Fair enough. I hated both trades (Staal & Smith). But came around on the Smith deal, given his performance. Hated the E. Staal trade. But who knows? Could be AV's usage of him was poor. I still think that Smith is capable of better performance than he showed this year. And I believe that he will be given every opportunity to get his job back under a new coach.
I just don't like rentals at all, I think it's normally a total waste of an asset although if a team is among the top contenders I understand the idea.
I actually watched Smith some when he was with Detroit over the years, so I had some preconceived notions.
Smith and Skjei did play relatively well in those playoffs, but it was relative to how poor Holden and Staal were. McD/Girardi were not exactly very good either, I tend to think that made the Smith pair look better than they actually were.
Smith I do think can play better than this year, but he is inconsistent, and not like in the sense that he has some good and bad games, he has samples of pretty decent play where it looks like he has found a "I can play 2nd pair well" but other stretches of really poor play, like "scratch me I am terrible" and he always had that.
It's part of the reason I do question Gorton's player evaluation, another is Shattenkirk, I too think he can play better than he did this season, but if they are intending for him to play top pair minutes consistently and do well with those minutes at even strength, I think their evaluation is off.
Oh, E Staal, I made light of the trade when Gorton was saying he thought it may energize Staal to move to the Rangers, I don't think Staal was bad because he needed energy, I think he was poor because he had some recent injury issues and he was not completely over them by the time of the trade or while playing for the Rangers. AV did not do him any favors, he should have left him on a 3rd line with Stalberg and Lindberg. But even before coaching took hold the Rangers already had centers and management traded for another anyway.
