Well it's a good thing he's leaving a golden cap situation for the next guy, right?
And no, the majority of the core pieces were either in place (McDavid, Draisaitl, RNH, Nurse) or drafted by the previous regime (McLeod, Bouchard, Skinner, Desharnais)
He gets credit for some good additions (Ekholm, Kane, Hyman) and some misses and poor contracts (Campbell, Nurse, Kassian) He DOES move very slowly, though, it's not outlandish to say that. It took him three and a half years to add a bonafide top four D and ran the same goalie tandem for three seasons.
When he came on he said it was going to have to be a patient approach... "I like to grind away" to build a contender that would be lasting.
The goal is build a team and
limit the mistakes you make that shortchange the long term goal. That's not the same as making NO mistakes.
And, as my earlier post points out he has turned over EVERY roster position except McD, Drai, RNH and Nurse. And every one of those 2019 vs today exchanges (with the exception of Ceci for Larsson and, arguably, Campbell for Koskinen) is a net win.
He ran the same goalie tandem for three years, because one of them was a starter batting 0.913 for <$2M... and the other one was an untradeable backup at $4.5M - we were able to endure him without crippling ourselves with a lengthy buyout,
solely because Holland's patience had patched Chia's gaping hole with Smith.
He didn't wait 3.5 years to add a bonafide top four D. He added a bonafide #2 and at a good price (contract & assets). And that was only one year after losing Larsson.
Yes it was slow, but it was deliberate and provided we can hold onto Drai and McD, this team is going to be well positioned to win multiple cups, with plenty of cap space available while they are 26 - 33 years old.
In contrast, Chiarelli took a fast and furious approach (Lucic, Hall/Larsson, Reinhardt, Koskinen, Eberle/Strome/nothing, etc) that literally crippled us and took Holland (I'd argue) 3 years to unwind.
We shouldn't be happy with every move he made, but the net outcome is indisputably positive now and going forward with our next GM. That's what slow patience does. You F up less often and less drastically.
