Nah, if Holland had made a few correct moves this year we could be right in the thick of things to make the playoffs.
Today's NHL requires a New England Patriots style of management, get talent while they're young and use them until they're too expensive, then move on. Identify your core and pay them while supplying the team with enough depth to continue contending. Pittsburgh isn't the best example because they had to be horrible to get Crosby and Malkin, but since getting them Shero has find ways to continually bring in more talent that works (Dupuis, Kunitz, Neal, Iginla).
It's funny you mention that Patriot's system, because Holland himself talked the talk back when the cap era started. Then he failed in the implementation stage, which also happened to coincide with the point when Bowman left for Chicago. I think the latter was needed to push Holland towards a more aggressive, emotionally detached stance instead of super conservative stance he's taken.
Yeah but the Wings core is too old to contend. It's easy to build around 25 year old players who are the best players on the planet. If holland wasnt incompetent and did one thing right, I still don't see this team contending.
Today's CBA doesn't allow teams to rebuild on the fly. You are either good or bad. Being stuck in the middle gets you nowhere.
Time to gut the foundation and hope the Wings don't turn into Edmonton.
I think we may still get to the point where today's CBA actually pulls everyone towards mediocrity. The last one had more holes in it than Swiss cheese. Between the multiple ways to circumvent the cap and having a cap ceiling growing in double digits, teams could really tweak spending to avoid the parity-driven mediocrity.
That said, it will take a couple years for this new CBA to sink its teeth into the league and how to build teams. I never have looked forward to this, regardless, as I'm not really inspired by hockey where teams just grind it out against each other. The ones who did happen to win a lottery during a year a franchise player comes along may be the only ones with any clear advantage.