they also played enormous roles in the two cup wins, all three of them. its not like Dean went for broke and then things went south and he has nothing to show for it. he put together a solid team that won two cups .
Absolutely. I could even see where Lombardi was coming from with Richards. I'm just saying, the fall of those 3, for various reasons, have had the largest impact on the roster choices that were made because of their falls, and where the team is right now. One led to the other, which led to another, which led to another. If Gagne doesn't get hurt, who knows if they even get Carter. Maybe they get someone else, maybe they don't trade that 1st, maybe they don't win it that year, who knows.
There may be an overall picture that Lombardi has in his mind, but the details change constantly. You try to keep up with everything, and ya do what ya gotta do.
I still believe losing 3 quality D and the one decent that replaced 1 of those (Sekera)...not a single replacement has been a quality defenseman.
Letting Mitchell go was done in part because Muzzin and Martinez were going to start getting paid more. It's the same thing with Lucic now. You have to think about Toffoli and Pearson next year, and how you get them to fit under the cap with Lucic, and Brown, and Gaborik, and Kopitar, and Carter. That's a lot of money, and something somewhere has to give.
If it's Muzzin/Doughty, Regehr/Voynov, and Martinez/Greene for the whole 14-15 season, that's basically the same defense that just won. McNabb is traded for, in part because Mitchell might have to go because Muzzin and Martinez are going to start making more money. He gets eased in, everyone know Regehr was going to retire last summer, and then McNabb replaces Regehr, and while there might be some stops and starts, the picture looks better with Voynov there. But, here we are.
As far as Gaborik? Arguably, he did lead the NHL in playoff goals for the 2014 Cup. Then gets the contract - deservedly. Jjust would have been better with a shorter term. I think many would have been pissed if they didn't sign him, after his performance and helping win that Cup.
He was playing better and was scoring when he got injured. I have a feeling he will come back and have a good year. I don't expect him to be great 2-3 years from now, of course. Not like he's a durable Jagr or Iginla, that goes till 40 yrs old. But no one else does.
Yeah, I can't imagine there's a GM in the league that would've let Gaborik walk after the 2014 playoffs. He had all the leverage, and Lombardi may have theoretically had a choice, but he didn't really have a choice.
I'm just saying, if Brown was still a 20+ goal guy in 13-14, maybe they don't get Gaborik. If Richards is still a 2nd line center, Carter is still probably on his right wing, and maybe they don't get Gaborik. Those two start to disappear though, they get Gaborik, he explodes, and then he gets a decent cap hit. Now Brown has the worst contract in the league at $6m, and Gaborik is in his mid 30's with a $5m cap hit.
It's a series of events under a cap. A happens, so you have to do B to balance out A. Then C happens, so B has to get balanced out, while still taking A into account. Then Q happens out of nowhere, and you have to do D. Then E happens...
Then you're coming off of 2 Cups in 3 years, and feel like you have to keep it going, so you do stuff. As life has a way of going sometimes, the harder you try to prevent something, you end up where you would've been anyway. If they don't trade for Sekera or Lucic, they may still have just 5 playoff games and 1 win in 2 years. Human nature being what it is sometimes, you feel like you have to do something. Lombardi tries to do something, and it's looking more and more like the worst case scenario will end up happening. No Sekera, no Lucic, and out two 1st round picks. If he doesn't try though, he's wasting 2 important years for the core.
Everyone can always second guess a GM though. It's the same thing as a young team on the way of being lovable. Then they win, and they're the bad guy. When a GM has all sorts of cap space, and draft picks, and young assets, the world is their oyster. Then he wins, and the choices necessitated by a hard cap get much more difficult.
