Detroit Red Wings Need to Heed Mike Babcock's Advice Despite Possible Departure

While the speculation is continuing regarding Mike Babcock's future with the Detroit Red Wings, the Wings' management should take notes on Babcock's post game Game 7 comments. 

Mike Babcock didn't really need to say anything following his team's Game 7 defeat to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Wednesday night. His Red Wings had just failed to score a goal against the Bolts for the first time all series, despite vastly outplaying the Lightning for the majority of the game.

He could have said that the Lightning got the bounces and left it at that. But Babcock, now a pending free agent himself, didn't leave his comments there.

Babcock put it bluntly, per Nicholas J. Cotsonika of Yahoo Sports, when he stated that "three of our best players are 34, 35, 37" and went on to say that Detroit has "lots of good young players, no question about it, and ideally we’ve got some good ones coming...But who’s going to replace Pav?"

Pavel Datsyuk is under contract for at least the next two seasons, but beyond that, his future, like Babcock's, is murky to say the least. 

It wouldn't be a stretch at all to say that Datsyuk, even at age 36, is still the best player on the Red Wings. That poses problems for trying to retain a coach like Babcock, who would like to think that the best of Detroit is still to come. But when Pavel Datsyuk is possibly only here for another two years, Babcock's question on Datsyuk is a very pertinent one, as I pointed out in an article discussing Datsyuk's future.

Per Cotsonika, Babcock also distinguished between good and "big-time players," as he continued "in the end, you’ve got to have big-time players up the middle and on the back to be successful. So those are questions in our organization that we work towards, drafting good and developing good, but we don’t win too much. That’s the facts.”

Chris O'Meara/Associated Press

While it is status quo to make the playoffs in Detroit, the fact of the matter is that Detroit hasn't had the chance to reload with top-end draft picks by missing the playoffs and finishing with top-five picks like Tampa Bay has in the past five years. Babcock touched on that too, as he said the Bolts were "bad here long enough that they were able to reload."

Now whether Babcock stays or leaves is anyone's guess at this point. The Hockey Insider's Bob McKenzie and the Toronto Sun's Mark Zeisberger note some of Babcock's comments:

But Babcock, while not dropping any immediate clues about his future, is throwing Red Wings general manager Ken Holland multiple bones about how to make this team better. 

Detroit does not have an impact defenseman on the back end. Niklas Kronwall gets the job done on more nights than not, but aside from that, most of Detroit's defensemen could play on a solid team's third pairing.

Aside from Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk, there are no real consistent offensive threats on the Red Wings, as most players find themselves either in hot or cold streaks.

The Wings need some "big-time" players to add to the lineup this offseason, and whether Mike Babcock stays or goes somewhere else, that will remain the case until those lineup changes are made.

While the Detroit Red Wings have quietly grown some of the best "good" talent in Gustav Nyquist, Tomas Tatar and others, the big-time players on the team are Pavel Datsyuk and very occasionally, Henrik Zetterberg.

That needs to change, and the sooner the better.