Actually I thought Holland had Babcock's back when he was GM. He even said outright that if any player had any problems with Mike to talk to him and if he can't smooth matters out and the player is still unhappy, he will try to trade him. AFAIK, nobody took the offer. Kenny also tried to resign Babcock at a lower bid price but the latter took the better offer and went to Toronto.
When the Franzen issue came out, this is what Kenny said from Edmonton:
Edmonton Oilers general manager Ken Holland
told reporters Wednesday he was not aware Mike Babcock mistreated players during their time with the Detroit Red Wings, responding to recent
accusations of verbal assault from former players Chris Chelios and Johan Franzen.
"I've been a general manager for 22 years," said Holland — who has worked with Scotty Bowman, Dave Lewis, Babcock, Jeff Blashill and now Dave Tippett in his 22 years as an NHL general manager —
via TSN. "At the end of the year, I always do exit interviews. A player not liking the coach, not liking their role, not liking who they’re playing with – I hear that all the time."
“You talk about Johan Franzen, I can't speak for Johan," he added. "And when he came out, he was very clear and said Mike Babcock was a tremendous coach. He doesn’t like him as a person."
Holland, who was with Babcock in Detroit for 10 years before leaving to
take the Edmonton GM job in May, said players' opinions of Babcock varied. He added that while he isn't usually in the locker room when his coaches talk to their teams, he is "aware of everything" as a general manager.
"There's one-on-one meetings and some team meetings. I'm not privy to every word that comes out, but certainly I’m aware of the message," Holland told reporters. "I try to be available to our players through the years... to talk to the players after the season in exit meetings and get to know what's going on. Am I aware that there was some unhappiness? Yeah. But there's always going to be some unhappiness. I don't care what your style is. But some stuff, I'm not aware of."
"Am I aware that there was some unhappiness? Yeah. But there's always going to be some unhappiness. I don't care what your style is. But some stuff, I'm not aware of."
www.sportingnews.com
With regards to superstars moving to other teams, Wayne Gretzky just said in an interview that he wanted to join the Redwings when he found out Edmonton was trading him as a Gordie Howe and Redwings fan growing up but his father dissuaded him so he went to LA.
When the Edmonton Oilers decided to trade Wayne Gretzky in the 1988, his first plan was to engineer a deal with the Detroit Red Wings.
Gretzky told that story on the highly-popular
Spittin’ Chiclets Podcast this week.
“It came down to LA, Detroit, New York and Philly,” Gretzky said on the podcast.
“Then soon it came down to Detroit or Los Angeles. LA had Hollywood, young stars Jimmy Carson and Luc Robitaille, and a chance to help sell the game. Detroit had Steve Yzerman and Detroit was less than a three-hour drive from his hometown of Brantford, Ontario. We had sat down and we decided I was going to Detroit. I remember sitting there going, ‘OK, this is great, I’m going to go play in Detroit.’ I grew up a Red Wings fans with
Gordie Howe and everything that goes with it,” he said. “And my Dad called me and said, ‘Listen, I’ll give you a little advice. There’s only one Gordie Howe, and Detroit’s Detroit. You don’t need to go there. Why don’t you do something different and go to LA?’
Imagine having Yzerman and Gretzky on the same team. Both players were having monster seasons at that time.
