Detroit Red Wings Make Right Decision in Allowing Mike Babcock to Explore Market

TSN's Bob McKenzie has reported that the Detroit Red Wings will permit other teams to talk with pending-free-agent coach Mike Babcock until "late May."

While this may seem as though Detroit is giving up on the Babcock sweepstakes for next season, this is not the case. Ken Holland pointed out his belief that Babcock's best interest is Detroit's best interest as well.

This is because the Red Wings actually need to figure out who will be coaching the team next season sooner rather than later.

Teams in the market for a new head coach could include more than just the Buffalo Sabres, Toronto Maple Leafs, Philadelphia Flyers, San Jose Sharks and Edmonton Oilers.

While Babcock would be the hottest commodity on the free-agent market this summer (player or otherwise), the Wings made the right move in allowing Babcock to explore the market now, because there aren't many "home runs" in terms of current coaching vacancies. 

None of the above teams seem to be heading in the right direction soon enough for Babcock to continue winning. Back in February, after the Super Bowl, Babcock sat down with Nicholas Cotsonika of Yahoo Sports and stated bluntly: "I want to win the Cup, period."

Babcock went on to tell Cotsonika that Detroit is "in the process of building our assets. Now we think we’ve taken some good steps. … So here we are now. We’re in a better situation."

Just how good is the Red Wings' situation compared to those of other teams that might seek to hire Babcock this offseason?

Well, that is up for debate, but the fact is that every team that has a current head coaching vacancy missed the playoffs last season. While Babcock could conceivably turn any given team into a Stanley Cup contender, the project would likely take much longer than Detroit's conceivable timeline to get back into the Stanley Cup contender conversation.

Cotsonika asked Babcock if the Wings had enough assets to stay in the playoff picture going forward, and the coach made an analogy to the New England Patriots:

"

When they were standing there talking, I thought about the fact Brady’s in his 15th year. I’m going to be here a long time if I continue to stay on. Can you keep doing it? Belichick’s been able to do it. We’ve changed our whole team, really. The veteran guys are Z, Pavel and Kronner. So do we have enough in Mantha and Larkin and all these kids we have coming? Do we have enough? I don’t know.

"

Many Red Wings fans and hockey pundits would disagree with Babcock's assumption on his team's future outlook, since the Wings have made the playoffs in the past three seasons despite fans and hockey pundits continuing to write them off.

Sure, the Wings have been out in the first or second round in six straight seasons, but Detroit could have easily made it to the second round this season had it closed out Game 4 in Detroit, in which it held a 2-0 lead with six minutes remaining in the game.

But the Wings are out in the first round again. And everyone in the hockey world, Babcock now included, will speculate on the future of the team that he has coached for the past 10 seasons.

The grass could be greener elsewhere in the NHL, but it will be up to Babcock to make that decision for himself. In the meantime, it was smart for the Red Wings to let him make that decision for himself before his contract expires.