Salary Cap: Chris MacFarland - Record as Avalanche GM (Updates In First Post)

[The Merchant]

The Avs missed the boat on the big fish of the last couple seasons. There's just not much out there to get excited about, outside of a simple shake-up and pray kind of situation...unless you're willing to sell your soul for Joel.

 

[Andrew Wiggin]

He’s by far the worst GM in this teams history. And easily one of the worst GM’s in the league.

Do you see how other teams are run? Do you pay attention to some of the things they do? I would still take Mac/Sakic combo over half of them even with the run of less than great outcome moves. This year its hard to be unhappy with the moves so far Blackwood, Necas and Drury seem like good players goiing forward and making the best of the Rantanen situation. Wedgewood was a good depth play, and Pars is far from a settled conclusion. Most people were relatively happy with the attempt at shoring up 2C with Mittelstadt last year it just hasnt played out well but you can always be right with hindsight. The depth moves of Duhaine and Trenin werent bad. The wood signing and colton move started off decent but have soured. The Ryjo and Georgiev situations were the only awful ones i can think of and those were remedied to the extent they could at the time. The Kadri/Johnson situation wasnt ideal but more than a few thought Newhook might be able to meet the moment and when he couldnt that was addressed to shipping him out. The primary issues have been the landy/nuke situations which would be tough on any GM and Bednars coaching. I am no Cmac apologist but he hasnt sat on his hands when looking for solutions.

 

[expatriatedtexan]

I'm still torn on whether I'd like to see Bednar fired and CMac continue with a coach willing to use the team he's assembled or if I wan't full cleaning of the house. I'm not convinced CMac has what it takes to put together another Championship year here... but I can guarantee it will never happen if he continues to employ a coach who ignores the tools given him and apparently only gives two hoots about 5 players on the roster.

 

[nammerus]

Do you see how other teams are run? Do you pay attention to some of the things they do? I would still take Mac/Sakic combo over half of them even with the run of less than great outcome moves. This year its hard to be unhappy with the moves so far Blackwood, Necas and Drury seem like good players goiing forward and making the best of the Rantanen situation. Wedgewood was a good depth play, and Pars is far from a settled conclusion. Most people were relatively happy with the attempt at shoring up 2C with Mittelstadt last year it just hasnt played out well but you can always be right with hindsight. The depth moves of Duhaine and Trenin werent bad. The wood signing and colton move started off decent but have soured. The Ryjo and Georgiev situations were the only awful ones i can think of and those were remedied to the extent they could at the time. The Kadri/Johnson situation wasnt ideal but more than a few thought Newhook might be able to meet the moment and when he couldnt that was addressed to shipping him out. The primary issues have been the landy/nuke situations which would be tough on any GM and Bednars coaching. I am no Cmac apologist but he hasnt sat on his hands when looking for solutions.

Shuffling the deck around endlessly and still coming up with shit isn’t something to be proud up. He’s made terrible decision after terrible decision and turned one of the best teams in the cap era into dog shit. Doesn’t matter if he did it while being ‘active’.

Multiple high draft picks, an incredibly valuable lottery pick defence-man ,and other assets all blown, with nothing to show for it. Not one aspect of this team has improved, outside of goaltending (which was dogshit in the first place because of his initial choice, which cost picks to fix), over the last 2.5 years. He couldn’t find a single suitable #2 OR #3C for 2.5 years. He wasted a year of Mac on his sweetheart contract and 2.5 years of Mac/Makar/Rants. The level of incompetence required to take a team with those 3 and not sniff anything past the 2nd round is staggering.

And this stuff about hindsight..is so insanely stupid. Of course you judge people based on hindsight. Under what other context do you grade someone’s decision making? In hindsight/nowsight/foresight, it doesn’t take a genius to know that CMac has done a dogshit job. We have the worst Avs team in close 7-8 years due to his horrendous stewardship.

 

[expatriatedtexan]

Shuffling the deck around endlessly and still coming up with shit isn’t something to be proud up. He’s made terrible decision after terrible decision and turned one of the best teams in the cap era into dog shit. Doesn’t matter if he did it while being ‘active’.

Multiple high draft picks, an incredibly valuable lottery pick defence-man ,and other assets all blown, with nothing to show for it. Not one aspect of this team has improved, outside of goaltending (which was dogshit in the first place because of his initial choice, which cost picks to fix), over the last 2.5 years. He couldn’t find a single suitable #2 OR #3C for 2.5 years. He wasted a year of Mac on his sweetheart contract and 2.5 years of Mac/Makar/Rants. The level of incompetence required to take a team with those 3 and not sniff anything past the 2nd round is staggering.

