So I looked up his 4 years in Carolina and it was -100. So in seven full seasons -157 goals saves above expected. Is that bad luck, or bad management?
In terms of the Cam Ward he inherited? Bad luck - Ward had been run into the ground as a goalie on a huge contract that Karmanos was never going to authorize buying out. The only 2 backups JR ever brought in that were worth a shit were Legace (and that was an emergency due to Ward's injuries) and Khudobin, who was something of a one-year wonder here before becoming decidedly meh.
In terms of his solutions? Bad management and worse scouting. Lack was entirely a product of a very strong Vancouver team, and Darling... I don't know what the scouts were telling him on that one but that was the biggest miss I've ever seen on a goalie. Some of that was all Darling (falling off the wagon the second he got away from his support system) but even THAT side of things should have been spotted in scouting before we made the trade. I still don't know how his contract wasn't instantly terminated when he came into camp THAT out of shape his first year, and it likely could have been done for cause meaning we wouldn't have been on the books for a damn penny.
edit: ironically the goalie scouting on the amateur side was actually pretty good under Francis's tenure. Ned in the 2nd round and Makiniemi in the 4th were both solid, and Ned would likely still be playing here under a Francis regime. Even Helvig was looking pretty good before, you know, the whole he's a total piece of shit thing happened.