The Detroit Red Wings likely will clinch their 24th consecutive play-offs berth next week, a testament to their ability to reinvent themselves.
During the past nine seasons – call it the squeeze-till-it-turns-blue salary-cap era – the man doing much of the reinventing has been Mike Babcock, the Red Wings coach since 2005.
The team has been old, young and somewhere in between, but it always makes the play-offs.
The team with the next-longest streak is the San Jose Sharks, with 10, and that measly run is about to end.
The Red Wings face the same roster challenges everyone else does; annually, they let go some of their top-salaried players in exchange for more-affordable, usually rising, talent.
Babcock, 51, has been the constant, the steady hand credited with navigating the Red Wings through the salary-cap shoals.
He took the 2003 Anaheim Ducks to the Stanley Cup Finals in his first NHL coaching stint and won a title with the Red Wings in 2008. He led Canada to the 2010 Olympic gold medal. Now, as his contract expires, he will be cashing in. The question is where?
They do love him in Detroit, and ownership seems willing to make him the highest paid NHL coach, topping the US$2.75 million (Dh10.1m) per year paid Joel Quenneville of the Chicago Blackhawks.
However, if he tests the market, some believe he could command $5m per season. (Yoo-hoo, Toronto Maple Leafs: they are talking about you.)
Babcock said he will not discuss a contract until the Red Wings play their final game. When they do, he will be a true sports oddity: a coach at the top of a league’s free-agent list.
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