CpatainCanuck
Registered User
- Sep 18, 2008
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How much do you think your opinion is worth when you attribute Holland's entire success to luck? Regardless of what he inherited, to keep a team in the playoffs for over 20 years speaks to his talent. Only SJ has been able to repeat that feat in recent times.
I don't attribute Holland's entire success to luck; I think he's probably a slightly above average GM in the nhl, but I also believe he's the most overrated GM in the league.
Before being promoted to GM, Holland was the Director of Amateur Scouting for 7 years and the AGM for 3 years, prior to becoming GM in 1997. Which means, he was Director of Amateur Scouting in 1990... Are you still sure it wasn't Ken Holland who hired Hakan Andersson, per the recommendation of Christer Rockstrom?
I looked up the article as I couldn't remember who had hired Hakan: as I said, it wasn't Ken Holland; it was actually Nick Polano.
Inside the life of Red Wings superscout Hakan Andersson
In July 1989, Detroit scouting director Neil Smith left the Red Wings to become GM of the Rangers. When he departed for New York, Smith brought along Christer Rockström, the European scout who a month earlier had been behind Detroit’s selection of defenseman Nicklas Lidström in the third round of the team’s epic draft. Red Wings assistant GM Nick Polano asked Rockström if he could recommend a replacement.
“[Håkan] had hunger,” says Rockström, 57, who spent 21 years with the Rangers and now works for the Canadiens. “He would be willing to go the extra mile for a team. And I knew he had a good eye. He’d been a pretty good youth player. He knew about puckhandling, skating, edges. He could look at a skater and tell you if a guy was stiff-kneed or knock-kneed.”
Polano flew to Stockholm, where Rockström introduced him to Andersson, a center whose playing career had been cut short before his 18th birthday because of a torn meniscus in his left knee. Polano told Andersson of the job opening in Detroit and then left for a scouting trip to Finland and Russia. When he returned, Polano took Andersson on a traveling job interview around the Swedish Elite League. “I’m telling him what to look for: skating, playmaking ability, hard work, someone who’s not intimidated,” says Polano, now a pro scout for the Senators. “I’d quiz him about this guy or that guy we were watching. And he was bang on. The guy was a natural. After a few days I’m thinking, I’m going to hire a fishing guide.”
It doesn't matter what a GM is given, it's what a GM does with what he is given that matters. On that front, Ken Holland towers over many GMs in the game today. Recency bias doesn't overturn that opinion for me. Maybe it does for you?
I don't really think recency bias has much to do with it. I just don't think Ken Holland deserves much of his reputation.
I don't find Ken Holland's trade record to be that exceptional. Minor hits and misses for the most part.
History of NHL trades by the Detroit Red Wings - NHL Trade Tracker
I don't find his free agent signings record to be that great either. Hits and misses here again. Since the Red Wings have been in decline and aren't a choice destination for free agents anymore most of his signings have been rather pedestrian. Hossa and Hasek were great signings...1o years ago. What's his best signing in the last decade? Bertuzzi? You mentioned "Recency Bias". Is criticizing Holland for not doing much of anything in the last decade as the Red Wings core aged and became the Dead Wings "Recency Bias"?
I maintain that Holland having success after inheriting the best team in the league in 1997 which included Yzerman, Lidstrom, Shanahan and Federov all in their prime years amongst many other great players doesn't really reflect his skill as a GM.
I also maintain that his drafting record in Europe, virtually the result of one Scout who he didn't hire, which allowed him to be the only GM in the NHL to draft two superstars in the later rounds in addition to many other great players also doesn't reflect his skill as a GM.
Evidently you disagree.
I would suggest that if Holland is hired by the Canucks and doesn't happen to inherit one of the all-time great team cores and the best scout in NHL history that the results may be quite different. Do you disagree with this statement?
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