AtlantaWhaler
Thrash/Preds/Sabres
- Jul 3, 2009
- 20,474
- 3,910
Washington's a good team to learn from. They were on the downswing a couple years back and were headed into a painful and lenghty rebuild. Since then:
- They hired an up-and-coming HC in Carbury.
- Traded for Chychrun, a top-10 defenseman this year, for peanuts.
- Traded for Dubois, who was a lot better than his reputation indicated.
- Drafted McMichael, properly DEVELOPED him and played him in a top-six role.
- Already a few years back traded for Dylan Strome who looks like a legit 1C.
- Traded for a Vezina-worthy goalie Logan Thompson for pretty much nothing.
I mean the point is, it's not always all about building through the draft but you have to be willing to take some chances at the trade market and it takes a very good GM to do what they've been able to do in Washington. In addition to that, they've got one of the hottest prospects coming up in Leonard AND they have Cole Hutson in their pipeline as well.
Last couple posts.....What Washington has done also takes some creativity and risks. PLD was a huge risk but they were willing to take on his deal and try to make it work. Thompson was still a bit of an unknown if he could manage a net full time.
We've shown we can develop forwards and keep them in the org, so let's ignore Protas and McM. But the thing I can't ignore is Washington's NHL scouts identifying pieces that could fit in a system and getting them even if they were question marks. They also were willing to take on bad contracts. Something we historically haven't done.
Sean Monahan would be a perfect example. His contract was traded for a first round pick. He was great in Montreal before being flipped for another first round pick to WPG. Now he's a point per game player on Columbus. Our management would never do that deal. They don't have the creativity.