Speculation: Armchair GM Thread

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I been wanting us to rebuild for the last 2 or so years and I've came to this reality. This front office will never rebuild so while it's good to talk about the simple truth is that it just isn't happening. I wasn't a fan of alot of poiles moves as of late but what trotz has turn this team into I would love to see poile back. He has no idea what he's doing with absolutely no direction. He says something then does the complete opposite. When he first got hired he talked about getting out of the mushy middle and taken some steps back he traded Joey and released duchene a necessary step towards a rebuild then goes and signs 3 vets over the age of 30. He talk about getting faster but with his first pick he drafted the slowest one drafted in the first round in woods. He has allowed a coach to bench our young while playing tweeners and then double downs on the moves by waiving them or trading them from scraps. He's a joke and should be fired in the off-season but he won't be because our owners are just as clueless
Yeah it's exactly this.

If we are never going to rebuild, we are never going to win a cup. Look at every single winner since the salary cap era. Almost single team was in the toilet at some point, sold pieces, drafted and developed elite talent and won cups.

Chicago
Los Angles
Boston
Pittsburgh
Colorado
Florida
Tampa
Washington
Anaheim

The only four I will maybe concede are Vegas, Carolina, Detroit and St Louis.

Four teams out of 19 years of hockey. History is not on our side.
 
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Yeah it's exactly this.

If we are never going to rebuild, we are never going to win a cup. Look at every single winner since the salary cap era. Almost single team was in the toilet at some point, sold pieces, drafted and developed elite talent and won cups.

Chicago
Los Angles
Boston
Pittsburgh
Colorado
Florida
Tampa
Washington
Anaheim

The only four I will maybe concede are Vegas, Carolina, Detroit and St Louis.

Four teams out of 19 years of hockey. History is not on our side.
Not sure if Chicago and Pittsburgh are best examples there either. Landed a generational pick that was their catalyst. I know Edmonton is the counter, but they're on the brink now...
 
I think a lot of it in Trotz's mind is that rebuilding means you gotta tear the entire thing down and suck for 5 years, you don't, you just need to take advantage of the bad years when you have them like this one to rebuild.

You take this year and do whatever you need to do to get that future 1C. I don't care if you lose the lottery and need to trade up by giving a team everything else you have for the next 3 years, that's the piece you need first and you do whatever it takes to get it.

You can keep some Vets around to set examples, and to just keep things from getting hopeless for the fans. What he can not do is screw up this years draft, you do that and we might as well just stay home for the next 10 years.
 
Yeah it's exactly this.

If we are never going to rebuild, we are never going to win a cup. Look at every single winner since the salary cap era. Almost single team was in the toilet at some point, sold pieces, drafted and developed elite talent and won cups.

Chicago
Los Angles
Boston
Pittsburgh
Colorado
Florida
Tampa
Washington
Anaheim

The only four I will maybe concede are Vegas, Carolina, Detroit and St Louis.

Four teams out of 19 years of hockey. History is not on our side.
Vegas might not of rebuilt but they made the necessary moves to become contenders and eventually win the cup. We could of been in on stone and eichel but poile probably didn't wanna come off one of his top prospects that probably ended up not being developed right and we ended up trading him or waiving him. I think I heard that ottawa wanted tolvenan in the stone trade but poile didn't want to come off of him. I might be wrong my memory is getting worse the older I get.

Speaking of developing. We need to get rid of our development staff. They are horrible. You don't need top 5 picks if you have good scouts and developing staff. Look at dallas. Almost all their drafted players are late 1st or 2nd rounders. Same with st louis. It's crazy that can't find one player in the draft and develop him into a top 6 player. Still have hope for Luke and Zach but we'll see
 
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I don't really have an issue with the O'Reilly situation if he really wants to stay here (we didn't show the same respect to Duchene, but I digress). I'd like to see him moved if there's a strong return, but who knows what the conversation looked like when he first signed or since. If the "respect" angle pays off with us being able to sign a guy we might not have otherwise a few years down the road, or bringing ROR into an off-ice role some day, even better.

