Keep/Fire Drury and/or Laviolette

[mas0764]

Can anyone clear up why they think we got most points last season and a ECF to missing this year? Genuinely asking for opinions.

It’s all well and good questioning the coach, the leadership group, the players in general, but what was it that changed so much over the last year in people’s opinion?

I know we over performed (I never thought we were a top 5 team in terms of talent), but aside from the locker room implosion what happened to turn it so we were grossly underperforming as opposed to over performing?

My solution is Drury did what he did and the players reacted badly which I put on everyone including Lavi, but for those who think Drury played it right I just wonder why you think this turnaround happened.

They overachieved in prior years and this year they underachieved. It’s variance that happens. The degree this year is beyond reasonable expectations but not unheard of.

The key takeaway you should be arriving at is that this team is ultimately a joke as a cup contender.

They are low end playoff team talent. And the pipeline is dry. Now beyond clear that they never had enough talent and transitioning from acquiring young talent and building to pissing away your assets before you knew what you had to “win now” with a roster that was never, ever gonna win it all, was a horrible decision.

 

[Homelander]

I may be misremembering, but didn't Drury forbid Lafreniere to interview in French and Panarin to interview in Russian?

 

[mas0764]

All of the analytics, even down to goal differential, say a bubble team is about what they should have been last year. They played the worst playoff team in 30 years in the first round and Kreider saved them from a reverse sweep in the second round.

A bubble team is exactly what they were in 2023. First round road team, first round exit. If not for an all-timer performance by Igor, they're out in the first round in 2022 also.

They're barely a playoff-quality team that regressed slightly with age.

… that quit on any semblance of acquiring, developing, or keeping its young talent because it thought Kreider and Zibanejad were Cup winning first line talents that would carry them to glory despite obvious holes everywhere.

 

[DuneGoon84]

Laf currently

This team is poison for younger players. Damn shame

 

[mas0764]

If Drury stays he needs to do a 180 on everything he’s shown from the second he inherited the job vis-a-vis his vision for where this organization should be headed.

He’s shown zero inclination to build for the future, all he does that isn’t a complete cluster is not get awful value for renting, but since renting itself is bad value, he’s merely not terrible at something that he shouldn’t even be engaging in.

He needs to start winning talent and asset exchanges the second the season is over or I have no desire to see him return. And neither should any of you unless you like irrelevant mediocrity.

 

[Captain Lindy]

If Drury stays he needs to do a 180 on everything he’s shown from the second he inherited the job vis-a-vis his vision for where this organization should be headed.

He’s shown zero inclination to build for the future, all he does that isn’t a complete cluster is not get awful value for renting, but since renting itself is bad value, he’s merely not terrible at something that he shouldn’t even be engaging in.

He needs to start winning talent and asset exchanges the second the season is over or I have no desire to see him return. And neither should any of you unless you like irrelevant mediocrity.

Ohhhh but you know...conference finals the last few years. LOL

 

[bouds]

Drury is as bad as it gets GM wise.

The poor drafting when we tanked isn't on Drury, so I give him a pass completely, but since then he's only doubled down on the core group. A smart GM would have hit reset after last season, moved some of the older players that had good years, and tell the owner look we have to start over this group has done about as much as it can. He didn't, made it worse in the locker room with his handling of things.

I wanted Igor moved because it made no sense to keep him around at that price tag, none. He rushed to extend Laf, didn't need to. What was Drury saving by extending Laf so early?

He's not cut out for this job, atrocious trades and contracts, it's not just 1 or 2 bad moves, it's repeated f*** ups. Get him the f*** out of here, and clean it all up.

Only way this team has a shot is if they clean it up from the top down. We just don't evaluate talent well.

 

[Homelander]

Ohhhh but you know...conference finals the last few years. LOL

With Gorton/JD's roster.

 

[mas0764]

Drury is as bad as it gets GM wise.

The poor drafting when we tanked isn't on Drury, so I give him a pass completely, but since then he's only doubled down on the core group. A smart GM would have hit reset after last season, moved some of the older players that had good years, and tell the owner look we have to start over this group has done about as much as it can. He didn't, made it worse in the locker room with his handling of things.

