Jags
Mildly Disturbed
Langway's point is that the Caps brass doesn't do that whole "strategic foresight" thing.
The current "Caps brass" has only ever had teams on the rise. You have no idea what they'll do when the wheels start coming off the bus.
So far, Mac has been a practical guy that has been pretty good at identifying needs and making positive decisions. They weren't all stellar in retrospect, but he's made some tough calls that have paid off. There's little reason to believe he won't be just as practical when the team's outlook changes.
Limited NTCs are pretty standard operating procedure for the Caps, but then they allow all of their players to ride out until the end of the contract anyway.
Mac's teams were always competitive. They all had a shot. Trading current impact value for the longer-term benefit of the franchise isn't what anyone wanted him to do. It was all geared toward being all-in this year.
So who did he let walk for nothing that he shouldn't have? Maybe Green. I'd agree with that, but the smart move with Green would have been to unload him way earlier. Downgrading the third pair and power play at his first TDL wouldn't have been the best move in the world. Way more on McPhee than Mac in this case.
Who else? Ward? Fehr? Chimera? Borderline at best in each of those cases. We could have gotten picks for Fehr and Chimera, but nothing that would have helped us. Ward, maybe if we'd done it in the offseason before, but no way at the TDL. He always outperformed his hit.
You're hanging a lot of pre-MacLellan stuff on Mac. I find him to be WAY more practical and less stubborn than McPhee.