Are you OK with management Mistakes when they make them?

[calder candidate]

If a move is made for the right reason or part of a larger strategy and aren’t assuming all the risk but just doesn’t pan out I ok with it, if it a move to react and not part of a strategy or we are assuming most of the risk, than we can see that it won’t pay off in The long run, than I’m not ok with it…

 

[Twisted Sinister]

I think the answer to this question is more simple than one would think.

They can make mistakes, they can hit home runs, but that's not the true measure of success.

The measure of success is results. This is pro sports, not the Participation Olympics.

If they're an elite team with a sizeable window in 5-7 years, then they will have succeeded. If they are not, then they will have failed. Till then, we'll nitpick every decision they make because that's what forums are for. If they make a string of consecutive idiotic decisions, we're likely to notice things aren't on track.

As for the current team, I like a lot of what they've done on the management and development side. I also like that, in a lot of cases, we're aligned with their decisions and those decisions seem to make sense. They've also been somewhat transparent and candid so far with their reasoning on things provided we can take what they've said at face value.

Here are some things I don't like:
-The Bobrov hiring and keeping on Lapointe.
-The Slaf pick smacks to me of dinosaur hockey mentality and trying to be the smartest guys in the room. I don't know how that will work out.
-WHY IS BURROWS STILL HERE
-Unwillingness to say they'll commit to a full rebuild, which I think is Molson's doing

 

[aresknights]

Yes, no problem.
Just be aggressive with a plan n stick to it whatever it is.
Love aggressive management of any team or Biz as long as they have clear vision, goals, plan.

 

[HuGort]

Hello there guys;
So, I see there is two tokens to every transactions; some trades or signings or drafts pan out while other fall flat on the face.

I understand the risk and have accepted that we might not hit and may fail on certain moves, but I want to back this management for their willingness to take the risk.

What is your take on how management is handling the team rebuild?

According to the mistake. If Slaf fails will not be happy

 

[Chili]

Someone put it best here a few years ago, the Habs used to be trend setters and at a certain point they became followers. There have been positive steps the last few years, bringing the AHL team to Laval, adding the ECHL team. The Euro draft combine was the type of creativity the organization used to be known for.

The key is to learn from mistakes and to improve.

 

[BLONG7]

Mistakes are fine obvious stupidity isn't.

This.....................................

 

[CHwest]

I disagree. Drouin just had 14 points in 17 playoffs games and then 53 in 73 while Sergachev didn't even play a game in the NHL.

How could you possibly know that we were screwed at that point ?

It's easy to say afterwards that it didn't turn so well for us, but at the day of the trade it actually made sense.

Well we agree to disagree.

 

[calder candidate]

I disagree. Drouin just had 14 points in 17 playoffs games and then 53 in 73 while Sergachev didn't even play a game in the NHL.

How could you possibly know that we were screwed at that point ?

It's easy to say afterwards that it didn't turn so well for us, but at the day of the trade it actually made sense.

Didn’t like 26 of is 53 pts come on the PP also wasn’t he playing with Kucherov. I agree that the 14 in the playoff were good but there were plenty of red flag, but the biggest issue for me was the situation, TB couldn’t sign Drouin because of cap issue (also not wanting to resign), TB had issue with the expansion draft they had to protect Drouin but at the same time he was the odd man out, TB lack D prospects and Segachev was among the NHL best D prospect.

That trade help their cap situation, their expansion draft situation and they traded from a position of strength wing (I guy that was already the odd man out) to address a position of weakness. TB was a contending team and That trade check all the boxes

MTL wasn’t going anywhere and we even added a conditional 2nd (good thing the condition weren’t met). We had lost 3 LD in the same offseason and traded away our best prospect a LD, MB had to know Radulov was gone, We didn’t help our cap, we trade from a position of weakness to try to address a other weakness. For MTL This was just has much of a PR move than a hockey trade but for TB they were going to gain on many front even if Segachev didn’t come a first pairing D.

 

[dcyhabs]

I disagree. Drouin just had 14 points in 17 playoffs games and then 53 in 73 while Sergachev didn't even play a game in the NHL.

How could you possibly know that we were screwed at that point ?

It's easy to say afterwards that it didn't turn so well for us, but at the day of the trade it actually made sense.

Yzerman knew how to showcase a player he didn’t want and the habs are suckers for low value guys. It’s fine to buy low but not if you overpay.

It’s fine if the new management team gets stuff wrong. You can’t predict everything, player development, fit, injuries. What will be important is the decision making process. Bergevin’s was truly terrible and it showed in a lot of picks snd signings. Hughes is smarter and has better people around but we’ll see the decisions that come out of the group. It’s fine to get stuff wrong, it’s not fine to consistently make the same mistakes or get bad decisions out of the group.

 

[Rapala]

Well we agree to disagree.

The last thing we needed at that time was another small forward. People overlook the team building aspect of this deal. Resigning Radulov and Markov were the clear hockey related priorities. Drouin was an Ego and Popularity move. Just My Take.

 

[ThaDevilGirl]

Didn’t like 26 of is 53 pts come on the PP also wasn’t he playing with Kucherov. I agree that the 14 in the playoff were good but there were plenty of red flag, but the biggest issue for me was the situation, TB couldn’t sign Drouin because of cap issue (also not wanting to resign), TB had issue with the expansion draft they had to protect Drouin but at the same time he was the odd man out, TB lack D prospects and Segachev was among the NHL best D prospect.

