If Ken Holland had to decide today, it certainly sounds like he'd bring back Jeff Blashill for a fifth season behind the Red Wings' bench.
Blashill, whose contract expires after this season, hasn't been able to stop Detroit's inevitable decline the past few years, but Holland likes how he's helped develop a new core of young players.
"I think he's done a great job," Holland said on Monday. "It's hard to think that anybody's done a great job when you see where we are in the standings, but he's playing our young players, lots of the young players have improved under his watch. When I see our team go out on the power play late in the game it's lots of young players, so the young players have grown under his watch.
"I'm also big on experience, and it's his fourth year in the NHL. There's no doubt he's a better coach today than he was four years ago, just by the experience of getting to know the NHL and the types of players it takes to play at this level and the way you want to build a team. I'll sit down wth him, but I think he's done a real good job."
That meeting will take place sometime before the end of the season, Holland said.
The Red Wings sit in second to last place in the East with 55 points through 63 games, putting them on pace for their worst finish since the 1989-90 season. But players like Dylan Larkin, Andreas Athanasiou and Tyler Bertuzzi have taken significant steps forward this year.
Larkin, in particular, looks like a centerpiece for years to come. That owes in large part to Blashill, who's pushed Larkin the past couple seasons to become a more complete player. The 22-year-old center has 61 points in 62 games this season while playing against the opposition's top line every night.
Despite the Red Wings' position in the standings, they've been more consistently competitive than they were last season. They play a fast game and have shown the ability to keep up with in any team in the league.
Injuries have hurt them on the blue line, especially at the start of the season when Blashill was forced to play a handful of rookies. When healthy, they've looked like a team moving in the right direction.
All of this is part of Holland's positive evaluation of Blashill, who said earlier this month his status for next year isn't on his mind.
"I don't think there's a day in coaching, especially at these levels, where you're not coaching for your job, regardless of your contract status. Contracts give you financial security, but in this league they don't give you job security. That's the reality, so everyday you're coaching to do the very best you can," Blashill said. "My approach stays the same no matter what my contract status is.
"The best thing I can do in the seat that I sit in is continue to help our individual players become closest to their potential as humanly possible, and in a lot of cases that's our younger players. ... I think the best way to increase the ceiling of your team is to improve the individual players you have, and certainly with a number of young players it gives you a chance to maybe push that ceiling real high because of the fact that there's lots of potential."
As for his own future, the 63-year-old Holland isn't concerned. There's been talk that Steve Yzerman, who stepped down as GM of the Lighting prior to this season to return to his home in Detroit, could replace him, but that's neither in Holland's control nor on his mind.
He has one year left on the extension he signed at the end of last season, and he's focused on how he can further the rebuild -- not whether or not he'll be around to see it through.
"To tell you the honest truth -- I understand why you guys are worried about it -- I don't really worry about it. I'm in a good place with my career, with my life," Holland said. "I've been here since 1983, and all I'm concerned about is making moves (to help) this franchise win another Stanley Cup or to compete to be banging away. I think things that we've done last year and this year are going to be pieces of that puzzle, but there are more pieces that need to happen.
"I'm not worried about my future, my wife's not worried about my future. I'm in a good place no matter what happens."
Holland said his intention next season is for the Red Wings to compete for a playoff spot. Of course, that was his intention this season, too. He takes the blame for the team falling short.
"I'm disappointed that it hasn't happened, and that's on me. I need to figure out a way to make the team better," said Holland. "But at the end of the day, the priority for me is to build the team through the draft, with young people, and I'm trying to put the young people in the organization here in the last couple months in situations we think are best for them to prepare them for September of 2019."
Assuming Holland's still around come September, it's a safe bet Blashill will be as well.
