I was complaining about a couple of their moves last year, and was told that they were no different than other teams in the league, the way they approach trades. Fast forward a year and they had the Dadonov debacle, the ill-advised trade for Eichel (ill-advised because they don't have cap space for him without gutting their team further!) and now jettisoning Pacioretty for literally nothing.
Its not like Pacioretty hasn't performed well. He's more than lived up to the hopes anyone would have had when he signed his contract, production-wise. He's had some injury, but nothing that is expected to fundamentally alter his projections going forward. I don't expect teams to show players loyalty to the point it hurts them, but there should be SOME acknowledgement that they're human beings. Its hard to think of a more insulting action a team could take with him other than placing him on waivers. That's pretty much what they did, except he was able to have a bit of influence on what team claimed him due to his NTC (I think he names 20 teams or something).
But the Vegas management decided it was better to add Eichel and subtract more contributing roster players, when they ALREADY couldn't manage that cap to re-sign their RFAs. They missed the playoffs because they have whittled their depth so thin they couldn't navigate some injuries. That type of roster frailty is only going to be more pronounced now. Its going to be hard to avoid laughing at them if they missed the playoffs this coming season for similar reasons. (Although the Pacific doesn't look especially difficult at this point.)
Whatever, I'm glad they're not my primary team. I do sincerely wonder what the guys still on the team think when they see moves like the Dadonov trades and now the Pacioretty "trade". It has to increase anxiety a bit and build little resentments here and there. How could it not?
