Abel to Yzerman

Abel to Yzerman

Losing Luster Looks A Lot Like This

07/02/2016 at 7:39am EDT

Steve Yzerman had just retired and was working as a member of Ken Holland's famed "management team", the group we like to point to as collective failures instead of the very individual failure Holland himself has become. Yzerman was very new to the business side and the idea of him walking from the Edmonton ice straight into the Wing GM job was not appetizing to us, or to him.

He wasn't ready and nobody knew if he ever would be.

But he worked under "the league's best GM" and he got ready. He got ready fast. Most likely he watched Holland closely, watched how he handled and trusted the best scouts (especially the fellas overseas) in the business. He probably learned a lot how to do the tricky work of dealing with agents and a demanding owner.

He probably learned a lot about what not to do, too. He probably watched Holland consistently fail at bringing in the kind of talent that would have allowed Nick Lidstrom, Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg a few more legitimate shots at Cups in their final quality years. He watched as the tandem of Holland and Babcock stifled a youth movement, with no outright idea as to how to blend that youth with veterans.

He watched Holland allow for the decay of a blue line to the point that the Wings have, literally, no top four defensemen.

Much of that he's watched from afar because he left Detroit for Tampa in 2010, coincidentally the year the Wing decline really picked up steam.

He left for Tampa because he couldn't have the Detroit job. He couldn't have the Detroit job because Ken Holland wouldn't give it up.

When Steve Yzerman left the front office to manage the Lightning, Mike Ilitch said he had approached Holland about moving up in the front office to make room for Yzerman as general manager.

Ilitch said Holland declined.

That's Krupa, back in April.

If we were nervous about a young (to the job) Yzerman assuming the GM title back then, those nerves would have been calmed by a President of Hockey Operations in Kenny Holland. Holland could have moved up, served as an advisor to both Ilitch and Yzerman, and Yzerman would have essentially learned (more) on the job.

But the King didn't want to relinquish the throne. And since then he's done nothing but sit in it and soil himself.

We could have had Yzerman. Yup. And we should have. I'm not going to tell you I pushed for it then, because I didn't. But, in hindsight, smarter men than me should have made it happen.

Now we may never get him back. With every passing year, Yzerman's loyalty to this franchise is shifting squarely to the one he now runs. Who's the heir apparent to Holland now? Kris Draper? Ryan Martin? Good hockey men, particularly Martin I guess, but not when it could have, and should have, been Yzerman.

Greg Wyshynski actually triggered this post with a tweet this morning,

Just wanted to remind Red Wings fans that Steve Yzerman would be your GM but Ken Holland didn't want to move upstairs.

Yup. We know.

As I said yesterday, it was a conditional failure. Did we expect a UFA defenseman? No. There wasn't one worth the effort. Kris Russel is not going to fit that bill. Dan Hamhuis didn't. Kyle Quincey is still jobless, as he should be, until Holland brings him back.

There are trades in the works. I do believe Holland is attempting to move Nyquist or Tatar, or both, for Shattenkirk or Fowler. But even that trade, when and if it happens, will be bitter. It shouldn't have come to this. The blue line should have been addressed long ago. Operating from a position of extreme weakness has become Holland's warm place. He wallows in it. Then he uses it as a crutch when he can't improve this team. He "kicks tires", then "likes his team". He's "excited" about yesterday.

Excited about another gentle, nice man in Nielsen. "Excited" about another aging reclamation project in Vanek. Excited about Steve Ott, who wanted to be a Wing his whole life, but only here at the tail end of his career when no other offers came in. If Steve Ott grew up a Wing fan, always wanted to wear a Wing jersey, why didn't Holland get him in '08, or '10, or even '14, or whichever years he was on the move?

At least one Digger is starting to notice. In his defense, Krupa always has. Where Kulfan, Khan(!) and the ridiculously lemming-like St. James have refused to honestly assess Holland for what he's become, Krupa has turned up the heat. But he's doing it in an unusual, and cautious, way. He's deferring to us. Consistently.

Oh, he could have done better and, regardless, it is unlikely to satisfy a good chunk of the fans.

That's this morning, and there's more.

Holland’s reputation is in decline among many fans in Detroit, even as it has held steady with so-called hockey people around the NHL, including media veterans.

And more...

He is criticized for loyalty to a fault, while young prospects languish in Grand Rapids. Those critics believe lavishing more than $19 million on Darren Helm for five years is the latest example.

June 30th...

Used to contending for Stanley Cups, denizens of the place trademarked Hockeytown are increasingly frustrated.

The next step is outright criticism, of his own. Not paraphrasing what you and I have said for many months. There's a big difference between "Holland is failing," and "the fans are not happy with Holland." Will he get there? Not sure. Detroit, and the media that is absolutely controlled by the Ilitch machine, is different. If this were Toronto, the columnists would have blasted Holland into tomorrow long ago. When? It would have started on July 5th, 2012...the day after Suter and Parise two-stepped into the prairie, together, wearing bonnets and carrying milk buckets.

A trade is coming. Even Holland, in his comfortable complacency, knows it has to happen. The machinations began yesterday as he stockpiled forwards. Somebody's moving and somebody's coming in. Cam Fowler probably.

And meanwhile, Yzerman, steely-eyed and hungry, continues to make Tampa a frigging power house. Would the Wings be in this position of mediocrity if that resolve and that determination called Hockeytown home? Hell no.

Mike Babcock left Detroit because Ken Holland wasn't going to dramatically improve this team. Steve Yzerman won't be coming back because Ken Holland's ego wouldn't let him leave a job the media lackeys (and us for a long time) claimed he did better than anyone else. Big name free agents aren't here because the Wings aren't the luxury destination anymore, because they don't see it as a place to win quickly.

That all changes if Holland scores Shattenkirk for anyone but Larkin. Literally, anyone but Larkin. As much as I love AA, and I do, he may have to leave to get that kind of talent. Fowler is nice. Shattenkirk is a step above.

Subban would have been nice too, by the way.

But that's crazy talk. That kind of deal is so far beyond Ken Holland's capabilities that I feel dirty mentioning it.

Steve Yzerman should be the guy running this show. We know it and he probably does too. Ken Holland probably sees it as "could be the guy running this show." But Holland wasn't willing to give it up, and here we sit.

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Welcome to Abel to Yzerman, a Red Wing blog since 1977. No other site on the internet has better-researched, fact-laden and better prepared discussions than A2Y. Re-phrase: we do little research, find facts and stats highly overrated and claim little to no preparation. There are 19 readers of A2Y. No more, no less. All of them, except maybe one, are juvenile in nature. Reminding them of that in the comment section will only encourage them to prove that.

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