And this stuff about hindsight..is so insanely stupid. Of course you judge people based on hindsight. Under what other context do you grade someone’s decision making? In hindsight/nowsight/foresight, it doesn’t take a genius to know that CMac has done a dogshit job. We have the worst Avs team in close 7-8 years due to his horrendous stewardship.

It makes no difference who CMac brings in if Bednar is still coaching.

Folks are beating up CMac over the roster... when they should be beating up Jared for not using or improving it.

If a head coaches job is ensure his top line feels exhausted, he's succeded. If his job is to build a winning team, yeah... waiting on CMac to fix this won't work because Bednar refuses to work with anyone not on his top unit.

 

[Pokecheque]

It makes no difference who CMac brings in if Bednar is still coaching.

Folks are beating up CMac over the roster... when they should be beating up Jared for not using or improving it.

If a head coaches job is ensure his top line feels exhausted, he's succeded. If his job is to build a winning team, yeah... waiting on CMac to fix this won't work because Bednar refuses to work with anyone not on his top unit.

You’re not seriously going to tell me it’s on Bednar that Johansen and Georgiev didn’t work out.

The vast majority of moves the Avs have made under MacFarland have not worked at all. Is some of that on the coach? Absolutely. I’d pin the failures of Duhaime and Trenin on him for sure. I’m not sure who’s to blame for Walker not panning out. I just don’t think he was a good fit for the system, oddly enough. But I don’t think the failures of Wood, Mittelstadt, and Colton are on Bednar.

So far the only moves that MacFarland has done that appear to be working are Necas/Drury and the Woodshed. Everything else has largely been a failure.

And going into 22-23 with no real 2C was not on Bednar. That was entirely on MacFarland. The coaches knew Newhook wasn’t good enough.

 

[Foppa2118]

Necas is gonna boost his value on the Avs and ask for $12.5M.

Mikko is gonna sink his value on the Canes and walk to UFA.

CMac will then sign Mikko for $10.5M as a UFA and trade Necas for a high end 2C.

This will complete the two year round trip from HFAvs liking CMac after signing Val, to hating him after not trading for a 2C, to liking him again after trading for Mitts, to hating him again after seeing Mitts, to liking him again after trading for Necas, to hating him again after seeing the team struggle with no 2C, to liking him again after trading for a 2C.

 

[Andrew Wiggin]

Shuffling the deck around endlessly and still coming up with shit isn’t something to be proud up. He’s made terrible decision after terrible decision and turned one of the best teams in the cap era into dog shit. Doesn’t matter if he did it while being ‘active’.

Multiple high draft picks, an incredibly valuable lottery pick defence-man ,and other assets all blown, with nothing to show for it. Not one aspect of this team has improved, outside of goaltending (which was dogshit in the first place because of his initial choice, which cost picks to fix), over the last 2.5 years. He couldn’t find a single suitable #2 OR #3C for 2.5 years. He wasted a year of Mac on his sweetheart contract and 2.5 years of Mac/Makar/Rants. The level of incompetence required to take a team with those 3 and not sniff anything past the 2nd round is staggering.

And this stuff about hindsight..is so insanely stupid. Of course you judge people based on hindsight. Under what other context do you grade someone’s decision making? In hindsight/nowsight/foresight, it doesn’t take a genius to know that CMac has done a dogshit job. We have the worst Avs team in close 7-8 years due to his horrendous stewardship.

Well hindsight being you seem to disregard any kind of analysis done here, experts and pundits in the hockey community in whatever version of Avs hate you decide to indulge in anytime the Avs struggle.

 

[Pokecheque]

Giguere is still the worst GM this franchise (at least in Avs history, I can’t speak to the ones who ran the Nords prior to Lacroix) has ever known. He was literally out of hockey not long after getting canned by the Avs.

But I would not rank MacFarland much higher at this point. Maybe above Greg From Accounting. Maybe.

 

[RoyIsALegend]

Pierre Lacroix
Joe Sakic
Chris MacFarland
Greg Sherman
Francois Giguere

 

[CobraAcesS]

Pierre Lacroix
Joe Sakic

Chris MacFarland
Greg Sherman
Francois Giguere

Reasonable, let's put some distance right about there lol.

 

[expatriatedtexan]

You’re not seriously going to tell me it’s on Bednar that Johansen and Georgiev didn’t work out.

The vast majority of moves the Avs have made under MacFarland have not worked at all. Is some of that on the coach? Absolutely. I’d pin the failures of Duhaime and Trenin on him for sure. I’m not sure who’s to blame for Walker not panning out. I just don’t think he was a good fit for the system, oddly enough. But I don’t think the failures of Wood, Mittelstadt, and Colton are on Bednar.

