For all of the griping about Holland, and all of the griping about how this team sucks, I'm waiting for the cognitive leap towards maybe Holland not being entirely wrong in trying to keep the team mildly competitive while rebuilding. Especially with the draft lotto being so disadvantageous to totally bottoming out.
That's just not a position that holds much strength,
Holland didn't even start talking about "rebuild on the fly" until 2015 or so - 4-5 seasons after such talk had any point.
The time to rebuild while being competitive was after the loss of Hossa. Or at least Rafalski. WHile you still had elite players good enough to hold the fort while youngsters or replacements learned new roles.
Maybe our youth movement sucked at the time... but Modano, Bertuzzi, Cleary, Salei. Alfredsson. Brad Richards. Colaicovo. Quincey. Legwand. Cole. Samuelsson. Zidlicky. Etc. Etc. Etc.
All the signings that amounted to zero.
All the signings that cost youth much needed experience. All the trades that cost us picks or prospects and put our own prospects on the back burner.
Even in more recent years.
Frans Nielsen. 6 years. For what? To ensure what?
Ultimately, it doesn't prevent us from sucking as bad as we do. So why? You saw how Yzerman handled it. He didn't award stupid six-year contracts to Nemeth or Filppula.
2010 and beyond Holland was a rudderless, sputtering mess.
His years of passivity and status-quo thinking ensured this team would become far worse than the thing he feared it might become.