This is the sort of reality that many of us have witnessed over the past decade, so that's why it's been so difficult to watch Wings management go against the grain for so long.
It's like watching Matt Millen draft nothing but WR's as the Lions got worse every year. It wasn't until the Lions were well on their way to a perfect season at 0-16, setting the mark for futility, that dude lost his job. Millen was a likable guy, just like Holland. Detroit fans are suckers and keep showing up, regardless of the product. Those two factors make me worry about the future of the Wings.
So yea, article is spot on, but the only NHL GM not buying it is the precap darling Ken Holland. Let's see how it works out for him.
I don't care how pissed off you are about Holland, it is a ****ing embarrassment to compare him to Matt Millen.
Matt Millen HAD the draft capital in the NFL that the Wings have never enjoyed. He took a team that was 9-7,10-6 capable every year and made them a ****ing joke that was lucky if it won 6 games in a year and captained the ship to the only winless season in NFL history.
The Lions got worse and worse by leaps and bounds with Millen at the helm. It wasn't being locked into long term deals with poison pills in them or having a guy like Pavel Datsyuk up and leave and kick a 7.5M hurdle into your path that you need to move. He made them get worse by just bringing in guys who couldn't play football. Like how many Lions left the organization in the Millen era and played any role for any other team?
One is the worst GM in the history of any league. Another was at the helm for two championships, one of which happened after a seismic shift in how you had to build a team and a big part of the scouting department long ago when they drafted the guys that made the last 30! years of hockey something that finishing 10 points out of the playoffs is HOLY ****ING **** level of fireable offense and not a step towards success.
And how, exactly, is Holland not acting in terms of upping the pace?
Wings have speed to burn in the young kids coming up. The slow guys that they have had the last couple years? Z and Kronner who are locked in place by the punitive recapture rule, Ericsson who is locked into place by a contract that he signed before some catastrophic injuries derailed him, and Vanek who they had for under a year and got a draft pick for.
AA, Larkin, Helm are super speedsters. Tatar, Nyquist, Mantha, Svechnikov, Glendening, etc. are all good to very good skaters.
And the guys they've drafted... Hronek, Cholowski, Saarijavi, Bertuzzi, they're all those same kind of smooth skater prospects that you're looking for.
But yeah, the Wings just keep rolling out dinosaurs. They need time and they need some of the kids they have to work out, but it's just flat out ignorant to ignore that they've been trying to boost their team speed and ability.