I wanted Igor moved because it made no sense to keep him around at that price tag, none. He rushed to extend Laf, didn't need to. What was Drury saving by extending Laf so early?

He's not cut out for this job, atrocious trades and contracts, it's not just 1 or 2 bad moves, it's repeated f*** ups. Get him the f*** out of here, and clean it all up.

Only way this team has a shot is if they clean it up from the top down. We just don't evaluate talent well.

A smart GM would have traded Kreider in 2020. A smart GM wouldn’t have pissed away Buchnevich for peanuts. A smart GM wouldn’t have stopped building for the future. A smart GM wouldn’t have given Zibanejad that contract. A smart GM would not have given Shesterkin $11.5m and a NMC. A smart GM wouldn’t have wasted a handful of first round picks on rentals again and again, seeing that is how we dropped off the cliff after 2015, from having too many years with no assets coming in. Etc, etc, etc.

 

[Homelander]

 

[Vito Andolini]

I'm honestly not sure what's worse: the moves Drury made or what Drury DIDN'T do (e.g., fire Laviolette when the season was still salvageable)

has anyone even offered up a coherent reason for why Laviolette wasn't fired months ago? The team picked up 8 points over a 19 game stretch from late Nov to the new year. It was mind blowingly awful hockey. And it hasn't been that much better since.

 

[Bacon Artemi Bravo]

It’s so insanely comical. I’ve never heard something so crazy in professional sports. He’s lost the team so bad he doesn’t even bother anymore. Why even be there at all?

 

[Guyute]

Is Ivory Tower Chris going to speak to the media after this disastrous season?

What is the plan? Acquire more #6 defensemen and 32+ year olds??

 

[Jaromir Jagr]

Jets-esque season with all the drama surrounding the team. 100% on Drury for the lack of ability to head that off both before and during. He should have been fired in January.

 

[Draft Guru]

Laviolette is as good as gone IMO.

He's got 1 more year on his contract. You're not giving him an extension right now and you're certainly not going to bring him back as a lame duck coach on an expiring contract just waiting for the axe to fall every time his team loses a game.

The very first guy I interview is a former Ranger, Manny Malhotra.

David Carle isn't leaving Denver for this mess, especially after how it went for David Quinn.

 

[BleedBlueNYR]

Dolan should fire Lavi as soon as he wakes up in the morning. Maybe you can only rip into the team so many times but this is an admission that he’s given up and doesn’t know what to do. Send a message and then get rid of the entire core in the offseason.

 

[Kaapo Cabana]

I have been pro Drury staying because I think he gets quite a bit of unfair criticism. The crux of this teams issues seem to come down to effort. Drury is responsible for building a talented roster, and the coaching staff are the ones in charge of the effort level.

Yes he built this roster, but it he also built last years roster which won a presidents trophy, and was largely the same as it was at the start of this season.



However at some point, the buck has to stop at him. He should probably go

 

[Paulie Walnutz]

 

[80shockeywasbuns]

Realistically Drury has like 2 maybe 3 good moves as GM. Pretty much everything he does falls into 2 categories

1. Objectively terrible immediately
2. Good in isolation but not in the context of his tenure (rentals to replace Buch, removing bad players he himself brought in after they cost the team games and playoff series AKA Nemeth, Goodrow, Reaves, etc). In other words just undoing his own f*** ups long after fans suggested it

I will also include Trouba in category 2 even though the trade itself was great. When Trouba started to really suck balls in 21-22 NYR should have begun phasing Trouba out of the core. Sheltered 3rd pair minutes, no power play, no captaincy. He’d have been gung ho to leave eventually. Instead Drury gave him the C, let him do whatever tf he wanted for years while launching helmets and throwing conference finals games. Yeah no shit there’s gonna be a rift in the locker room when you do a complete 180 and decide your 20+ minute captain is all of a sudden the issue. That process needed to start years ago when average joes could notice he sucked.

