It's been just two days since the Detroit Red Wings were bounced from the Stanley Cup playoffs with a 2-0 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 7, but now it's time to look toward the offseason and the future of coach Mike Babcock.
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Babcock's contract with the Red Wings is set to expire on June 30 and while the coach is likely to have a lot of options thanks to his impressive resume, Detroit is hoping to re-sign him by the end of May.
"He's regarded in the industry as one of the top coaches in the game, if not the top coach," Red Wings general manager Ken Holland told MLive.com. "He's in the prime of his career. Our hope is that Mike wants to stay, but he's positioned himself to have the option to explore."
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Babcock, who was a finalist for the Jack Adams Award as the NHL's best coach last season, but ultimately lost to Colorado Avalanche boss Patrick Roy, has taken the Red Wings to the playoffs in each of his 10 seasons behind the bench.
The postseason appearances have extended the team's NHL record to 24 straight campaigns with a trip to the tournament.
Babcock led Detroit to its 11th Stanley Cup in 2008 and helped bring the team back to the Stanley Cup Final in 2009, where it lost to the Pittsburgh Penguins.
The Red Wings recent history, however, hasn't been great as the team has lost five of its last six playoff series and hasn't advanced past Round 2 since 2009.
Holland said his relationship with Babcock is strong, but there's nothing imminent as far as a contract goes.
"There's an element of urgency, but not hours or days," Holland said. "Probably in the month of May. We got a great relationship. I think he's done a fabulous job with the team. We want him back. I expressed that. Mike has been here 10 years. He knows our players, he knows how we operate, knows the owner, knows how passionate the fan base is, knows we got a new rink coming. I think those are all advantages."
Babcock was mum on his future after the Red Wings fell to the Lightning Wednesday at Amalie Arena in Tampa Bay.
"We are what we are," Babcock said, according to NHL.com. "[The Lightning] have a young team; they were bad here for long enough that they were able to rebuild and get good young players, and young players at key positions."
He continued: "We have lots of good, young players, no question about it, and we've got some good ones coming. But who's going to replace [Pavel Datsyuk]? I don't think [Datsyuk] is going anywhere right away, but that's what you've got to do. You've got to have big-time players up the middle and on the back to be successful. So those are questions that our organization works towards, we've been drafting good, we've been developing good, but we've been winning too much (to get high draft picks). That's the facts."
The Red Wings finished 43-25-14 this season, reaching the 100-point marker for the first time since 2012.
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