I dunno. When I had a look at what they were rolling with this year I figured even THESE guys couldn't carry that weight at near 40. They've got like 9+ million tied up in trash heap players that have done near nothing this year. That alone is like tying a giant bolder around the rest of the roster's neck.
It's pretty ugly. And now I feel like a direction is that much more conflicted.
If Sid and Malkin are still good enough to do that maybe they should have been given a little more time...
I was pro keeping the core around simply because I thought, with the right amount of ... good (maybe they had to be perfect?) moves, they could still be a 5th-8th seed in the east. And once you're in, who knows what happens. I'm a Dubas fan, but I've hated almost every one of his signings. I feel like he fell into the same trap JR and Hextall did: he fixed mistakes (he got rid of all of our perceived "problem players" in the EK trade) and then re-made the same mistakes with different players, instead of just using the cap space (something like $20MM, right?) to make significant upgrades to positions of need, if the core was going to compete, and letting young players man the bottom-6. Instead we just used every single penny on bland bottom-6 guys. Just infuriating.
Yeah which is also why I don't criticize Dubas for the state of the team, either.
The criticisms towards Dubas should be focused on the bad moves he has made. Dubas has done a poor job IMO but the state of the team today is likely what it would have been with any GM. Even without the mistakes Dubas has made, namely with UFA signings and the EK trade, this team is still likely in about the same spot.
So basically Dubas hasn't helped but the state of the team today was predetermined before Dubas even took over.
I generally agree. I've disliked most of Dubas' signings, but I don't think I've had an issue with any of his trades. In fact, I think all of his trades have been really good. I guess the only 'nothing' trade is Eller, where you could probably convince me he was worth a little more if you held on until the deadline, and I hate helping the Caps, but even then, it was, by no means, a bad trade. And he's been stockpiling future assets, which I really like, since it's clear he doesn't need them right now if they aren't going to truly compete.
mid-posting edit: I guess people will have issues with the Guentzel trade. I still give it an incomplete. We have to see how the players pan out. But I don't really care that he missed out on a late 1st.
Spanning multiple FO regimes and ownership groups.
