Behind Enemy Lines
Registered User
I think you seriously over value and over state the contribution of Holland Jr. both the person and the subordinate reality of the position within a professional business. The Oilers were always prioritizing a top 4 d man and it's clear as the market sorted it was Ekholm or Chychrun. The issue was money out to make any deal happen. That's all the decision making purvue of a GM to make and Holland's made big ones over twenty five years doing the gig. Holland had to build up quality support in all areas following the carpet bombing work of Chiarelli. That involved spending big money of guys and the later stage putting their first round pick(s) on the table.
You can't also cherry pick and divorce Jr. from bad organizational decisions based up professional scouting like the debacle Campbell free agency bet on the guy he would have saw a ton playing in his home base city. Or Henrique and Carrick with multiple needs and few assets and no cap to work from. The juice of a professional scouting group is to find latent, unrealized potential to improve a team. They continue to be light in this regard. The obvious stuff is hey we like Zach Hyman, that Ekholm guy is pretty good but so is Chychrun. Where's this team's Dakota Joshua types?
JR. has a light resume but good with self promotion doing the media rounds as a middle manager. He's been adequate but hardly a world beater finding this team hidden gems with latent potential that separate good or adequate from great pro scouting organizations. Ken Holland has hits and big misses but they're all his finger on the trigger, not some middle managers regardless of surname.
