A trade deadline that began with a flourish for the Red Wings ended with a (predictable) fizzle. After dealing Nick Jensen and Gustav Nyquist for multiple draft picks over the weekend, general Ken Holland was quiet on Monday.
Not true, said Holland. Not even close.
Asked during an appearance on the Jamie and Stoney Show on 97.1 The Ticket whether he had any moves in place that were cut off by no-trade clauses, Holland said, "No. I’m tired of the question. No. Gus Nyquist had a no-trade clause. What a no-trade clause really means at the end of the day -- not 100 percent of the time -- is that the player is ultimately involved in the final decision of where he’s going to go. Nobody wants to stay where they’re not wanted. So the answer is no, it’s a loud no. It’s a loud no."
Holland granted both Vanek and Green full no-trade clauses when he re-signed them last offseason, a decision that indeed seemed odd. Asked about it at the time, he said it was a necessary step in negotiations. And he's done addressing it now.
"Don’t ask the question anymore. Does one out of 15 or one out of 20 come into play? Yeah, I think that's probably right, but for the most part, no. No, it doesn’t. What a no-trade clause does, in my opinion, is that when it comes time in that player's career that he’s no longer of use to you and some other teams want him, he can be involved in the process.
"They never called me," Holland said of Columbus.
For the most part, Holland was shopping his pending unrestricted free agents. He said he considered trading players signed beyond this season, but didn't want to dismantle the roster for next season when he hopes the Red Wings can get back in the playoff picture.
"We have to field a team in 2019-20. It's great to keep moving players out, but then you have to go on the open market and you either overpay on July 1 in terms of years or dollars," Holland said. "We’re working our way where we have lots of veteran players, many of them have one, maybe two years to go. It’s important as we move young players onto the team that we have a veteran presence to be role models and mentors and to be competitive.
"This year in the standings we’re not competitive, but I think on a night to night basis we’ve been competitive. And I think that environment has been part of the reason why the Athanasious and the Manthas and the Larkins and the Bertuzzis and Cholowksi and Hronek…are in a positive locker room. You can talk about getting rid of veteran players, but you have to go back on the open market in three months and sign more veteran players."
It's a point on which Holland has held firm since the rebuild began. He's not going to turn the team over entirely to young players. He wants the Red Wings to remain competitive, which means supplementing youth with experience. They might be a long ways off from contending for the Stanley Cup, but getting back into the playoffs is still Holland's most immediate goal.
"There’s stages and steps to go along before you can be the last team standing, and I think that we’re on the path," he said. "I hoped that we could be more competitive in the playoff race this year than we were. That’s on me.
"I believe if we can make some of the right moves here this summer, if we can continue to move young people onto the team and be more competitive and build this team here and compete for a playoff spot -- step one is to get into a playoff series in the very near future so that our young can understand how big the games are in March as you’re trying to qualify for the playoffs. And when you get into a playoff series, how it steps up again, how the pros take it up another level. That’s all part of the learning experience, so it's important here in the next year or two that we quickly get ourselves into a playoff series."