Can we just take this stuff for granted now? There was no way Ilitch, Holland, and Nill were going to let Mike Babcock walk away from the Wings, but today essentially confirmed it.
DETROIT -- The Detroit Red Wings signed coach Mike Babcock to a four-year extension Monday.
"His stock as a head coach is probably as high as anybody's and he could have gone on the open market next summer," Red Wings general manager Ken Holland told The Associated Press. "We started talking about it in June and July, went our separate ways, and we knew this would get done. He loves it in Detroit."
This now means that we have Babcock, Holland, and Nill under contract through 2014-15. He might not ever win the Jack Adams award because apparently you can't win that award if you have a perennially great team, but we all know how much he means to the Red Wings.
A good point that was brought up at
Kukla's Korner was that he had to live up to the pressure of succeeding the failure of Dave Lewis at head coach, so he was basically following in the footsteps of the greatest coach of all-time, Scotty Bowman.
To put together the type of job he's done in his six-years here takes a special type of coach. That's why we'll reflect on the job he did last season and think so highly of it in the future. The greatest coaches, in my opinion, are the ones who can take any team -- whether it be a dynasty, a team on the edge of doing something great, or even a rebuilding team -- and get results.
He's proven he fits in that category: just take the 2008 Cup season and last season. Those are the only examples you need.
The best just keep on getting better...
