Ken Holland
Kenneth Mark Holland ( born November 10, 1955 in Vernon, British Columbia) is a former Canadian professional ice hockey goaltender and is currently general manager of the Detroit Red Wings in the National Hockey League.
Career as a player
Ken Holland plays from 1974 in the Canadian Junior Football League WCHL with the Medicine Hat Tigers and was selected by the Toronto Maple Leafs in the twelfth round at position 188 in the NHL Amateur Draft 1975. After another year in the WCHL he moved to the Binghamton Dusters, the farm team of the Maple Leafs, in the North American Hockey League.
After a year, the team joined the AHL and the Netherlands also remained with the team, even if he hardly had a chance to move into the NHL squad the Leafs. This hopeless situation meant that he moved to the Springfield Indians in 1979 within the AHL, where he remained one year.
In 1980 he was awarded a NHL contract with the Hartford Whalers, but even there he spent most of the AHL farm team, the Binghamton Whalers. One time he was in the 1980/81 season for Hartford in the NHL on the ice, but conceded seven goals, which is why he was not appointed to the NHL squad. After all, he could shine in the AHL now and again and was elected in 1982 to the Second All-Star Team.
In 1983 he signed a contract with the Detroit Red Wings, and even there he was first sent to the farm team for the Adirondack Red Wings. But at least three times he was allowed to play in the NHL, but could not convince.
In 1985, he finally ended his career.
Career as General Manager
Holland received shortly after the end of his playing career a job as a talent scout for the Detroit Red Wings and was responsible for the western part of Canada. After a few years he was promoted to Director of Amateur Scout and was thus the most important man in the Red Wings when it came to the NHL Entry Draft. Under his leadership were young talents such as Vyacheslav Kozlov, Chris Osgood, Darren McCarty and Martin Lapointe promoted.
1994 Holland was appointed General Manager Jim Devellano wizard. After three years in this position he rose to the very top, and took over the post of General Manager. In his first year, the Red Wings were the Stanley Cup win and Holland slowly made a name for himself as one of the top managers in the league.
Great respect and recognition came in March 1999 when he was able to undertake in the remaining 24 hours before the closure of the transfer market, Chris Chelios, Ulf Samuelsson, Wendel Clark and Bill Ranford. While the Red Wings eliminated relatively early in the playoffs, but Holland had so firmly established in the NHL.
Holland brought his negotiating skills in the summer of 2001 again and landed within a few months four sensational obligations of NHL veterans. In May, he committed Fredrik Olausson, on July 1, he sent Slava Kozlov along with a first-round draft pick to the Buffalo Sabres and got Star goalie Dominik Hasek. The next day he was able to give the commitment of Luc Robitaille known and in August he won with Brett Hull one of the best strikers in the nineties the team. These decisions should be immediately crowned with success, and the Red Wings won the Stanley Cup in 2002.
After the departure of goalie Dominik Hasek in the summer of 2002, Holland did not hesitate and agreed with Curtis Joseph again a star goalkeeper. Moreover, he could see the oldies Igor Larionov and Chris Chelios to bring to sign a new contract.
After the failure of the 2004/05 season were to difficult decisions for the Red Wings and specifically for Ken Holland. The introduction of a salary cap had the team that consisted of many high-class, but also highly paid players, get rid of some players. Derian Hatcher, Ray Whitney and Darren McCarty got their contracts paid the expensive goalkeeper Curtis Joseph and Dominik Hasek, who had since returned to Detroit, did not receive any new contracts. Instead, they had chosen with Manny Legace, who was for some time as a substitute goalkeeper on the team and Chris Osgood, who had been brought back to Detroit after four years, for a much cheaper option. Despite the retirements and thanks to the skilful conversion work in a team, Ken Holland, the Red Wings could play a very successful season and took first place in the league after the regular season.
In summer 2006, Holland made for a surprise when he won the 41 -year-old Dominik Hasek as goalkeeper back into the team. Hašek was previously noticed in the years particularly because of his injuries, which is why Holland reaped for the obligation of Czechs criticism. However, Hašek was spared from injury and was the 2006/ 07 one of the best goalkeepers in the league. Holland had Hašek only given a salary of $ 600,000 plus performance bonuses, which he had finally got a good deal and a low risk had been received.
In the 2007 /08 season, the Detroit Red Wings won the third Stanley Cup with Holland as General Manager. A few weeks after the triumph he was also another success on the player market than he could Marián Hossa commit, who signed a one- year contract for $ 7.4 million, even though it were made available to more lucrative and longer-term deals.
Ken Holland is known for its sense of rebuilding a team, but still always get a core team. So he could keep the team who served as mentors for young players like Henrik Zetterberg, Niklas Kronwall and Pavel Datsyuk for a long time veteran, Brendan Shanahan, Nicklas Lidstrom and Steve Yzerman. So the team remained for a competitive, on the other hand, the young players were able to develop in the shadow of the stars. Other properties that have made him one of the best managers in the NHL, are his quick action when it comes to commitments and his aggressive negotiation strategies that are often crowned with success.
Private
Ken Holland and his wife Cindi four children together - Brad, Julie, Rachel and Greg. He lives in a Detroit suburb and is a passionate golfer.