Honestly I'm not hating on dubas that hard, yet.
1. He wasn't the one who signed rust to a nmc, resigned Carter and gave him a nmc, gave away McCann and blueger, or extended Sullivan.
2. The only moves that I don't like when you take Sullivan out of the equation are, in retrospect, graves as it turns out he needs a defense first partner to be effective ala Marino instead of being that guy for a letang or karlsson, and waiver pick ups in Harkins and the new midget who Sullivan just can't resist putting into the line up.
In terms of basic roster construction, discounting injuries, there was a legit top six that Sullivan has completely wasted by not giving Malkin linemates he can produce with. I remember the days of Francis getting jagr and Stevens or nedved, while Mario was playing with total scrubs because he could and it balanced out top six production yet here we are with Malkin playing with a third liner in O',Conner and smith who obviously wants to be traded back west. Hell I'd have had sid with rackell and puusy with Geno getting Jake and rust while smith sat for being a sulking little bitch as far back as December.
Eller has, for most of the season been a fantastic bottom six center, but his line either should have been a total shut down third line with accari at right wing with a young fast and hungry fourth line, or a better third line should have been constricted with both eller and accari on the fourth.
Accari is not a center, putting at center completely neuters him since he plays "his" game along the boards and in the corners.
With Jake out and on ltir, there are no cap based reasons for Carter to play. He should be sat and the young guys who could potentially be in the NHL should be given a chance to play some games. Not white, not hinostroza, not Harkins, not the midget. Gruden/poulin (when healthy)/puusy, maybe even give Nylander one last shot at a spot in this org.
Yeah dubas picked up a crap ton of AHL defenders for depth, but it was Sullivan that ruined poj's development by playing shea and ruh over him for weeks at a time when both were literally losing the team games early in the season. Sullivan also doesn't seem able or willing to work with young defenders and let smith rot in the ahl as well.
It and wasnt dubas who broke up pettersson and karlsson when they surprisingly had some of the best advanced metrics in the league for the first two months of the season to help keep the illusion that letang was the number 1 defender. defenseman.
It's not dubas who can't run the powerplay.
And it's not dubas spouting off cliche ass responses after each game instead of making actual line up or strategy changes.