That trade help their cap situation, their expansion draft situation and they traded from a position of strength wing (I guy that was already the odd man out) to address a position of weakness. TB was a contending team and That trade check all the boxes

MTL wasn’t going anywhere and we even added a conditional 2nd (good thing the condition weren’t met). We had lost 3 LD in the same offseason and traded away our best prospect a LD, MB had to know Radulov was gone, We didn’t help our cap, we trade from a position of weakness to try to address a other weakness. For MTL This was just has much of a PR move than a hockey trade but for TB they were going to gain on many front even if Segachev didn’t come a first pairing D.

And Drouin was traded for so he would play C... Like WTF

 

[Vachon23]

Every management in every sports make mistakes so yes I’m OK with mistakes if there was a plan behind that

 

[zx81]

There were a lot of mistakes done in the MB/Timmins era but no real stupid moves. (Gally'contract and Aho's offersheet were borderline though).

IMO the last real stupid decisions made by Habs management were the Pierre Turgeon/Corson trade and the Patrick Roy trade.

 

[dcyhabs]

The last thing we needed at that time was another small forward. People overlook the team building aspect of this deal. Resigning Radulov and Markov were the clear hockey related priorities. Drouin was an Ego and Popularity move. Just My Take.

Bergevin had a few strengths snd a lot of weaknesses. His weakest point was team building. He would randomly plug guys in and expect them to reproduce their best seasons.

A few did, like Domi, but most did as well as any randomly added player would do. Alzner was obviously a bad option, Hoffman didn’t fit at all, there was no role for Drouin, and no reason to believe he could play center. It’s one thing to claim to win trades, it’s another to acquire players who will help the team.

 

[dcyhabs]

There were a lot of mistakes done in the MB/Timmins era but no real stupid moves. (Gally'contract and Aho's offersheet were borderline though).

IMO the last real stupid decisions made by Habs management were the Pierre Turgeon/Corson trade and the Patrick Roy trade.

The salary dumps of the ‘90s doomed yhe team long term. MB and Timmins made a number of dumb moves, MB made a lot in his final offseason.

Most of the draft picks weren’t obviously bad when they were made ignoring the team. Considering the development process they needed to draft more polished prospects regardless of ceiling.

I disagreed with a lot of Hughes’ moves do far, but I can see that he is considering how the team will be built. Wright may be way better than Slaf, we’ll see, but he’d be yet another smallish skilled forward who has trouble with contact. Slaf is something they really don’t have, and looks more likely to succeed than the many previous big guys they took who didn’t make the team.

MB never had a plan, or development, or any idea of how players would work together. Hughes may get some of it wrong but he’s definitely thinking about it. Success or failure depends on a lot of stuff, but Hughes is improving the odds.

 

[Beer and Chips]

As my first boss told me "If you don't f*** up you're not trying, just don't make a habit of it"

You're lucky.

 

[Beer and Chips]

It's really Wright vs Slafkovsky and Dach. If Dach succeeds and Slafkovsky fails, the pain is less. If both fail, we better draft Bedard. I understand reasoned gambles but you need a backup plan.

 

[JeffreyLFC]

I disagree. Drouin just had 14 points in 17 playoffs games and then 53 in 73 while Sergachev didn't even play a game in the NHL.

How could you possibly know that we were screwed at that point ?

It's easy to say afterwards that it didn't turn so well for us, but at the day of the trade it actually made sense.

The main flaw of that trade is the fact they we never replaced Markov (and although very different in style), Sergachev could have been part of that solution moving forward.

Oh yes, also not re-signing Markov and replacing him with Alzner was even more dumb that summer.

 

[WeThreeKings]

The main flaw of that trade is the fact they we never replaced Markov (and although very different in style), Sergachev could have been part of that solution moving forward.

Oh yes, also not re-signing Markov and replacing him with Alzner was even more dumb that summer.

and letting Radulov go because you wanted to be hard during negotiations.

 

[JianYang]

So far so good.

You can't expect a 100% batting averaging with your moves, but you should expect them not to drift from their vision.

Right now is the easy part in that they are accumulating magic beans. What will define their legacy though is how these magic beans grow, and if they do, then the really hard part is about further elevating the team into consistent contendership.

 

[Ezpz]

Mistakes happen in life. The issue is when people like Bergevin or Therrien don't learn from their mistakes or even think they did anything wrong. Like how many prospects did we let Therrien and Lefebvre ruin before we moved on? 4-5 seasons. We literally had a cup-contending core to start with at the beginning of Bergy's tenure. How did it take him until 2020 to realize the 2011 Boston Bruins weren't replicable without one of your players' dads being in charge of the department of safety? I absolutely guarantee without Campbell refusing to suspend Chara, suspending Rome for a clean hit, or any other minor variances that the Bruins would have never won a cup. Even with all those benefits they were still down 3-2 with an all-time performance from Tim Thomas who was winning the Conn Smythe no matter who won that series.

I don't mind mistakes when they're one-offs. If we get burned by Slaf for example, which I'm not sure our development staff has changed enough yet to say I'm confident we won't, I wouldn't want to gamble on a project the next time we have a high pick.

So far I'm not sure many mistakes have been made. There's only been a few minor disagreements between Hughes moves and the fans opinions. Slaf was probably the big one and the Romanov to Dach trade tree. Dach looks fantastic in pre-season and no one else has looked better the Slaf yet--in fact it looks like none of the guys drafted should start in the NHL Some thought Toffoli was worth more but Mesar and Heineman is looking like a fantastic return.

So even if some of these things become mistakes, as long as Hughes reflects on why they were mistakes and at least tries to avoid repeating them, I will be fine. Bergevin clearly kept repeating the same mistakes year after year.