So, your point of contention is that because none of us may have intimate knowledge of possible moves that could've happened, but didn't, we should just accept the fact that Holland's hands were and are tied and is incapable of making moves because it's impossible?
If it is impossible for Holland to improve the team, what are we doing here?
No. Not my point. My point was, you can go back to 2010 and trace what was available in trades or FA relative to what was in our farm system and what cap space we have. You won't find many moves, if any, that would have "put us over the top." You're right. What are you doing here complaining? It's pointless. Holland had to gut the team in '09 due to the cap and we had no farm system back then. His depth players ran off for greener pastures, so he turned to CHEAP VETS to plug holes. He wasn't going to sign a big FA in 2009 because he had to take care of Mule, Z, and his depth with limited cap space. Same thing in 2010. What motive did Holland have to make big changes? He had neither the assets or motivation to make big changes to the team. It was a crap FA crop in 2010 anyways. Illitch basically held a gun to Holland's head and told him to sign Modano. Nobody seems to ever realize that, and yet this is probably when people started accusing him of hoarding old guys.
2011. Rafalski retires. Nothing tells us we were in on Burns. We still didn't have much of a farm system, but it was starting to get better. 2011 was when FA got ridiculous. DID YOU REALLY WANT TO SIGN WISNEWSKI TO THAT CONTRACT? EHRHOFF? REALLY? Don't tell me you did. Those were bad contracts. People were getting horrible deals. You people would be mobbing outside of Holland's office if he had signed anyone to deals that year for those prices. Don't tell me he should have signed Erik Cole. There was little need to go for offense this year because it did quite fine the year before.
2012. Suter was going to Minny and nothing was gonna change that. Garrison was going to Vancouver and nothing was going to change that. Everyone else sucked. Rozsival wasn't going to make a significant difference. Nobody to date has yet to trade for Yandle so don't bring him up. Howson was going to trade us Rick Nash the moment pigs began to fly. Needed offensive depth after Hudler left for big payday considering the lack of goal scoring down the stretch. No reason to assume Cleary was going to bad. He was plagued by injuries a year after scoring 26 goals. Farm System status was very good. But seriously, who do you want to give up? You wouldn't give up any pieces. Now look at our farm system. It's the best in the league.