So far the only moves that MacFarland has done that appear to be working are Necas/Drury and the Woodshed. Everything else has largely been a failure.

And going into 22-23 with no real 2C was not on Bednar. That was entirely on MacFarland. The coaches knew Newhook wasn’t good enough.

That's a stretch. I've never attempted to blame Bednar for either RyJo or Georgiev. I actually blame CMac for RyJo and Georgiev for Georgiev.

As for the rest, yeah, I do believe Bednar has f***ed over CMac's attempts to improve the roster. CMac keeps trying to give him guys that can bang and crash and Bednar refuses to play that way. He wants his 4th line playing the exact same way as his 1st. It's just not possible, so what does Bednar do? Just plays his 1st unit all the minutes.

 

[Foppa2118]

Reasonable, let's put some distance right about there lol.

I thnk that's fair, but I also think CMac never gets enough credit for the Avs 22 Cup win.

I think he played a bigger role on the Avs as AGM, than most AGM's on their team, and played a big role with analytics and stylistic fits on the team.

I think he was probably the main guy pushing for Burakovsky and his zone entires.

He might have been the main guy pushing for guys like Val and Lehky.

He was responsible for saving the Duchene deal when it looked it fell apart. That brought in Girard and Byram who helped make that D core so good that year, which played a big part in their win.

He was probably the main guy pushing for Girard too. These are his kind of analytic darlings.

 

[CobraAcesS]

I thnk that's fair, but I also think CMac never gets enough credit for the Avs 22 Cup win.

I think he played a bigger role on the Avs as AGM, than most AGM's on their team, and played a big role with analytics and stylistic fits on the team.

I think he was probably the main guy pushing for Burakovsky and his zone entires.

He might have been the main guy pushing for guys like Val and Lehky.

He was responsible for saving the Duchene deal when it looked it fell apart. That brought in Girard and Byram who helped make that D core so good that year, which played a big part in their win.

He was probably the main guy pushing for Girard too. These are his kind of analytic darlings.

Influence is not being the GM. Sakic by the end was able to bring in player after player who had succes under Bednar, and ultimately built one of the most dominant cup teams in history from one of the worst teams in history.

Cmac has Necas and Blackwood, and that's early.

He can have plenty of credit for being an important cog.

 

[Foppa2118]

Influence is not being the GM. Sakic by the end was able to bring in player after player who had succes under Bednar, and ultimately built one of the most dominant cup teams in history from one of the worst teams in history.

Cmac has Necas and Blackwood, and that's early.

He can have plenty of credit for being an important cog.

Yeah, again I think that's a fair way to look at it.

This isn't directed at anyone, but rather just generally, conversations about this subject often come off feeling to me like there was some huge change between Joe and CMac's tenure.

Like Joe was the GM for the Cup and then they brought in CMac to be the GM of this lesser team.

When in reality I don't think much has changed. I believe what they said when they made the change, that they would work together the same way, and that CMac just has more day to day responsibilities and phones calls to make as GM.

They're a team. More so than most GM's and AGM's.

Rough guess, I'd give Joe 60-70% credit for the decisions that led to the Cup, and vice versa now with CMac as GM, and Joe as President. I think CMac might have been responsible for slightly more personnel decisions for the Cup team, but that's just a guess.

Joe's biggest contribution IMO was his deal making toward the end of his tenure. He just becase a great deal maker. But that wasn't always the case. He was pretty bad like most GM's his first couple years.

 

[Sea Eagles]

What are some of the comments I'm reading here ?

Needs to clean house ?
He's the worst GM ever ?

Come on guys, at best hyperbole. We've been sitting around 10th overall most of the season !! Once the injured guys return, and the lines build some chemistry, lookout.

We are a cup contender and heavyweight team still despite huge contracts needing to be negotiated.

 

[AnimalMother73]

I don't think we are a cup contender. At least we are not playing like one. Too many players under performing roles they are currently in. Now, many of those players were brought in based on 'upside' that they could perform at higher levels in a different system but w/o any proof they could do it full time/long term. That may have worked a few times in the past but it isn't a reliable approach towards building a competitive team. I think our luck has simply run out and since the Avs don't draft well they are further constrained by having to bring in free agents at a premium further constraining depth. Top it all off the captain's situation is making it very difficult to set up the team for the long haul- this last one really needs to be sorted so that they team can make the necessary changes and move forward managing the cap in a more predictable manner.