Risto is an example of the schizophrenic nature of this FO before Torts was hired. He "played the Flyer way", just listen to Keith Jones get woodies over his hits?#&%!
Stewart, Anisimov are non-issues, no resources, no opportunity costs. Sedlak the same, except in his case they got a bargain.
Niskanen was fine, gave up Gudas, in 2018 it was either rebuild or go for it before G and Voracek started to go downhill, i.e. they had a short-term window to compete.
Braun the same thing, they gave up a 2nd and 3rd, got a 3rd back last season and will probably get a 3rd back this TDL.
Ellis was part of the "win now" approach, bad luck, but the bigger problem was the window was closing, that was a 2018, not a 2020 type of move. Yandle was obviously driven by AV who didn't like Ghost and got an older, slower version who he knew.
Deslauriers is part of the rebuild, rebuilding teams don't just strip the roster down and play plenty of kids, good rebuilds need to establish structure and a tone. Torts wants an aggressive forecheck, and Deslauriers does that every shift, so does MacEwen and Sedlak. That sets the expectations for young forwards when they come up. If young players push him out of the lineup in a year or two, the cost to bury him is $500K, not exactly a franchise killer.
TDA is a gamble, the offensive skills are obvious, the defensive deficiencies as well. So far, there's been no character or clubhouse issues, the question is whether he'll play more disciplined hockey or when does Torts run out of patience.
