Lil Sebastian Cossa
Opinions are share are my own personal opinions.
- Jul 6, 2012
- 11,436
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The revisionist history of Holland defenders has always struck me as odd. A large number of the deals the Wings hated, Ericsson, Howard, Abdelkader, Helm, were thought to be horrible the moments they were signed. Kronwall and Zetterberg were good contracts at the time, and helped fill their role, and viewed as such. Really the only bad contract that I, and seemingly majority of fans, thought was good during the time of signing was Dekeyser's. Everyone else's deals either worked out as expected.
Granted, a sizable amount of people were arguing we should re-sign Smith last offseason, as was Holland.
-Ericsson is revisionist history. People weren't thrilled about it, but it was a "well, he's a top 4 D, that's what top 4D get paid. The handwringing started when he had the bad hand injury and the hip injury like a year after signing it.
-Howard is revisionist history or people who simply don't like to spend on goalies. At the time of deal, he was an above average goalie that got above average salary for term. And hell, if Petr Mrazek didn't have his shooting star season where he looked like a future superstar, nobody would have said a damn thing about Howie's deal. It turned bad because Mrazek shot out of the gate like a cannon and Howie wilted because he would try to do too much to hold off Mrazek and keep his job.
Abby and Helm. Hell yeah, they were bad deals even before the ink dried.
Kronwall and Z's deals weren't just good. They were FANTASTIC contracts until the league decided to toss the retroactive punishment that made them immovable and unable to actually retire when injured. A #1D for 4.75M and a #1C for 6M? Those are fantastic deals and before 2012, they had no risk because the guy could just retire and no harm, no foul.
I hate the reductive nature of "Holland defenders", "Holland apologists", etc. As well as the other side too "Holland bashers", "Holland haters".
Ken Holland has made good moves and he's made bad moves. He probably should have been fired a few years ago. He also has done things like landing Mantha, Larkin, Zadina, Veleno, etc. that reasonably have bought him time. He's not as good as people who staunchly defend him say but he's certainly nowhere near as bad as the people who want him gone at all costs think that he is.