably not getting a solid top-four defenseman or a defense prospect who's more promising than Hronek or Cholowski are right now. At best, we're probably looking at a lateral move, a wash. It's kinda depressing, but it's safe to say it's the reality. Middle-six winger with an ego who can't win board battles and is bad defensively and will probably end up in the KHL + late 1st just doesn't get you much these days. Then again, Marc Bergevin and Peter Chiarelli are GMs. Don't stop believing.

The only thing that ever made me watch the WWE.

Kovalchuk - Jagr - Vanek Let's make it happen in '08!

Since Ras plays in my area and I've gotten to watch him a few times, I posted earlier this season that I thought the kid really had the potential to be a beastly dominant player but the points weren't showing that. He really knows how to use his size and reach to his advantage. I didn't know why the points weren't coming in even stronger for him, but I guess now we can probably chalk it up to his injury and him most likely rehabbing it and looking out for his health all season. Now that he's in the playoffs he's absolutely flipped the switch and gone full Franzen-postseason beast mode. Super happy for him, I knew he could turn it on. He may really be on this team next year.

Rasmussen having a solid playoff I can’t wait to see how far he’s come next training camp/preseason.