Red Wings' Ken Holland: Game is growing, expansion might be due
Auston Matthews, the projected first overall selection in this month’s NHL draft, learned to play hockey in Arizona. Seth Jones, the fourth overall pick three years ago, grew up in Texas.
Rising stars are blossoming in areas once considered hockey drylands in the U.S. and that feeds into a case for expansion, Red Wings general manager Ken Holland told the Free Press.
“There hasn’t been expansion in 16 years,” Holland said. “We’ve now got a talent pool where USA hockey, Canadian hockey and European hockey have done a great job of developing more players.”
On June 22, the NHL’s Board of Governors is expected to vote, pending recommendation from the league’s executive committee, on whether to expand in 2017 by one team, two teams or not at all. The league could also wait a year before voting again. Popular thought is that Las Vegas will have a franchise for the 2017-18 season, which would mark the first new NHL stop since 2000, when Minnesota and Columbus joined.
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A bigger league would reflect a bigger harvest area.
“The No. 1 pick this year is from a nontraditional market,” Holland said. “Seth Jones played bantam in Dallas. You are seeing more and more players from the U.S. from places other than Michigan — Minnesota, the Northeast, worldwide. And especially here in the U.S., there’s been tremendous growth and development of hockey players.”
The earliest expansion would happen is one season away. Early indications regarding an expansion draft are that first-year and second-year players would be exempt from protection (though what constitutes a year has yet to be clarified, such as a minimum number of games played). But that would mean the Wings wouldn’t have to protect Dylan Larkin, who will be a second-year pro next season. Clubs are believed to be able to protect seven forwards, three defensemen and one goaltender.
Players with no-trade clauses can be exposed, while players with no-movement clauses have to be protected. Wings with no-trade clauses include Justin Abdelkader, Jonathan Ericsson, Mike Green and Niklas Kronwall. Pavel Datsyuk is the only Wings player with a non-movement clause, and his contract only has one year left. If he leaves this summer, as expected, the Wings will do their utmost to trade away his contract to recapture some or all of $7.5 million in salary cap space.
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Contact Helene St. James: hstjames@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @helenestjames.