I agree with @stl76 that they won't have too much difficulty getting compliant. They'll lose a bit of depth, but not any core pieces. But Adding Rants at $12M certainly changed their cap structure and will force them to correctly identify who is expendable depth.
I imbued upon the Saad situation a feeling of animosity, but you’re probably right, in that he left in an amicable manner.
I understand the position and not wanting to doom spiral over the offer sheets, but to lose two high drafted players for seemingly no reason and to watch them breakout is curious. Regardless of how many points Broberg has scored, he has enhanced the offensive in ways that won't show up on the scoresheet. He has been Bouw like in that, his skating is flawless and can exit the d-zone whenever he wants, but he's far superior in offensive capabilities. He hasn't hit the defensive stalwart pedigree that Bouw did in the cup run, but he's pretty good in my book. Holloway is just a massive blunder. There's no reason not to match that offer sheet.
Did Boston have to pay him his contract? That firing seems like a weird move if it costs you a couple million (or whatever) just to put in a different coach to oversee the tear down. If you're going to trade Marchand, etc, does it really matter who the coach is for the 2nd half of the season?
I think you're probably right. Insert Bannister until the target comes available and then give him the boot when he does. There's a reason it all came together so quickly. Not awesome for Bannister but I imagine he embraced the opportunity to get behind the bench for an NHL team, as it's likely the only opportunity to open up anytime soon. I'm sure he's not too upset about it.
He is also continuing to make more money than he's ever made in his life. We didn't reveal the amount of his extension and I assume that he was one of the lowest paid coaches in the NHL this year. But it was almost certainly at least three times what he was making in the AHL and he will keep getting paid that money through the end of the 2025/26 season. He also would have gotten a raise/bonus for the time he spent as the interim coach. Realistically, his experience with the Blues will likely see him earn 6-10 years of the salary he was making as an AHL coach and he also has the freedom to be patient/selective with his next career move since he has guaranteed income for another year.
I’m talking about the decision to fire him. They couldn’t know for certain he’d be hired this season. I thought you laid out a scenario where they fired him, and I think it looks like searching for a scapegoat and upper management dysfunction to fire a coach mid-season when you are in a tear down. What did it accomplish? “Send a message to the players?”
Sure, but it could easily have been after taking the rest of the year off and hired in the offseason. My point is simply that they could have been throwing away a couple million dollars to bring in a new coach while they are trading the last of their veteran players of value. It looks incoherent to me.
They thought they were still a playoff team. They didn’t plan on this nosedive until McAvoy got hurt and they were like f**k it.
