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NO, WE DON’T HAVE A LOVE AFFAIR WITH THE RED WINGS. But thank you for asking. Last season, we named Ken Holland the No. 1 GM in the league. In a previous issue, we concluded that the Wings possess the premier defense corps in the NHL this season. And now, the latest assessment arrives. If the skate fits, wear it. After an exhaustive analysis of each of the NHL’s 30 organizations, we can state with confidence that the Red Wings are the No. 1 franchise in the league by a wide margin. Our examination covered nine on- and off-ice criteria concentrated on the past five seasons, and the Wings finished first, with a gap between themselves and the second-place Ottawa Senators larger than the gap between any other pair of teams in the league.
That conclusion held steady when we ranked the league’s general managers, identifying Holland as the top executive, and when we evaluated the NHL’s blueline, where the Red Wings were placed No. 1. It wasn’t a close call. When we declared Detroit’s defense corps the best in hockey, we noted, “it’s not even close.” And when we named Ken Holland the top GM, a fellow NHL executive told us, “To me, Ken Holland is the best GM in hockey and there’s nobody even close to him.”
So what makes the Red Wings so dominant in a league that has embraced parity? They haven’t won the Stanley Cup since 2002, but that’s one championship more than 25 other teams have earned in that span. Put simply, the Wings are superb across every facet of the organization. They’ve been perennial playoff contenders, dominant in the regular season, and they boast one of the league’s strongest ownership groups and front offices. Their drafting has been solid, especially given a relative scarcity of high picks, and their franchise value remains high. Attendance, until this season, has consistently been among the league’s strongest. In short, Detroit is the model franchise: a powerhouse with substantial resources and, unlike some other big-market clubs, a team that has not fallen victim to the salary cap era’s constraints. They continue to develop reliable, if not star-level, players, and their late-round successes—Henrik Zetterberg, Pavel Datsyuk, and perhaps Niklas Kronwall in the future—have proven to be major home runs and enduring assets for the franchise.