Holland Kept Eye To Future While Making Trades
By Ashley Dunkak
@AshleyDunkak
CBS DETROIT - Detroit Red Wings general manager Ken Holland could have made a more dramatic move before Monday's trade deadline. Instead, the organization settled on two trades Holland believes make the team a little better and a little deeper as the Red Wings look to make a long playoff run.
Detroit acquired right wing Erik Cole and defenseman Marek Zidlicky, but the Red Wings did not give up much to get them.
"We're trying to continue to really develop our team going forward so that we don't have to go into a massive rebuild," Holland said on the Stoney and Bill Show on 97.1 The Ticket. "If things don't work out the way we plan and we don't get to the final four, it really costs us a third-round pick in 2016 and a switch of picks, from our second pick to Dallas' third pick in this year's draft and a couple of players we felt were down our depth chart."
Cole comes to the Red Wings from the Dallas Stars, while Detroit picked up Zidlicky from the New Jersey Devils.
"We've talked since last July about a right-shot shooting defenseman that could work on the power play, and we've also tried to get a little bit bigger as we headed into the trade deadline," Holland said. "We've added in Cole ... a big guy that can skate, he's a north-south player, he's going to go to the front of the net, he's having a real good year, he's been playing on the top line in Dallas, or the top six forwards in Dallas for the entire season, he has 18 goals, 15 of them at even strength, and then Marek Zidlicky who's been a real good player ... He's a guy that's been on the power play, played in the Olympics, he's played in the world championships, he's a great guy, he's competitive and he can make a good first pass and work the blue line in the offensive zone.
"So they make our team deeper, and I think they give our team some dimensions, some added dimensions, we didn't have before we acquired them," Holland added.
The Red Wings had reportedly considered trading for Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman Dion Phaneuf, but the move would have been too expensive. Besides the Red Wings not wanting to give up talented young players or high draft picks, Holland said he believes the team looks fairly solid as it stands now.
"Pavel Datsyuk's playing great hockey, he's 36 years of age, [Henrik] Zetterberg's playing great hockey, he's 34, Kronner [Niklas Kronwall]'s playing great hockey, he's 33, but we think that we're right there in a wide-open Eastern Conference," Holland said. "We're as good as any ... Hopefully we can put a playoff run together because we're as good as any, and the whole league is wide open. The 16 teams that make the playoffs, eight good teams are going to lose in the first round of the playoffs. Our team has played real well. We wanted to try to make a move or two ... that we think makes a little bit of a better hockey team."
The NHL trade deadline fell on Monday, same as the deadline for NFL teams to designate franchise players. Holland would not entertain a question on what he would do with Detroit Lions All-Pro defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh were he in the shoes of Lions general manager Martin Mayhew.
"I got enough problems managing the Red Wings," Holland said. "Hopefully they can find a solution."
