Holland persevered, adapted on way to Hockey Hall of Fame

Ken Holland reflected on a career full of memories while he prepared for induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame on Monday, none more profound than a breakfast more than 24 years ago.

"I remember bringing the Stanley Cup home when I had my day with it (in July 1997 when he was a Detroit Red Wings assistant general manager)," he said. "At breakfast at my house, it was my mom, my dad and me, and the Stanley Cup on the kitchen table between the three of us.
"Sports meant a lot to our family. The Stanley Cup is a lifetime achievement. I'm very fortunate, part of four championships. It's a hard thing to get your name on it. So to have that thing sitting at the kitchen table, what it means in the hockey world, was a special moment."
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The pride and gratitude were only a partial menu of elements for Holland's journey to the Hall of Fame. Healthy helpings of passion, focus, faith, hard work and a phone call that prevented him from becoming a vacuum cleaner salesman always have been present during Holland's journey from enthusiastic young athlete, junior and pro goalie, scout, NHL assistant general manager, NHL general manager and part of four Stanley Cup victories with the Detroit Red Wings.
Holland was inducted as a Builder, joining players Marian Hossa, Jarome Iginla, Kevin Lowe, Kim St-Pierre and Doug Wilson in the Hall of Fame Class of 2020.

The 65-year-old from Vernon, British Columbia, has been GM of the Edmonton Oilers since May 7, 2019. Before that, he was Detroit's assistant GM under Jim Devellano for three years (1994-97) and then GM of the Red Wings for 22 years and three more Cup wins.
His managerial skills, Holland says, are a tribute to his father, Rienie, whose longtime day job was as a truck driver but whose gifts included skills as an administrator, convenor, manager and coordinator for local sports leagues of all types.
"I learned so much from my dad," Holland said. "It really started with watching my dad organize."
Holland's mom, Adeline, who everyone called Lee, gave her oldest son the unconditional support that loving moms do and was a key figure in the career crossroads he faced in May 1985. It was about a week after Devellano had called to say that the Red Wings would not be renewing the $30,000-per-season contract of the then 29-year-old minor league goalie.
Holland, wife Cindy, and their three children, all under the age of 4, had returned to Vernon from Glens Falls, New York, where he had finished the American Hockey League season with Adirondack, and were camped out in his parents' basement while they searched for a place to live.
Eager for her son to plot his future, Adeline showed him a listing for a job as a vacuum-cleaner salesman.
"I had thought of going back to school for two years, get a degree," he said. "She didn't like that much, told me it was my job to put food on the table. So I called the number in the ad and the job was open.
"She said, 'You know lots of people in Vernon, you've got a gift of gab and a great product and you know lots of people.' Before I could answer, she said she was going to be my first sale. And then she said she'd talked to Grandma Eastbrecht who lived five doors down on 23rd Street; she was going to buy my second vacuum cleaner.
"I knew there wasn't a big a big market for 29-year-old, 5-foot-8 minor league goalies. But I started thinking I've got to start going door to door to door and I don't know if I'm cut out for it."

Holland's earnestness and hockey relationships saved him from a life of door-knocking within a couple of days.
Devellano had called back with a question and then an offer. Would Holland consider quitting as a player and be Detroit's western Canada scout, even though he had never scouted?
"We needed a guy and the last guy I would think about hiring would be the goalie I just released," Devellano said. "But [Adirondack coach] Bill Dineen had called and said, 'I've got your man, Ken Holland.' I was polite but I was dubious. But Bill said he'd stake his job on his interest. But I had to hear it from Ken, that he understood what the job entailed, driving all over the west and away from his young family for long periods."
Holland took the job. Devellano called it a one-year trial but it didn't take him long to see Holland was a natural.
"I started to call Ken a little more often," Devellano said. "I could tell he was a hockey guy. You can tell by the conversations. He was up to date on things, good with people and still is. I would say by the second or third year, I knew he had potential and I didn't hesitate to move him up when Neil [Smith] joined the Rangers [as GM in 1989]. And told him there's more room to grow here. I'm not limiting you in any of this."
Holland was promoted to director of scouting when Smith left, then to assistant GM in 1994. Two years into that stint, Devellano said he received calls from the St. Louis Blues and Florida Panthers in quick succession looking for permission to talk to Holland about their GM jobs. Not wanting the Red Wings to lose Holland, he put in place his own succession plan and Holland was promoted to GM after they won the Stanley Cup in 1997.
Detroit's winning ways continued without interruption. The Red Wings won their second Cup championship in 1998. Two more followed, in 2002 and 2008, and their success was not hampered by turning over most of the roster. Only five players were part of the four championships between 1997 and 2008: Nicklas Lidstrom, Kris Draper, Tomas Holmstrom, Darren McCarty and Kirk Maltby.
The Red Wings won with a huge payroll. Then, after the NHL instituted the salary cap in 2005, they cut their payroll from $80 million to $39 million and kept winning. When they finally missed the playoffs in 2017, they were the last team to do so under the cap. It ended a streak of 25 consecutive postseason appearances, the last 19 of those with Holland as general manager. When he left to join the Oilers, Holland had spent 36 years in the Red Wings organization.

