I’ll repeat what I have said for a year now.
What I said at first was that we would need A grade management with a high volume of action and high hit rates if they wanted to turn things around quickly.
C grade, or even B grade management wouldn’t be good enough because their starting position is so bad. I thought they made the right decision holding onto Miller past the TDL because I felt the package they could get after would be comparable at worst to the NYR 1st + Chytil/Kravtsov + Nils offer. They then did get pretty close to the 13th pick at the draft, without knowing what else was a part of that deal.
Their cheap bets were not as bad as the Pouliot, Vey, Sbisa, Clendenning, Granlund tier - albeit they also haven’t had a noticeable win yet either.
The problem is that this management, and even posters like
@MS, could not see the forest for the trees. The notion of trading for a second round pick was laughed at. Sure trading a guy like Garland for a second after his ES point totals last season wouldn’t have felt great, but that cap flexibility and second rounder got Marino. The idea of not qualifying Boeser seemingly was never considered, or else they probably would have leaked it because this organization is very concerned about PR of moves they make. Instead, they make a stupid signing and people like Drance praise it for some reason. Then, they panic with Miller. I also like Mikheyev, and he has proven to have been a good signing and not the horror show
@VanillaCoke claimed him to be, but the roster was so flawed and so capped out with excess winger salary that there were unintended costs associated with signing Mik.
Then they don’t want to take a step back or take on short term money according to every report a year ago - Rutherford saying taking back money isn’t something they’re looking at. Imagine they just made the necessary moves when they came in in January.
I also want to make one thing clear. The type of package you should be willing to take is situational. If you’re going for a tear down and want to be bad, you take “perceived below market offers” for guys like Debrincat because it positions your team better. When you’re trying to do a quick retool, you need to maximize your best assets (Miller last year, Horvat this year). That is what makes this path so hard.
This management group hasn’t solved anything. In a vacuum, they have been C grade. I don’t think any less is fair.
But in regards to your point, relative to Benning’s historically bad F, it’s a huge improvement.
Relative to the A+ they would have needed to get us out of this mess in the timeline Rutherford set of two years, it is not good enough and we are an unserious franchise that will not compete for at least a decade unless they have a willingness to change direction.
They don’t have the balls to do anything. They haven’t even fired the coach they hate. They haven’t sorted a new practice facility which was reportedly a big deal a year ago. The whole Doerrie/Castonguay debacle looks awful for the organization. Management hiding from the media. No improvement in accountability, anything.
