Is MacLellan now fighting for his job? The prospect of back-to-back playoff misses is a real possibility given the strength of the East and trajectory of their weakened core group. He needs to stack a lot of wins in a hurry to think they're back on the right track. Even if there has been ownership interference which has saddled them with declining players that doesn't explain their significant decline in drafting and development over quite a long stretch now.
Why would he be fighting for his job? He clearly had a plan to give Lavi and this group of players a set number of years, and Ted was very likely on board with this. All these contracts expiring at the same time is obviously not an accident or coincidence.
That means they knew it might not work. And given the fact that Gmbm tried to plug every hole that came up, even swapping goalies in the final year of the plan and being allowed to extend guys like Strome and Milano, suggests he has the full confidence of the owner and President when it comes to transitioning to the next phase.
In this instance the whole thing was blown up by massive injury impact to the entire core of the team, plus some key role players. That's not the fault of the GM or even the coach.
Some people want to blame the GM for all these older guys being hurt but almost all the injuries are from direct trauma, like bad hits or blocking shots, not general age-related wear and tear.
I see this team as a beat up tour bus that's rolling into the gas station on its last drop of gas. Now you have to decide whether to fix it up or buy a new one.
It looks like Gmbm is going to fix this one up, but you never know for sure.
As for the "decline in drafting and development" it's about what you'd expect from a team that perpetually makes the playoffs (and so picks low on the board) and has been tasked with trading away some picks to load up on key pieces for a run during a set window.
