Hockey Night's Don Cherry to Babcock: 'Stay where you are'
No less an authority than Don Cherry, the Hockey Night in Canada star who has been there and done what Mike Babcock is going through these days, is advising the Red Wings coach to stay put in Detroit.
In a series of Twitter messages this afternoon, Cherry recalled being the NHL's most-sought-after coach after five successful seasons in Boston that included four first-place finishes.
"I had four teams after me," Cherry tweeted. "I was promised to be the highest-paid coach. I could have gone to 3 contending teams. But I thought it would be great fun to go to a team out of the playoffs and the GM and I could turn it into a playoff team."
So he took an offer from Colorado (a failed franchise that would later become the New Jersey Devils), and Cherry's plan went off the rails when GM Ray Miron signed a European goaltender who failed an otherwise pretty good team.
"Yes, I was the highest paid coach in the world," Cherry tweeted, "but maybe the unhappiest."
Which brought Cherry to his point regarding Babcock: "Mike, don't go to a rebuilding team. I know. I've been there," Cherry wrote. He suggested San Jose as a potential landing spot, if Babcock was set on leaving Detroit. But in that regard, the Wings' coach should think long and hard. And in the end?
"My guess Mike, is you'll stay in Detroit," Cherry tweeted. The reasons: Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg have some good years left and they're supported by "good young talent coming." Moreover, Cherry pointed out, Babcock has a great relationship with Wings GM Ken Holland and they both work for "the best owner in sports."
Cherry, 81, can get a little outrageous at times, and the HNIC execs seem intent on curbing his occasionally blasphemy by shortening his segments between periods of televised NHL games. But his bottom line in this case is both passionate and sensible:
"Take it from a guy who has been there Mike," he concluded. "Don't take the money and run. Stay where you are. Believe me, the grass is not greener."
Cherry knows. After a single season in Colorado, his contract was not renewed -- and a spectacular career in broadcasting was soon born.
WINGS TO HONOR JOURNALIST WITH PROSPECT TOURNAMENT CUP
The Red Wings and training camp organizers in Traverse City announced today that the trophy awarded to the champion of the NHL Prospect Tournament has been renamed the Matthew Wuest Memorial Cup in honor of a late sports writer who did groundbreaking work in digital journalism.
Wuest (pronounced WEEST), died in March after a two-year battle with colon cancer. He was 35. He was best-known for developing the website CapGeek.com, which tracked salary cap data for all 30 NHL teams in real time. The site was widely-used by scouts, general managers, media and fans before it ceased operations in January.
Along with his work on CapGeek, Wuest -- who covered sports for Metro Halifax (Nova Scotia) -- also developed and maintained RedWingsCentral.com (RWC), which provided rankings, scouting profiles and features focused on Detroit Red Wings prospects. Launched in 2001, RWC became widely-read by scouts and fans alike before it shut down operations in 2014, according to a Red Wings news release.
RWC's exclusive coverage of the NHL Prospect Tournament and Detroit Red Wings training camp were one of the most read sections of the site. Wuest also contributed multiple articles to the Detroit Red Wings training camp programs.
The Matthew Wuest Memorial Cup recognizes his significant behind-the-scenes contributions to the growth and development of the NHL Prospect Tournament, along with his overall impact on the hockey community, the Wings said.
This year's NHL Prospect Tournament, the 17th hosted by Centre Ice Arena in Traverse City, will run Sept. 11-15. Participating teams include Carolina, Chicago, Columbus, Dallas, Detroit, Minnesota, New York and St. Louis. The tournament, which began in 1998 with just four teams, has more than 475 alumni who have totaled more than 80,000 NHL games played.
The tournament divides the eight-team field into two four-team divisions. Teams play each team in their division during the round robin before a crossover on the final day of the tournament, capped off with the first-place finishers in each division meeting for the championship. The winner will be awarded the Matthew Wuest Memorial Cup at the conclusion of the game.
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