Guy works his ass off and just seems like he wants to keep his head down and go out and play no-bullshit hockey. If I had a pick of vets I'd prefer to keep around and actually mentor the younger players (not that we'll ever do that), he'd probably be top of the list from this crop.
O'Reilly at his current salary and performance is a net positive asset, for sure. I just don't think we should look at our team situation, and his situation as a veteran player, and say it's essentially "impossible" for us to trade him, which seems to be Trotz's mindset. Telling the world he basically has a NMC when he doesn't, and saying the return needs to be astronomical, that's basically the same as telling all rival GMs to take a hike.

O'Reilly is still a very useful player for us. That's also why he would still have value around the league. But there is a perceptible decline in his performance from last season. Where does that go next season? Where does our team go next season? With or without O'Reilly? I'm thinking he's not going to be better, and nor is our team. Soooo... end of the day, I wouldn't want to be hanging a sign in the window telling other teams to steer clear of asking about O'Reilly. I like him just fine, but you have to be realistic about both his age and where our franchise sits. Tell me what the possible trade return is. This isn't "actively shopping him". But at least be open to evaluating any offers in a pragmatic way. If we could get another 1st (2026 say) and a good prospect for him... I think that's 2 more darts on the board which is what we need more than 1 need one good hard-working veteran player. End of the day, we have a major skill gap in our lineup. We need that skill infusion more than anything else.

You can find "veteran leadership" on the UFA market or waiver wire any time you want it. I'm not entirely dismissing the value to a team in having that veteran leadership. But it's not something that should hold prime asset value. It's readily available. Supply and demand. Veteran players with intangibles are a readily available commodity. So. Prioritize getting talent first and foremost. Talent is harder to come by.

Past that, I think there is also a "crutch factor" when you rely on declining veterans in your lineup and divvy up icetime accordingly. O'Reilly is a solid hard-working player. But he's basically a 2C. When you lean on guys for icetime who aren't as good as the role they're holding, then you're also stealing icetime from other players who might eventually develop into being the same or better. O'Reilly is far from the worst example of how we are doing that with the current roster, of course. But end of the day, for all he's still hanging in there as a net good player, kicking the crutch out from the coach might also help us better apportion icetime to players who have more to offer to us in the future overall.
 
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Not sure if Chicago and Pittsburgh are best examples there either. Landed a generational pick that was their catalyst. I know Edmonton is the counter, but they're on the brink now...
Absolutely they should be in there. They sucked for years and made the most of their draft picks. It wasn't just Toews and Kane. It was other players as well. They drafted incredible talent because they tore things down and then developed and signed complimentary players.

This is exactly the approach Nashville should be taking.
 
Absolutely they should be in there. They sucked for years and made the most of their draft picks. It wasn't just Toews and Kane. It was other players as well. They drafted incredible talent because they tore things down and then developed and signed complimentary players.

This is exactly the approach Nashville should be taking.
They definitely sucked for years. Just not confident Nashville will get a chance at one of the best players since Gretzky.
 
The nuance that I think the clip was trying to get at, but got really sidetracked into simply ripping on Trotz for being a button pushing fool, is that a NTC deal gives the player leverage in any trade possibilities. It puts the team at a disadvantage because it can only talk to certain other teams. So the point is, Trotz is a participating fool and ceding his own authority to a player when he goes around saying one of his guys has an imaginary NTC.

ROR signed a team friendly deal. He's being paid like a pedestrian middle-6 guy, which is all he was going to be in Toronto. But he chose Nashville when they matched. And since we don't have any centers, he instantly became our 1C.

In the big picture, we should be focusing on the roadmap for how we become a competitive team in what is now 5 years or so. The "bump" ROR gives us, even on a team friendly deal, isn't going to change much the next 2 years after we got gutted.

