Mike Babcock: “A big summer for our guys is absolutely critical”

 

By Stefan Kubus (@SKubus) –

Red Wings head coach Mike Babcock said prior to the Stanley Cup Playoffs that his team was going to be a tough out for Boston.

But after the fact, he said it turned out to be quite the opposite. And for an injury-plagued Red Wings group in 2013-14, Babcock said there’s one thing he wants to see happen above all else.

“A big summer for our guys is absolutely critical,” Babcock said. “We’ve had so many injuries this year, so if you’ve been an injured player for a long period of time – if you’re Darren Helm, Franzen, especially if you’re Z whose had surgery, if you’re Pav and you’re going to have surgery – conditioning is absolutely critical.”

But he also has one more item at the top of his wish list heading into the off-season.

“Right-handed shots. (Alexey) Marchenko and (Ryan) Sproul are right-hand shots that really can move the puck and play well… (Brian) Lashoff played way more than we anticipated. The growth of (Danny) DeKeyser… I thought he was still strong. The growth of (Brendan) Smith, obviously (Niklas) Kronwall, we missed (Jonathan Ericsson) Big E, just because of his size. He needs to get healthy, get in shape and get ready to go, as well.”

While he said an upgrade on the back-end is necessary, the bench boss also believes that free agency may not be the path to take this summer. Because the team has the benefit of developing and growing from within the organization via drafted prospects, Babcock said the team will surely be a much younger one overall next season.

“I think a lot of that growth can be from within. We’ll spend some time here in Grand Rapids now just to watch and see how good our young guys on the back end are. We feel we can improve our back end from within, and that’s critical. We’ve got some good right hand shots down there that have a lot of skill.

“I think we’ve got lots of pieces here. We’re going to be way younger than you’re used to. I think our veteran leadership is going to be Pav, Z and Kronner and then we’re going to end up with a lot of kids on this team. I’m not certain going outside, unless you can get exactly what you’re looking for, is worth it when we’ve got so much right here within. We think we can be a way better team just because of the growth right within our organization.”

Despite the early exit in the playoffs, Babcock still lauded his young crop of forwards for stepping up down the stretch when the veterans went down. He was also quick to admit that they received a hefty wake-up call once the postseason began.

“We had lots of players that I felt did an unbelievable job for us as young guys, but they found out when the playoffs come, it’s a whole other level. We played a good, structured Boston team with good veteran depth and they were better than us, so we’re going to have to be better throughout our lineup to have success.”

But don’t mistake that lone bright spot for any sort of satisfaction.

“As much as 23 years is important to the franchise, we’ve won one round in three years in the playoffs. If you go back, our best years since I’ve been here were 2007, 2008 and 2009. In that time, we won I think 11, 16 and 15 playoff games. We’ve gotten seven a couple times since, but never been in the final four, so that’s a five-year drought the way I look at it.”

Contract extension?

This past season, Babcock became the winningest Red Wings coach of all-time with his 414th victory, passing a pair of legends in Scotty Bowman and Jack Adams – whom the NHL’s annual coaching award is named after.

Babcock will enter the last year of his contract in the 2014-15 season. And while it may seem odd to outsiders, he said, given it’s not his first gig, he’s not worried about an extension at this stage of his career. One certainty, however, is that he won’t be moving anytime soon.

“My daughter is going into her grade 12 year,” Babcock said. “I’m either going to be the coach of the Red Wings or I’m going to be the assistant coach – I haven’t talked to Red Berenson about this, but either that or I’ll be Red’s assistant coach for a year for sure. I’m staying in Detroit for sure. I haven’t thought about going anywhere else, but I’m real comfortable. I know Scotty Bowman went year-to-year at one point. I’m comfortable with that. I can get a job, I’m not worried about that. I like it here, the owner is great – actually the owner is better than great to me here, they do things right and they treat people right. The GM is a driven guy who can’t stand losing and I like to be around ultra-competitive people.”

Babcock added that he “doubts” he’ll discuss an extension this summer, since he’s comfortable with where he’s at.