The only isolated good moves I’d say Drurys made were Vesey and Gustafsson, and Gus signing I’m tempted to just chalk up to Laviolettes influence entirely. Clearly Drury has no idea what he had in Gustafsson because he let him go for 2 million only to keep Lindgren at twice the cost and bring in several much worse players like Soucy/Vaak/Borgen

 

[bobbop]

My vote is fire them both, hire a club President (Messier?) and let that person hire a new coach and GM.

 

[bobbop]

Drury does not get to hire a THIRD coach. They both need to get the fu*k out.

I used to work in TV news. The news director once told me he got to hire two anchors. When it came time to make a third change, he was gone first.

Seems like that applies here.

 

[mas0764]

I’m confused at everyone claiming Drury has built a good roster. Most of the pieces here who matter far predate him. He’s signed lousy veterans, poor contract extensions, lost most of his non-deadline trades, and oversaw a regime that completely misdeveloped the two best prospects we ever drafted. He “won” a few trade deadlines by emptying our chest of future assets.

He has done a terrible job.

 

[DaBadGuy7]

It’s not Drury’s fault the locker room was weak. The leadership group has been in place for years and we always had concerns with the team leaving meat on the bone in terms of effort and intensity. Judge him on his actual moves and he’s about 50/50. I wouldn’t be opposed to firing him. The dynamic between him and the coach is highly concerning. He fought with Gallant as we know. And with Laviolette it’s one of 2 things. Either Laviolette is deliberately not playing the kids, and Drury has no sway over him, or Drury is in support of doubling down on the vets down the stretch. Both are bad.

Who replaces Drury if he gets canned? Im sure Messier will be considered for a role. Dolan isn’t hiring the next analytics wunderkind du jour lol. It’s going to be someone with experience and ties to the organization. Don’t shoot the messenger.

I’m not sure about that, Leon Rose was an outside the box hiring running the Knicks and that was worked out for Dolan. He might be willing to try the same. Question is, what big-time hockey agent has the chops to be an hockey exec lol.

 

[GAGLine]

I have been pro Drury staying because I think he gets quite a bit of unfair criticism. The crux of this teams issues seem to come down to effort. Drury is responsible for building a talented roster, and the coaching staff are the ones in charge of the effort level.

Yes he built this roster, but it he also built last years roster which won a presidents trophy, and was largely the same as it was at the start of this season.



However at some point, the buck has to stop at him. He should probably go

What part of this team's success over the last few years is he really responsible for? Outside of Trocheck, who has he signed or traded for (non-rental) that was a contributor on last year's ECF team?

He has pissed away players, prospects and picks. He gave Goodrow a 6-year contract and was lucky to dump him 3 years later. He signed Nemeth for 3 years, then had to spend two 2nd-round picks to dump him after 1 year. He traded away Buch and has nothing to show for it. He traded Lundkvist for a 1st then wasted it on rentals. He traded away Kakko and Chytil and has largely been responsible for overseeing the development of the kids, or I should say the lack thereof. He is the one who gave Mika that contract.

But good news! He traded more picks and prospects for a 32-year-old center with 5 years left on his contract in a desperate attempt to fix a fundamentally broken team.

I'm not giving Gorton a pass here. He abandoned the rebuild way too early. But he at least built a team that was good enough to compete, if not win. All Drury has done since taking over is make the team older and deplete our farm system.

I hope Dolan fires him, but I kind of doubt he will. Dolan is a big part of the problem. I don't expect him to all of a sudden make the right moves. If and when Drury does get fired, I think it will be a long time before he finds another GM job again.

 

[McRanger92]

I’m not sure about that, Leon Rose was an outside the box hiring running the Knicks and that was worked out for Dolan. He might be willing to try the same. Question is, what bigtinr hockey agent has the chops to be an hockey exec lol.

Pat Brisson. We traded for his son a month ago. In all seriousness, I hope you are right about the organization making a smart hire in the front office. Ive defended Drury but Im looking for a new direction with the team. Whatever we've been doing isnt working. We cant replicate the Lundqvist years without a team willing to sacrifice in front of the goalie.