The other way to look at it, the shorter path if you will, is that the new veteran guys just added should be sold. Now they actually do have NMCs, which is bad for the Preds and why you don't just hand them out to everyone, but they've already shown they're not a good fit here. You may have to eat some contract and, if they waive, they'll force Trotz to negotiate with a short list of buyers. That's all on him though. Every last bit of it. Which leads to him being the dumbest GM in the NHL. He's handcuffed himself to a roster that he built like he's playing PlayStation in his basement and instead of building for the future, he's just been quadrupling down on his mistakes. Bruno forever!
 
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I watch players from other teams score on us and the announcement is made that it is the players 13th, 15th, or 17th goal this season, and I realize they are names I have never heard of and ages anywhere from 20-25 years old and furthermore not early first round picks. I can only realize how far behind our scouting and development staff are behind the rest of the league. When I hear about our players having a Country Club mentality I can only surmise the bigger problem is our development staff, and scouting staff are the true Boys Club Country Club problem.
 
I don't see Nashville ever doing a full on rebuild. Their only SC run was not with a young group. BT thinks he can get their with older players like he had in DC. Ads players only get to play when current players are injured, mostly. Otherwise they get the 4th line 5-8 min a game then sent back down. This team is hard to watch. Never know which team will show up and play. Most players look lost at times. The other teams seem to know how we play and intercept our passes and stealing the puck a lot. Like when they throw the puck around the boards from one side to the next, our player sits at a spot and waits for the puck, the other teams players just goes and gets in front of him and steals it. I see that a lot during the game.
 
I think a lot of it in Trotz's mind is that rebuilding means you gotta tear the entire thing down and suck for 5 years, you don't, you just need to take advantage of the bad years when you have them like this one to rebuild.

You take this year and do whatever you need to do to get that future 1C. I don't care if you lose the lottery and need to trade up by giving a team everything else you have for the next 3 years, that's the piece you need first and you do whatever it takes to get it.

You can keep some Vets around to set examples, and to just keep things from getting hopeless for the fans. What he can not do is screw up this years draft, you do that and we might as well just stay home for the next 10 years.
This would be a great year to cut some of the vets and start gearing towards a quick dip into the gutter for a great pick this year and maybe next.

Cut some assets that have value:
Sissons
Nyquist
RoR
Lauzon


Plug those holes with some assets pick up through taking payment for a capdump and young players. Lauzon/Sissons roles can be from capdumps and RoR - (Svechkov/Novak) Nyquist - (Evangelista/L'Heureux/Kemell) through young players.

Draft a Hagens/Misa and then dmen with the other 1st. Grab a goalie in the 2nd and start resetting for next season. If next season goes sideways again, evaluate what to do with the much older guys like Josi, Marchessault, and stamkos.
 
I don't see Nashville ever doing a full on rebuild. Their only SC run was not with a young group. BT thinks he can get their with older players like he had in DC. Ads players only get to play when current players are injured, mostly. Otherwise they get the 4th line 5-8 min a game then sent back down. This team is hard to watch. Never know which team will show up and play. Most players look lost at times. The other teams seem to know how we play and intercept our passes and stealing the puck a lot. Like when they throw the puck around the boards from one side to the next, our player sits at a spot and waits for the puck, the other teams players just goes and gets in front of him and steals it. I see that a lot during the game.
I doubt we ever do an intentional tank but we very well may be entering a forced rebuild through just naturally being talented. Our group on the Cup run was really young though and I wish we would realize that. Fisher and Rinne were the only regulars over 30 on the roster and every one of our best skaters were 27 or younger.
 
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If you dont ever let the youth go into the top 6, you are going to hit one hell of a wall when your top 6 gets old and cant perform. Forsberg if the youngster at 30 everyone else is mid 30s. Its only a matter of time until it collapses. Got a sneak peak of it already
 
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If you dont ever let the youth go into the top 6, you are going to hit one hell of a wall when your top 6 gets old and cant perform. Forsberg if the youngster at 30 everyone else is mid 30s. Its only a matter of time until it collapses. Got a sneak peak of it already
Nah, you can just sign decent UFAs every summer, just keep your head above water and never care about developing anyone. There’s always guys like Stephenson or Marchessault available in FA.
 

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