You can't start a "rebuild on the fly" once Lidstrom is gone, when Datsyuk is 35 and Zetterberg is 33. When the Red Wings were presented with the Hossa/Franzen choice, that's when they should have been starting to think about "rebuild on the fly." At the most, 1-2 years later.
The second San Jose loss was as about as far as anyone needed to go.
I'd point to Chicago as an example of "rebuilding on the fly." Shipping complimentary pieces out. Keeping the core. Changing who you view as core, when it's required.
And that required giving away veteran jobs to kids.
1) Because kids are cheap.
2) Because it gives you the opportunity to get younger.
But Holland's loyalty created a country club. Too many guys had jobs here as long as they wanted them. Guys like Cleary and Bertuzzi -- clearly well past it - had no business on this team. Maybe you give a 3rd line job to a Hat Trick Dick and suffer through his inconsistency and don't resign a Bertuzzi. Axelsson, it turns out, was a pretty good hockey player. You give Jan Mursak more than 6 minutes a night on line 4.
But at the end of the day, Mursak and Axelsson are Mursak and Axelsson. Perhaps competent top nine players - perhaps not.
Most importantly, you halt trading away assets earlier. Trading away a first for Kyle Quincey was stupid.
At the time, in 2012, we already had Kronwall, Lidstrom, Stuart, White, Ericsson, Kindl (there's six) and Brendan Smith (who produced at a career high pace - 7 points in 14 games).
Oh, and Commodore.
Holland, perhaps believing that Quincey must be good because he drafted him, paid an outrageous price for a guy who was a healthy scratch on one of the worst teams in the league.
So the team traded away a 1st, a 2nd and three thirds between 2012/16.
They also traded Jarnkrok and Janmark - two solid, young prospects.
That's not logical behavior for an aging team that needs to get younger.
And people may say that Jarnkrok and Janmark aren't that great. And they aren't great. But i think if they were in Detroit, we wouldn't have Frans Nielsen's stupid, bloated contract.