Yeah I was talking about that with a friend the other day. If they don't figure their shit out next year I can see more than Brady wanting out. I'm not sure how well this city would handle another rebuild . . . go 12 years without making the playoffs.
Dorian really did a number on this franchise. It'll be a flat out disaster if Staois can't fix this.
The one thing you could say about Dorion was that he was aggressive, and he loved to make the big splashy trade (Duchene, DeBrincat, Chychrun).
Unfortunately, these 3 players are/were not the right fit for the team in all 3 cases.
I think that is fair to say that these moves were likely more about trying to sell tickets than effective team building.
To give the guy a bit of credit (I know that is not very popular around these parts), he has assembled a pretty decent core of young players and has locked them in long term. We know in hindsight, that was not a wise move with Norris with his shoulder and the Chabot contract is now looking not so good but it certainly was a well needed move at the time. I won't go into the Korpisalo deal. Enough has been said on that one. The long-term deals for Tkachuk, Stutzle and Sanderson are very good for this team. Same goes for the mid-term deals for Batherson and Zub (and Joseph).
It goes without saying, that this is a huge offseason for Staois.
I think the key is the decision on the new Coach. My expectation is that they want Gruden but they must know that is a very risky move. I am hoping that they bring in a veteran guy (Berube, Julien, McLellan, Gallant) that preaches structure in our own zone (like Martin). I think we are stuck with Korpisalo, so we have to give the guy every chance to succeed. We have seen over the last month or so, that he can be a decent goalie, so there is hope. Probably still need to move out Forsberg and bring someone else in, who can be more of a 1A/1B situation.
Next up is to bring in a couple of veterans, one up front, who can play in the Top 9 and then one top-4 RD. We know that there will be options for both, so do whatever you can to make this happen. With Sanderson going to $8m next year and Pinto needing a big raise, we are not going to have all that much left to spend, so that probably means Chychrun needs to go.
If they can do these things and can stay somewhat healthy, they should compete for a playoff spot. If they don't, they are going to have shake up the core next off-season. I certainly do not want them to trade Tkachuk and really hope that it does not get to the point of him wanting out. We have been wanting/needing a player like this since the team came back into existence in 1992. That said, you would have to think that there is a bunch of good teams that noticed what M Tkachuk did for Florida and would line up to overpay for Brady if he ever became available.
