People have to pick one side of the fence, though. You guys want to blame Dubas for not firing Sullivan, then you want to blame ownership for not firing Sullivan and name-call Dubas in the meantime. It’s a constant narrative shift to see who can be the biggest complainer on this board. There’s plenty of conversation to be had, but Dubas has barely been here and some people just seem like they want to hate the guy. I think he’s overall made some very good moves with a franchise in a position that is very difficult to navigate.
I mean, there's enough dysfunction and idiocy for the blame to be spread around. Why does it have to be "pick a side" when all sides are at fault? This "pick one thing" stuff is stupid and lazy. Pretty much everyone from ownership (past and present), the FO (past and present), and coach are guilty of stupid bullshit that's cratered this team over the years. But there's been one constant; Sullivan.
We know who Sully is. We know why he sucks. We know he's never gonna change. Dude needed fired after the 2020 play-in where he torpedoed the team by overplaying JJ-Schultz and refusing to mix up lines that weren't working. That's after he just shrugged and decided he wasn't gonna do anything about the Isles' forecheck shredding this team in a playoff sweep in 2019.
Pretty much every public facing decision FSG has made since taking over has been dogshit. They extended Sully two years before his current deal was even up after this team had their fourth consecutive 1st round embarrassment with Sully at the helm.
Dubas is a guy I'm largely waiting to judge for the post-Sid era because this era's been done and dusted for years. But you can still pick apart and analyze his moves/non-moves now, though again, I don't think they matter nearly as much as what he does to get this team built back up to competing again. I think taking on Glass and Hayes for picks was good. I think keeping the "we'll see how it goes" signings of Beau and Grz to 1yr deals was good. I think the EK deal was a mistake in hindsight, though I was for it at the time. I think the Graves deal was awful, and I wanted him signed. I think the Jarry deal was f***ing awful, and that's not a hindsight thing. My biggest gripe is his insistence that Sully is some mastermind coach who needs to be kept around despite all the mountains of evidence to the contrary.
That doesn't even touch on the issues of JR and Hextall's FOs, or Mario's ownership decisions as his time wound down as the head honcho.
Things have been bad for a very long time.