Shut up and let Holland do his job

Red Wings general manager Ken Holland and assistant GM Jin Nill have been awarded contract extensions that run through 2011, the team announced this weekend. Already, the boo-birds are responding.

On a certain message board that I won’t name, I was disappointed to read many posts claiming that Holland doesn’t have what it takes to assemble a winning team in the salary cap era. Reasons given for this included the signing of Dominik Hasek and the failure to bring some always-elusive “grit” to the team.

Of those who complain that Holland did too little, I have to ask, what would you have preferred to see him do?

Keep in mind that Hasek came to Detroit because the asking price for Giguere or Nobokov or Biron was too high, so if you say you would have gone that route you have to be prepared to forfeit something of value.

Was Anson Carter your answer to the Wings’ lack of grit? If so, don’t forget that his $2.5 million salary would put Detroit over the cap, so someone on the roster today would have to go.

And for the people with the ridiculous plan to trade Pavel Datsyuk to Pittsburgh for Evgini Malkin, ask yourself why the Penguins would ever want to make that deal.

The red-and-white-colored glasses tend to make one think that the Red Wings can do anything they want, if they just wanted to. Take off those glasses sometime and look at the real world. Holland has done what he can with what he has, don’t make yourself look stupid by saying otherwise.