If you caught Fox 2’s SportsWorks round-table on Sunday, the Oakland Press’s Pat Caputo got particularly angry when discussing the Red Wings’ free agent moves…
Given they already had little cap space to work with in a hard cap league, this could preclude the Red Wings making value-for-value trades for players other organizations desire to move because of cost, that would fit the Red Wings better in the long-range future. But then again, Holland NEVER makes player-for-player trades in the off season. He ALWAYS falls into the trap of overpaying veterans in free agency to set the roster before it needs to be. He is ALWAYS overvaluing his own players. Come on, why is this particular organization signing 33- and 34-year-old veteran free agent skaters like Green and Thomas Vanek as free agents? It’s about as nonsensical as it gets.
And please, spare us the line about “veteran presence to help the youngsters.” The Red Wings already have a whole bunch of that because of bad-value deals Holland handed out in the past.
Caputo continues, and I know that some of you feel similarly…
Complacent even after not fielding a competitive team. These signings are why I don’t go to games. So frustrating as a fan.
Holland did well under the old system but has shown no ability to build a winner in a hard cap league.
Pretty well nails it.
And before anyone trots out the “we don’t want to be edm” straw man. There is a whole spectrum of rebuild between edm on one end and the wings on the other. If kenny moved a little bit toward edm, we might even be able to say the red wings have finally entered into a rebuild. As it stands, we aren’t rebuilding, we’re “retooling, sneaking in and anything can happen, 2% ” better mode.