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Originally Posted by transplant99
What an absurd take...lol.
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Actually it's not. I've read a few articles that state similar in that he was more a front man for an organization that where the culture and scouting was already in place. They had a jump on the rest of the league in European scouting, had some HOF foundation players in place, and it was just a matter of being able to outspend most other teams. Has anyone noticed it's been a long time since the Wings unearthed all those late round gems from Europe and that's because the rest of the league caught up and the playing field is now even. Since the playing field became level where they can't outspend other teams and their scouts aren't alone in the far reaches of Europe they really haven't had a lot of success and it's not even like they are turning the corner or anything as they are just mired in mediocrity.
All of that said I feel in incompetent boob could manage to bring that all down so there's no doubt he's competent in that he let the scouts do their thing and made some good decisions when it came to coaches, etc. I think the rap is that he's more of a cog in the machine rather than the architect or mastermind behind their legacy. The only reason he hadn't been fired by the Wings is because they had been patiently waiting for Yzerman to take over. Yzerman did learn the Wings way under Holland's tutelage but he actually implemented it all on his own from the ground up in the Lightning organization and got the results in a salary cap era that Holland has never been able to do. Will it surprise anyone if the Wings are a contender in a few years while the Oilers still can't get out of their own way?