I thought i walked by Ken Holland at the Sarnia Sting game today vs Niagara Ice Dogs.
When you put everything in context, Ken Holland is still proven to be the worlds best NHL GM. The "what have you done for me lately" mentality is short sighted in the context of things.
You think Ken Holland is currently the best GM in the NHL?
The way the nu:NHL is structured the "best GMs" are considered by a combination of tanking for draft picks and getting lucky at landing a generational talent by winning the 1st overall lottery.
The nu:NHL is designed to remove "savvy-ness" out of the game. It's too bad, because it makes the game in its entirety boring. It's becoming a cookie-cutter system to the point NHL has adopted the school system of "no child left behind", has now become "no NHL team left behind".
It's like "oh, you're bad at your job?, that's okay we'll help you become a contender... here, take a couple McDavid, Crosby and Matthews".
The current "best" GM is merely the guy who fell in a pile of dogpoo and came out smelling like roses.
Shanahan proved losing on purpose is easy. His motivation to lose on purpose was to draft top generational players. He was rewarded for purposely losing. How is that savvy?
It would be awesome if Marner, Nylander, Matthews and etc were UFA in a year or two so other teams can make Shanahan try harder and accelerate the 'rebuild' process quicker.
It would be awesome if Ottawa or Jets or whoever was eligble to offersheet Marner and Nylander in July costing them a lot less than four 1st round picks. Maybe two 1st round picks
You and I differ in that regard. I cannot get on board with the new "cool" way of rebuilding with the loser mentality loophole which rewards bad GMs and bad franchises for sucking hard. I just can't.
Bettman's nu:NHL - "No NHL team left behind" act.
Haha, I think that 2001 "No child left behind" slogan pretty much sums up what the nu:NHL has become. Except one is for children, the other is for competitive sport franchises with multi-millionaire owners that aren't good at hockey.
This is how it's always worked, the Wings had good drafting, but they also drafted Yzerman 3rd overall. Then they traded for Shahanan and other players.
Doing nothing, drafting in the middle of the pack and staying status quo has never worked for any team in the history of the league.
This is how it's always worked, the Wings had good drafting, but they also drafted Yzerman 3rd overall. Then they traded for Shahanan and other players.
Doing nothing, drafting in the middle of the pack and staying status quo has never worked for any team in the history of the league.
Yes, it has never worked except for the Bruins and the Red Wings in the past 9 years.
Bruins drafted top 10 5 times from 2000-2011.
And none of the players they drafted high played a major role in their Stanley Cup win:
*Dougie Hamilton wasn't on the team.
*Phil Kessell wasn't on the team
*Lars Johnson played 8 NHL games in his career
*Zach Hamill played 3 games the SC year and the next season was waived to the AHL and then traded for a guy with 2 career NHL goals
*Seguin has minimal impact and in 2011 was the 12th leading scorer on the team with 22 points and 15th leading scorer in the playoffs.
Their top 11 scorers that season were drafted 63rd, 50th, 45th, TRADE, TRADE, FA, FA, 71st, FA, FA, TRADE.
The Wings 2008 Stanley Cup team got about as much impact from #4 pick Steve Yzerman and #10 pick Martin Lapointe as the Bruins did from their top 10 picks for their run.
Yes, it has never worked except for the Bruins and the Red Wings in the past 9 years.
If we could only find another top 3 defensemen of all time we should be able to pull off Holland's plan!
Ah so a large part of their team came via trades, something Holland doesn't do.
Also Lucic pick came from the Samsonov trade, which was another top 10 pick.
If we could only find another top 3 defensemen of all time we should be able to pull off Holland's plan!
Wings don't win the cup in 08 without Lidstrom.
The Wings had the 2nd/3rd best defenseman of all time patrolling the blue line for 20 years, and he played at an elite level the vast majority of that 20 year career.
Wings don't have a single top pairing defenseman on the roster.
Looking at the 08 Wings as proof you don't need high draft picks to win is very disingenuous.
Sure they won the cup without high draft picks, but they also possessed a player that literally only needed a warm body to create the best top defensive pair in the NHL. You can't point to that roster and argue the current Wings can replicate their success.
Would you even want the Wings to make big trades when they are nowhere near the Cup like they are now? The Wings have made trades over the years, not huge ones, but they have made trades. Actually, looking closer, Nathan Horton and Gregory Campbell (same trade) were the only players of those I listed that were acquired via trade. So the difference between how the Bruins approached building the team vs. the Red Wings is essentially one trade. Whoopty do.
Lol, ok. I guess the Wings should draft top 10 just so they can trade their top 10 pick for a 2nd rounder? The Wings can accomplish the same thing by trading back in the first round to acquire an additional 2nd round pick, like they did last year.