Brady Tkachuk is not part of a winning core, period.
I do not understand the love for the guy. He smothered a moment for Stutzle to stand up for himself, he floats quite a lot. He occasionally throws a hit in the corner for a puck battle and people think he's the best power forward they've ever seen. It's absurd.
He's one of those contracts Dorion gambled with and that saddles us right there with Korpisalo, Norris, Chabot. You can win with a few of these contracts but when the majority of Dorion's gambles have fallen short of expectations and the goaltending is horrific... you outshoot Arizona, it's a competitive game, your goalie can't steal you a win against a desperate team unlike the Leafs and Woll or any other team and their goalie.
There's levels to the contracts as well.
Korpisalo is by far the worst. Another Dorion gamble "oh he had one good season now he's going to break out to be a superstar".
Norris is probably next, he can't stay healthy and it looks like he wont' ever hit 35 goals again.
Chabot's next, he hasn't really grown as a player. Same guy making the same mistakes years later. With Sanderson it just makes everything look worse.
Tkachuk is last, I don't have a major problem with the contract but he's not a core player you have to keep if you need a reset.
With average to above average goaltending this could be covered up. But we've had bad goaltending all season long leading to the DJ firing, Jacques Martin who doesn't really want to coach getting behind the bench and our current struggles. You can't expect players to be at their peak 82 games a season with no memories that their goaltender tandem is by far the worst in the league.
And for all those who want to use this moment to defend DJ Smith. The night after he was fired, which team did we play and what did that game look like? Compare it to now where you think the team gave a poor effort. What did this poor effort look like relative to December 19th the day after DJ Smith was fired?