Yzerman apprenticed 4 years under Ken Holland, as a Vice President. He also gained experience as GM for Team Canada in 2007 and 2010, before accepting the top job with Tampa Bay.
He paid his dues to get where he is today, and that learning experience and track record, gave him great insight of assembling his 2nd gold medal Olympics team.
I don't see Shanahan's relative easy rise comparable at all.
so is your issue just that he didn't study under Holland? or Lamourello full time wearing a suit? the fact that both Holland and Lamourello both have said that Shanahan spent significant with them? Same with Rutherford?
Once again, there are many ways to learn or apprentice. You keep throwing out "he was handed." "it was easy"
let's play it this way:
Shanahan organized the Shanahan Summit where a lot of what we see in the game now derived from that summit. Many players, media pundits, and those around the league have stated a lot of the ideas came from Shanahan himself and some say that he's a key part of how the game is played
now
Which seems to me that he shows incredible foresight - or least
is open to expand his way of thinking and not just be stuck in the past. Something that has crippled this franchise for decades. By people who have studied under other people.
Gary Bettman may be many things, but i doubt very much that he, being in charge of a-multi billion dollar business would simply just hand someone who wasn't qualified or showed the initiative for the game to place him in the the Hockey/Business development department. OR if he wasn't savvy enough to deal with 30 GMs and create new rules (ie: you have to wait 48 hours to challenge a decision) or even showing the videos to explain to fans, and other people why it was wrong. (regardless of how you feel about the decision)
rumours were out there when the Rangers/Leafs were both vying for Shanahan to be president of their respective clubs was that he was actually being groomed to be part of bigger and better things in the NHL office in regards to the commissioner track. so if he's good enough to run the entire league, i'm pretty sure he's good enough to run
the financial juggernaught team of the league.
i find it hilarious that Shanahan is 'handed' things, but everyone else 'worked' for things.