He was the director of scouting. Holland didn’t ascend in Detroit because he had the wrong ideas. He helped turn around the talent, then after Devellano and Bowman ill-fated thoughts on trading Yzerman he gained more power before fully gaining control outside of the three gm setup. He hired Hakan Andersson and Jim Nill. His best talent was honestly surrounding himself with good people.
Hey people can continue this strange narrative. The guy is in the HHOF for a reason. Like I said people can say the game has passed him by, but he very clearly is one of the smarter hockey minds of my lifetime. So to get advice and to have as a sounding board isn’t a bad thing. This rumor doesn’t have him as an ultimate decision maker. It has him in the kind of role Devellano assumed in Detroit for a ton of years.