When the Oilers defeated the Anaheim Ducks 6-5 on Oct. 19, he became the fifth GM in NHL history to reach 1,000 regular-season wins, behind David Poile (1,453), Lou Lamoriello (1,330), Glen Sather (1,319) and Harry Sinden (1,170). (as of games of Nov. 5)
"I think Kenny is one of the best managers of all time," said Poile, who's been the GM of the Nashville Predators since 1997. "He has a great personality, upbeat, fun all the time, honest, easy to deal with. You get right to the point. There's no smoke or mirrors, no agenda. I enjoy every conversation I ever have with him.
"He's had some really good mentors along the way. Somebody who's been doing what he's been doing, and it sounds like a silly thing to say, but I think he paid attention along the way."
Holland is the first to acknowledge it.
He called it "the Harvard of hockey," working under Devellano and coach Scotty Bowman when he became assistant GM and moved to Detroit in 1994.
"Those people had the biggest impact on my career," he said.

But there are a multitude of others and Holland has been compiling a list of names as a reminder to reach out with thank-you notes and calls.
"For two years, if Jack [Shupe, his junior coach in Medicine Hat] didn't believe in me, I wouldn't have had a pro career," Holland said. "If Bill Dineen wouldn't have believed in me, I wouldn't have had a scouting career. If Neil Smith and Jim Devellano didn't believe in me, I wouldn't have become a general manager of the Detroit Red Wings. So I look at my own career, I realize along the way by people believing in me, I was able to get an opportunity to succeed. So that's my mentality as a general manager, to believe in people."
Holland was 19 when he was selected No. 188 by the Toronto Maple Leafs in the 1975 NHL Draft. He played nine pro seasons in the Hartford Whalers and Detroit organizations and got into four NHL games, one with the Whalers in 1980 and three with the Red Wings in 1984.
He needed that strength of belief to carry on after playing his first NHL game, against the Rangers at Madison Square Garden on Nov. 16, 1980, a day of career highs and lows.
Rangers forward Anders Hedberg scored three goals on him, one in each period, and the Whalers lost 7-3.
"After the first period it's 1-0 for the Rangers and I made some saves and I felt good," Holland said. "I'm sitting in the locker room in the intermission thinking to myself, 'Ken, you finally made it.' I felt like I'm an NHL goalie. In the second period, the Rangers get 21 shots and score four goals. And it's 5-1 for the Rangers after two periods and I remember sitting in the locker room thinking to myself, 'Ken, you're never going to be in the NHL ever again, so really savor and enjoy the third period.'"
Whalers goalie John Garrett, Hartford's backup that night, remembered thinking Holland had been thrown to the wolves in a back-to-back situation. Hartford, which was 21-41 with 18 ties that season, lost 8-4 at home to the Washington Capitals the previous day.
"Every time one went in, he'd look over with kind of a forlorn look," Garrett said. "Really, he was incredible, but we weren't very good. They thought it was the goaltending, but Turk Broda in his prime wouldn't have helped that team."
Holland's induction into the Hall of Fame came one day before the 41st anniversary of that game.
"From that game and now you're asking me about going into the Hockey Hall of Fame, there are a lot of emotions while I'm remembering all the people that contributed," he said. "So many people involved on and off the ice that it doesn't happen without all those people. I could go on and on and on with names. In order to be a Builder you have to have a lot of talented people around you on and off the ice in order to do that. So I'm not tricked into thinking I'm smarter than everybody else. I'm just a little guy from Vernon, B.C., that chased his passion and had a lot of people along the way that believed in me and gave me an opportunity.
"And you've got to have some luck along the way."