Yes since he was the head of scouting at the time and pivotal in what happened. He takes over as the Director of Amateur scouting in 87-88. The team quickly abandons the college free agent to plug holes gap and the draft takes off with Holland becoming Devellano's right-hand. When Rockstrom leaves he replaces him with Hakan Andersson. He brings in Jim Nill, he mentors Yzerman and teaches him everything he knows. Ken Holland is crucial to the success we had in the 90s and 00s. He was critical in the very foundation of the team. Keep in mind with Neil Smith leaving for New York, the 89 draft is run by Devellano and Holland, so he drafts the greatest draft class in NHL history.
Sorry, I know the example here is to pretend Holland dropped in after the first championship in the 90s. Ignoring that they were in a three headed system from the moment the ill-fated Yzerman to Ottawa trade. In 94-95 he is granted assistant GM title, but the roles are split as Ilitch is livid with the attempt. Ken Holland didn't fail upwards guys, he was the person who kept having the right answer for the Ilitch family.
Bad contracts to Michigan natives that could be marketed... Gee I wonder if there was some pressure. Again I get it. we would all go in throw down our sword pissed on the carpet and tell our boss over my dead body... No a part of why he had that job for so long was working within their parameters. Yes he had a blank check for some of it, but so did New York (94) and Toronto (nothing) but the results were different. He did get lucky with the people he hired finding gems in Zetterberg and Datsyuk. He did put too many eggs in the Suter basket while attempting to extend the bridge to hopefully figure out something up front. But the reality is we were going to hit that crash at some point. Nobody was going to avoid that. Abdelkader could have sat on IR for the last three years, who gives a ****. To be fair to Yzerman I am sure the savings on that mattered to his bosses and is a part of it as well.
These organizations don't come to one man. To have that kind of run you need a lot of people working and doing a great job. Ken Holland was and did for most of his tenure, that's why he is a member of the HHOF. It could have ended better, but it was unlikely to end well. If he pops smoke and goes upstairs in 10-11, do you think rebuild isn't coming on a similar timeline? Do you think the Ilitch family was trading Datsyuk or Zetterberg? Does Suter magically not standup Yzerman for his buddy and Minnesota? What were his actual cards. I get it I hate some of those contracts, but this is the cliff we were heading for out of the lockout. He even warned us about it, that 10 year rebuild isn't looking so different. I know but if he had blown it up in a way ownership wouldn't have allowed... Yeah see the circular part of that argument.
