Would you like some cheese with that whine?

The Mike Babcock Sweepstakes are officially on. What’s the big deal?
Haven’t we been talking about this all season already? He’s certainly been asked about his future for months.
As the Red Wings cleaned out their lockers on Friday, here are 10 things we learned about Babcock’s future as he and general manager Ken Holland addressed the media.
1. Despite all the talk that teams like the Maple Leafs and Sabres allegedly would have the upper hand because their deep-pocketed owners could make him the highest-paid coach in hockey - a status he is said to covet - the Red Wings apparently are willing to do the same. “Money isn’t going to be an object,” Holland told reporters, adding that “I want Mike to stay.” Wings owner Mike Ilitch, who made his riches from his Little Caesar’s Pizza chain, must be selling a lot of slices these days.
2. Babcock does not want to run the entire operation of a team - only the bench. “I have no skill set to be a general manager,” he said, adding that he had no interest in adding “player personnel” to his job description. Don’t be fooled into thinking his fingerprints aren’t on transactions, however. Babcock apparently has a say in pretty much all of Holland’s decisions as they relate to trades, drafts and the pursuit of free agents.
3. Babcock and Holland are expected to sit down for serious discussions shortly. According to Babcock, it will happen within 10 days. “He’s an unrestricted free agent in the prime of his career,” Holland told reporters. “We’ve got exclusive negotiating rights from now until the end of June, so it will pick up next week.”
4. Babcock is nowhere near making a final decision. “If you want to be on the Mike Babcock day-to-day watch, you’re wasting your time,” Babcock said. “I don’t know myself.” Babcock’s deal with the Red Wings expires June 30.
5. Babcock suggested the ultimate say will come from the person who holds the ultimate power - Mrs. Babcock. “I talked to my wife (Thursday) morning for the first time,” he said. “Everyone thinks Ken Holland is the boss. Actually, my wife is the boss. That conversation didn’t go very well, didn’t last that long. So I imagine, over the next while, we’ll have some conversations about this and decide what we’re going to do.”
6. There is no framework for a plan in place to move forward. Never has been. Back in January during an informal conversation with the the Postmedia Network, Holland compared his situation to selling a house. Would you take the first offer on the table or would you wait until all the offers are presented in front of you? The answer is simple - unless you ultimately decide to stay put and not move. “I think some of you think there’s this grandiose plan or something. There has been no plan. There’s no odds on anything,” he said.
7. “Roots are important,” Babcock claims. And for the past decade, he’s planted them in Motown. Even though all three of his kids have completed high school, “they still grew up here,” Babcock said, adding that “I still go home to Saskatoon. My dad moved all over the world in the north when he was in the mining business, and we stayed in Saskatoon. I still have a house outside there.”
8. The Game 7 loss to Tampa Bay Wednesday night “was depressing,” perhaps the most crushing of his Red Wings tenure. “I felt terrible, as bad as I’ve felt as a Red Wings coach.”
9. Referring to his cache of top-end players in Detroit, Babcock called Henrik Zetterberg, Pavel Datsyuk and Niklas Kronwall “the best leadership group I’ve been around in pro sports.Those guys’ window isn’t as long as a lot of our kids’. At one point this year, we had 15 kids under the age of 28. We need the push from those kids.”
10. The Leafs, Sabres, Flyers, Penguins, Sharks, Oilers, even the Bruins and others, all have interest in him. But then again, we already knew that, didn’t we?