Wrong! He should keep doing that.
Everyone complains when he "wastes assets", then this season he uses no assets, and people still complain.
Dorion has always been open about the fact that he was not interested in bringing in quality vets, but rather character vets. He specifically makes that differentiation at his end of year presser last year:
Also, @ 27:50 he specifically says: "At some point at time, when we feel we're ready to win, we might have to package a pick or a prospect to make that next step". and later says "At some point and time, we might have to do that, I don't think we're there yet"
But sure, because a bunch of trolls kept spamming "The rebuild is over!", so you got fooled into believing we were going to contend for a playoff spot this year. Boo hoo. Suck it up. Even I thought our odds of making the playoffs this season were under 1%.
Even then, the team has underperformed. Some players the were decent last season took a huge regression.
When did this interview occur?
He was asked about his goaltending situation and specifically about Murray. His answer was he had quantity and quality at every position and included why he thought that regarding the goaltender situation. He seemed to be placing a lot more emphasis on "futures" than the current situation. Seems odd given that he's waiving his #1 tender a few months later.
He was also asked if he needed to get a partner for Chabot, and another question on what he thought about their defense. He responded by singing the praises of Zaitsev (called him elite and a player he had the utmost respect for) and then responded again with the "we have quantity and quality at every position".
That's odd because he also admitted that Chabot's strength was not on the defensive side of things. He also talked about how Sanderson would improve the situation, and that Sanderson would end up getting Chabot's minutes.
That all sounds like a good strategy for the 2022-23 season, but what did he think was going to happen in 2021-22? If he pairs Zub with Chabot, then the 2nd pair becomes a disaster as we've all seen first hand. If Zub gets moved to the 2nd pair, then that leaves Chabot without a decent partner.
Given that Melnyk said they would acquire a defender in an offseason podcast interview, it doesn't even seem like Melnyk was on the same page as Dorion. Maybe they both thought they could muddle through with the additions of Holden & MDZ, combined with the elite play of Zaitsev? Maybe they just didn't want to admit they knew they were weak on defense? We can only speculate I suppose.
But, if he did realize they were weak on defense and goaltending, then Dorion should probably be setting different expectations when asked about the future and specifically the 2021-22 season. JMHO. My guess is that its possible Melnyk could be holding the purse strings quite tightly and Dorion has to sound positive and spin a more optimistic future than what he really thinks. That's the most optimistic way of viewing Dorion imho.
