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Detroit Red Wings Trade Rumors: If Holland Can Afford Not to Overpay This Year, He Won’t

We like our team.

By now that’s a running joke for our fanbase. Ken Holland stands pat and the local diggers carry the water for him on why it was the right move. Well, it may be time to either take a fresh look at that or to say a national guy is hauling buckets now, as Pierre LeBrun posted in article for ESPN.com today outlining his expectation that a stand-pat for the Wings is as predictable as ever.

The strange thing about the narrative is that last year Holland very clearly didn’t like his team at the trade deadline and did something about it (the long-term wisdom of such a decision is still up for debate, as the jury remains out). This year, it remains to be seen how much we like a team that’s shown in spurts it can hang with the top dogs of the NHL. What Holland lacks in leverage of every other GM knowing he wants a blueliner, he makes up for in holding enough cards right now that his feet aren’t really to the fire in deadline-day negotiations.

The Red Wings have shown that they’re capable of being very good without the high-priced big name guys who are supposed to be on the market and they’ve shown so far that they’re deep enough on the back end where they can afford to take some gambles with prospect-vs-proven dynamics, but that they don’t have to break the bank for a stopgap.

If LeBrun’s sense that the Wings aren’t going to give up their first this year is true, I’d be ready to dust off a few sarcastic “we like our team” comments just for old time’s sake, regardless of whether they do pull the trigger on a guy.

The difference is that this year… we may really truly like our team..

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