Oh come on, you're better than this. First of all read my other posts so you get what I'm trying to say. Second, hindsight much? It's easy to say that they all suck now, but go read the reactions during the trades. People celebrated the Subban trade, everyone thought we were getting a 0.5ppg great skating puck moving defencemen. He was above 0.5ppg player in his every NHL season until the devils. Everyone except STI loved the Johnson trade, he was seen as an above 0.5ppg top6 forward. He was excellent early last season with Bratt and Mercer, but once that line was separated, he was back to his 20-21 self. Tatar was coming off 60pts and close to ppg seasons. 30years old? Nobody seemed to be bothered by that when we got him. Guess who are also over 30, Palat and Haula.
So people celebrated Subban? So what? WTF does that have to do with his injury-fueled decline? Nashville dumped him at the right time. Congrats to Poile, who knows when to dump a defenseman. Just ask Chuck Fletcher, who is wondering if Ryan Ellis is ever going to play again. (If Nashville had the eye they have for defensemen & goalies for centerman as well they probably would have a Cup by now.)
Are you are arguing his numbers would have been better on a better team? Maybe? Probably? I also don’t give a shit about 2020-21 in general, it was a meat grinder nightmare season of 56 games in a brutal division. We had a new coach, it was a reset “let the kids plays” season, and they had almost no real practices due to the compressed schedule after our COVID break.
People liked the Johnsson trade because we gave up one older prospect for roster player who could score some goals for us. The 2020-21 season was brutal for him specifically due to COVID plus his asthma. The dude is all effort guy who only succeeds by skating his ass off directly towards the net.
I can’t believe we’re going back to his Toronto days yet again but he produced while literally playing with some of the top players in the league AND HE HAD ONE SEASON BETTER THAN 2021-22. That’s it. One season. 2018-19. Go look at his shooting % that year. Go look at his line mates that year. He got PP points. [Actually I’ll put his goals & assists that season at the bottom of this post.]
Tatar was coming off his least productive season in Montreal. He ended the season poorly. He was a 31 year old winger last season and he couldn’t finish for shit for a good portion of the year at the start.
Wingers after 30 are tough, welcome to the age curve.
I don’t see why you’re appealing to the supposed popular takes on the board at the time.
1) That too is a ridiculously broad stroke, so broad that it’s useless.
2) I don’t care what any of the takes were then. Posters didn’t make the trades or signings. Posters didn’t review Subban’s medicals. Posters can be wrong, they don’t have the power to tell the future. Are you saying these players were supposed to do better because fans were excited about the additions? What kind of argument is that?
I disliked the Gusav trade and thought the Subban trade was fine at the time because we needed defense pretty bad, but what do my old takes have to do with you specific argument about these players “doing worse on our team”? I didn’t think Subban was going to get Norris nominations here and I knew he was going to be grossly overpaid. We needed defense.
And “what about Palat then?” Good lord, I guess you weren’t paying much attention to what a lot of people actually wrote here after he signed.
I went to the Tampa board to get their reaction. While they were mourning his loss, some were commenting how sad they were about the amount of bitching we did about that contract. A couple said we don’t know enough about hockey to appreciate Palat (again, these are Tampa fans lol).
I actually try to give realistic but still optimistic takes on things because I’m a fan. Not every winger falls of the face of the earth. I get and acknowledge the concerns while trying to see why Fitz made the move and where it could work out.
I’m hoping we get several good years out of the guy. I actually agree with the intangibles he brings, he’s known to be an incredibly smart player and Fitz referred to him as a player/coach. We get outsmarted by wily veterans in our coverage by players like Palat all the time, we need a guy to teach our young players.
I’m bolstered by Tampa fans, who are gutted at losing him and thought he was going to get even more money than we paid him. They thought a team friendly deal for Tampa was 5m. We just don’t understand hockey enough to realize he’s the best glue guy in the NHL lol.
Re: Haula
I said in my first post. We needed a center. WITHOUT RESTARTING THE FACEOFF DEBATE (I beseech you all lol) I can assure people that the team wanted an experienced center who can win face offs at 3C, so Boqvist was not starting there. I actually see Mercer more as our back-up scoring center in case one of our top guys goes down. He might get time as a 3C, who knows. McLeod is the likely 4C unless something bad happens due to the Hockey Canada scandal (I don’t expect that but again, who knows.)
We needed another center for sure and Haula was cheap. Just because a player scores fewer goals doesn’t mean their rest of their play is worse. Statistically, with forwards, goal scoring is the first to go with age. There is a ton more to playing center than that. I’m definitely not counting on 18 goals again from a 31 year old Haula considering who his line mates were last season (spoiler: Hall & Pasta). He has a 2.375m cap hit and can play center, he fills a need and we have cap issues right now. It wasn’t a dream return but it filled a major need.
