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Let's take a look at the resume' of one Ken Holland from July 2008 to now. July 2008 is when Scotty Bowman left our then great organization to work alongside his son in the Blackhawks front-office (I'm not sure of the exact date, so I'll just include all the things that happened that month on Holland's post-Bowman resume'). There are those here who believe that Bowman's role in our organization as an advisor was not a large one, but I am certainly not one of those fans. I think that Holland having Bowman to go to for advice made a very significant difference in a lot of things around here; and I think that we should all at least take a look at Ken Holland's post-Bowman resume'. Significant Draft Picks (that have played in at least one NHL game...the 2008 draft was in June): -2009: Tomas Tatar (9 career games, 1 goal, 1 point) -2010: Riley Sheahan (1 career game, 4 penalty minutes) -2011: -2012: ...10 games, 1 point and 4 penalty minutes out of our last three drafts (and 0 playoff games). That's not good. I know it takes time to develop young players in general. I know that we draft especially young players. I know that we like to take an especially long time to develop them. And I know that we've got some other potentially promising prospects in the system that we've drafted since then - Cale Jarnrkrok(2010), Teemu Pulkkinen(2010), Petr Mrazek(2010) and Tomas Jurco(2011). But still, it's not good. There are other NHL teams that have drafted significant contributors late since 2009. And how much are we really expecting of the aforementioned prospects anyways? I won't hold this against Ken Holland for the reasons stated above, but his post-Bowman drafting has certainly not yet shown itself to be a positive. That much is fair. Significant Free Agent Signings: -2008/2009: M. Hossa, T. Conklin -2009/2010: T. Bertuzzi, D. Miller, P. Eaves, J. Williams. -2010/2011: R. Salei, M. Modano -2011/2012: I. White -2012/2013: D. Brunner, M. Samuelsson, J. Tootoo, J. Gustavsson ...Man, underwhelming, isn't it? The Hossa signing was a great one for sure. But it was him and his agent that sought us out, not the other way around. The Ian White signing I thought was great, but not an enormous impact-signing. The Bertuzzi signing was okay I guess. Salei was a solid signing, for the price, as a sixth D. Miller is a solid depth guy. Eaves would be, albeit an overpaid one, if he was healthy. Conklin was okay as a backup. Williams and Modano didn't pan out. The one's this off-season we'll have to wait and see on. But man, honestly, in the last five seasons White is really the only significant addition that we've made to the team through FA. Certainly a negative for Holland here thus far. Significant Trades: -2008/2009: -2009/2010: -2010/2011: V. Leino for O. Tollefsen -2011/2012: 1st round pick for K. Quincey -2012/2013: ...The Leino trade was obviously a horrific one. IMO, the Quincey one was a waste of a pick as well (he's not very..good). Certainly another negative for Holland here thus far. Results: -2008/2009: Stanley Cup Finals Losers. -2009/2010: Second round exit. -2010/2011: Second round exit. -2011/2012: First round exit. -2012/2013: ...Seems we're just getting worse and worse, losing more and adding less, with each passing season since Bowman left. Cooincidence? I think not. ***** Here's a new way to evaluate Holland's performance here since Bowman left: How has he replaced what we've lost from the 2008 Stanley Cup Championship team he inherited? It might not be an all-inclusive method of evaluation, but it's certainly an angle that's at least worth looking at. *Keep in mind that we're talking about the player we had IN 2008...and then what we have now. Forwards: J. Hudler----------D. Brunner. I'll have to see it to believe it, but from what we've been told, Brunner now shouldn't be much of a drop-off from Hudler of 08. T. Holmstrom----------G. Nyquist. Very, very different players, but I really, really like Nyquist, so I'll dare to again say "not much of a drop-off." K. Draper----------J. Abdelkader. Abby might never be what Draper was, but isn't much worse now than Draper was in 08...aside from faceoffs. Not much of a drop-off. D. Drake----------T. Bertuzzi. Again, very different players. Drake did some things Bert doesn't. Bert does some things Drake didn't. Not much of a drop-off. D. McCarty----------J. Tootoo. Tootoo's not the intimidator McCarty was, even in 08. McCarty wasn't the skater that Tootoo is. Not much of a drop-off. K. Maltby----------D. Miller. See the Draper/Abdelkader comparision. Not much of a drop-off. M. Hartigan----------P. Eaves. Probably the one instance amongst the forwards of actual improvement. Too bad it's the 14th forward. Defensemen: N. Lidstrom----------J. Ericsson. I won't even dignify this by attempting to compare. B. Rafalski----------I. White. Not even close. B. Stuart----------K. Quincey. Not really close. A. Lilja----------B. Smith. Perhaps an improvement? B. Lebda----------J. Kindl. How in the world do you not improve over Lebda in 4 seasons? C. Chelios----------??? Goalies: C. Osgood----------J. Howard. Not quite there yet. But not that far off either. D. Hasek----------J. Gustavsson. Backup goalies don't matter enough to get into this one. In general: 1) The forward group remains more or less the same, though older. I'd say that age has had more of a negative impact than development has had a positive impact. 2) The defensive group has been completely wiped out and not even close to replaced in most cases. 3) The goalies are more or less the same. So, there you have it. That's what Ken Holland's done. Hasn't improved anything since he's been here. Has let us get A LOT worse on the back end. That's it. All there is to it. Bottom line. Period.