Is it really Vegas's fault that they had 8-9 competing NHL GMs who all tried to play "smartest guy in the room" by offloading their salary cap mistakes onto Vegas with the incentive of draft picks and younger players. It basically back-fired on every team who made that type of trade with them. At least these idiot GMs smartened up and didn't try the same failed crap with Seattle. GMs saw the mistakes made with Vegas and simply said "here's our list Seattle, pick a player, and f*** off".
They didn't get handed Stone. They didn't get handed Eichel. They used a lot of the assets they got to build their team. That's on the opposing GMs who willingly gave them those added assets in the expansion draft. They signed Pietrangelo who might be the best D-man UFA signing since Chara signed here in 2006.
People are complaining about how few of their own draft picks are on Vegas. Well there wasn't a whole lot of home-grown players on Florida either. Does the cup become more special because it has lot of the team's own picks on it? Does a cup become less special because the players were mostly signed and traded for?
Look around the league and where are all those "draft and develop" teams? Because I don't see any of them having success. I see lots of them on Rebuild # 2 or #3 in some cases. Sure, some recent former champs built a core with several high 1st round picks. But once you get past that, the rest of the cast is largely trades, signings, waivers, etc. TB may be the exception but getting talent like Point and Kucherov outside of Round 1 is one-in-a-generation type stuff, kinda like finding two No.1 centers in back-to-back drafts in Round 2 (Bergeron and Krejci). Identifying core players is easy. Did it take a genius to figure out Taylor Hall or Hampus Lindholm were good players? No. But surrounding your core with the right pieces, at the right prices? That's a lot harder and frankly I don't think Sweeney with his current pro scouts have what it takes. Just way too many blunders at the pro scouting level. And Sweeney needs to wear that too. He's the one deciding to sign these guys or trade for them.
Do you think Vegas holds onto Jakub Zboril for 8 years hoping he'd finally become a player? If Trent Frederic is in Vegas, they've already shipped his underachieving carcass out the door years ago. And likely cut ties with both for value on top of it instead of waiting for their value to plummet. Vegas don't fall in love with their draft picks and give them countless unearned opportunities. Call it ruthless or whatever, but in Vegas, you don't produce and perform up to expectations, they show you the door. Ask Gallant or Debour. Ask Cody Glass (their 1st ever draft pick). Heck, they might show you the door anyways (ask Nate Schmidt). Claude Julien had two consecutive seasons of playoff DNQs and STILL wasn't fired until halfway through the next season. Maybe the players should of mutinied on Julien after 2015 like they did with Cassidy.
Meanwhile, job security in Boston is practically guaranteed. Be a former 1st rounder, and Sweeney will keep you for years to try and save face. Heck, Brad Marchand's job is so secure he can't even be placed on a line with a center not named Patrice Bergeron. Fact is, this franchise has basically rested on it's laurels now for the past 12 years. Lot's of security, lot's of 2nd chances. What's the incentive to come to work every day and give it 110% when you have almost no consequences to speak of. Then wonder why your consistently disappointing in the post-season. While you don't want your players sitting on pins and needles all the time, there is a happy middle ground between serious anxiety and the soft, pillowy comfort the Bruin players have enjoyed the past decade+. Scotty Bowman's MO was keeping his players on edge a lot of the time. He did it on purpose. Part of the reason for Vegas's success is their players can never rest on their laurels and think their job is completely secure. They know how their management operate and it shows.
I commend Vegas and Cassidy for winning a cup. And Cassidy's time here run it's course, as it will in Vegas eventually. Frankly the Bruins could learn a lot from how Vegas run their ship. No one wants to see them go back to the "hard-line" approach to players and salaries like back in the 1990s/2000s. But this country club approach towards current players has got to stop if for nothing else to keep these players on their toes and not let them slip completely into their comfort zones.
I find it funny when fans and the media talk about pressure on this team or pressure on that team. Pressure as a pro hockey player to me isn't winning and losing. The pressure to me comes from getting traded mid-season to some other team maybe far away from their current homestead because I'm not performing. Or the pressure to not find myself on the waiver wire and sent to the minors. Or the pressure to be taken out of the line-up despite being healthy. Or the pressure to get another NHL contract for next season. At the end of the day, it may be a team sport, but the only thing a player can control is how they themselves perform. How can you expect players, even top-end elite players, to perform at their best when their is basically zero consequences for underperformance? Fact is, this team hasn't traded away a major player in 8 calendar years now. And it shows.
@missingchicklet this rant wasn't meant to be directed at you, just that your quote was a good one to run off of. I hope you and the rest of the board here have a great summer.
