Holik retires, Havelid leaves and Sutter’s still vacilating

May 24, 2009   ·   Hasan   ·   Jump to comments

Hard to believe it’s been nearly a month since the farcial ending to the Devils’ season on April 28.   It still feels like it was just last week that I left the Rock for the 32nd and final time this season with the raw frustration of how the Devils lost a series in eighty seconds followed by being in a catatonic state on the train ride home. 

One of the best things about sports though (especially for multi-sport fans) is that there’s always another season to be involved with or look forward to.  At times that fact has been a mixed blessing with the Mets, but at least they’re playing better even if their MASH unit is starting to resemble the Devils’ early season difficulties maintaining a healthy roster.  And as long as Lou Lamoriello, Martin Brodeur – my frustration with him this year aside – and Zach Parise are around I do believe the Devils will stay competitive for at least the next couple years. 

Already though, there will be guaranteed change to the 2009 Devils.  Granted, Nicklas Havelid leaving for Sweden and Bobby Holik retiring to his ranch in Wyoming aren’t exactly earth-shattering changes.  Havelid was a UFA anyway and never really seemed to fit in like most of Lou’s trade deadline d-man acquisitions.  In Holik’s case he retired on his own terms before being kicked out, since he was a UFA too and odds are would not have received much interest after a down season where he was in the penalty box more than on the ice and a healthy scratch for six of the team’s final nine games including four playoff games. 

Whatever you want to say about the 38-year old Holik though, he certainly carved out a nice career for himself – registering 326 goals, 421 assists and 1423 PIM’s in 1,314 NHL games with Hartford (yes Holik really has been around that long), the Rangers, Atlanta and of course 11 of his 17 seasons right here in New Jersey.  Holik was part of two Stanley Cup winners with the Devils.  On that first Cup winner, Holik was also a key component to what still may be the most beloved line in team history – the Crash Line with himself, Randy McKay and Mike Peluso. 

Not bad for a kid from Czechoslovakia who was orginally drafted by Hartford in the first round and later traded to the Devils (along with a pick that turned into Jay Pandolfo) in a deal for Sean Burke.  Of course, he left after 2002 for greener pastures with the Rangers followed by three forgettable years in Atlanta and was never the same player after that, but his colorful and usually on-the-mark honesty will be missed.  Best wishes to Bobby for a happy retirement.

I don’t think I’ll be offering any well-wishes for Brent Sutter if he chooses to leave though.  In one sense he doesn’t really owe the team a decision until a week or two before the draft, that might be a fair timetable.  However it has been a month since the season ended, this is getting to be like the Brett Favre nonsense in reverse over the last few years.  As opposed to Favre who never wanted to retire, it doesn’t exactly seem as if Sutter really wants to stay.  Especially after reading some ominous quotes from Tom Gulutti’s blog a couple weeks ago.   

In today’s Post, Larry Brooks suggested that Lou should let Sutter out of the last year of his contract and go after a more long-term solution, that it’s not serving either team or Sutter to have a coach who doesn’t want to be here.  In a sense I agree that it’s time for Lou to have a Plan B, but it would be irresponsible for Lou to let Sutter coach another NHL team this year and not get any compensation back at the very least.  I’m not even sure coaching elsewhere this year is Sutter’s prime motivation anyway.

Still, it seemed all along as if Lou had talked Sutter into coming here after his intial resistance to leaving Red Deer.  And Lou’s tolerance of Sutter’s Hamlet act is further proof both that Lou realizes this and that he really wanted Sutter to be the heir apparent.  Doesn’t look like it’s meant to be though. 

For me emotionally, enough is enough, if he doesn’t want to be here let him go.  And truth be told it’ll be a long while before I forgive Sutter for changing a successful system down the stretch and coaching scared in the playoffs.  Leaving would just make my annoyance with Sutter that much more acute.  That said, pragmatically the list of replacements out there is enough to make me roll my eyes. 

Obviously John MacLean‘s never going to be a head coach here, he hasn’t even done a good job with the power play.  Part of me thinks he’s just on the staff to be a mole for Lou.  And is it really in the Devils’ best interest to drag back Jacques Lemaire, whose system is so mid-90′s, or bring in another retread like Peter Laviolette who wore out his welcome in Carolina?  I’m also not sure breaking in yet another inexperienced coach is the right call for a perennial win-now team although it would be nice to have someone here for the long term for once.

I wouldn’t put it past Lou to bring in Guy Carbonneau if it came down to it, even with all of Montreal’s problems on and off-ice this year, their playoff spanking proved that not all of their issues were his responsibility.  Plus Lou’s hired no fewer than three ex-Hab coaches (Lemaire, Pat Burns and Claude Julien) along with Larry Robinson, an ex-Hab HOF player.  Still, bringing in Carbonneau isn’t exactly the no-brainer that bringing in Burns was at the end of the ’02 season.

It’s bad enough that we’re up a creek if Sutter decides to take his sticks and go home but one thought did occur to me today – if the Devils had gone on the deep run to the playoffs that they probably should have made this year, and their season went on till May or early June, would Sutter be vacilating through the draft and the start of UFA?  Ultimately that could have been even more disasterous down the road if (when?) Sutter chooses to leave and the team has to change gears in mid-stream.

Guess we’ll see what happens sooner…or later.