Playoff Analysis and Future Thoughts

[Brian39]

Almost all NHL GMs are bad at their jobs

All this opinion tells me is that you either don't understand the job they do or simply aren't a good evaluator of job performance in this field.

The NHL is composed of 32 teams owned by 32 different people/groups, all of which are directly competing with each other to win 1 prize at the end of the year. The pretty large majority of these owners are extremely competitive and spend millions of dollars per year to construct a front office to manage a billion dollar asset. All of them have incentive to be the group that finds the competitive imbalance in their front office and there have been several teams that have actively looked way outside of hockey to try to find that balance.

The claim that almost all of the extremely well paid front office people are bad at their job while there is an untapped pool of (almost certainly cheaper) candidates that would do better is pretty tough to believe. Based on that premise, it should be extremely easy to bring in an outsider who runs laps around the 25-30 incompetent NHL GMs to build a dynasty.

 

[Drubilly]

Fire Armstrong!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Drubilly]

I’m joking of course. Thanks for the very lucid breakdown Brian. Since most posters on HF have the emotional maturity of a gnat I’m certain that they really don’t manage anything of consequence in their lives.

(Drew…..hanging out at PNines place)

 

[ChicagoBlues]

I wanted him gone in 2019. after the Cup run I stopped complaining for a bit, but I still think he's a flawed GM overall and want someone new at the helm. The problem with mediocre GMs (like Yzerman, who I think is worse than Army) is that even if their mistakes outweigh or outnumber their wins....firing them almost always guarantees you end up with someone worse. Almost all NHL GMs are bad at their jobs, but since its a good ol' boys club they just keep playing musical chairs and there is rarely any new blood (and when there is, you end up with Pejorative Slurs like the guy from the Coyotes that got forced out of the league).

Basically, in a perfect world, Army would have been gone at least 6 years ago and replaced with someone better. However, in the real world 95% of his likely replacements in that timeframe would have worse than him anyway. He's made several really great moves lately which - just like the Cup win - made everyone forget all the years of bad moves he made leading up to those points.

I really hope Steen is better than Army and stays around a long time if he is.

After reading this post and mulling it over, I have only one real question for you.

Is that a real Little Caesar's pizza in your avatar?

 

[Pizza!Pizza!]

After reading this post and mulling it over, I have only one real question for you.

Is that a real Little Caesar's pizza in your avatar?

Yes it is.

All this opinion tells me is that you either don't understand the job they do or simply aren't a good evaluator of job performance in this field.

The NHL is composed of 32 teams owned by 32 different people/groups, all of which are directly competing with each other to win 1 prize at the end of the year. The pretty large majority of these owners are extremely competitive and spend millions of dollars per year to construct a front office to manage a billion dollar asset. All of them have incentive to be the group that finds the competitive imbalance in their front office and there have been several teams that have actively looked way outside of hockey to try to find that balance.

The claim that almost all of the extremely well paid front office people are bad at their job while there is an untapped pool of (almost certainly cheaper) candidates that would do better is pretty tough to believe. Based on that premise, it should be extremely easy to bring in an outsider who runs laps around the 25-30 incompetent NHL GMs to build a dynasty.

lol what are you related to one or something? How many GMs don't have a horrendous signing, trade or draft catalog under the belt? How many GMs fail to build a competitive team, get fired, and then continue to make the mistakes with their next team - thus showing they don't learn? All GMs make mistakes, very few actually learn from them and get better over time. Sure they are competitive, but they also all hang out and go golfing together, so it's not like it's a cutthroat win at all costs mentality.

Man I really rustled some jimmies in this thread. Sorry about my over simplified explanation but I didn't feel like typing a long drawn out breakdown of every move and press conference that led to my opinion. I still stand by that I currently don't think Army is a good GM. However, if this offseason goes as well as last offseason then I am open to changing my mind. In other words he needs to prove his solid 24/25 moves were not a fluke.

 

[ChicagoBlues]

Yes it is.

Why doesn’t Pizza Pizza Co. make rectangular pizzas?

 

[BlueDream]

Yes it is.


lol what are you related to one or something? How many GMs don't have a horrendous signing, trade or draft catalog under the belt? How many GMs fail to build a competitive team, get fired, and then continue to make the mistakes with their next team - thus showing they don't learn? All GMs make mistakes, very few actually learn from them and get better over time. Sure they are competitive, but they also all hang out and go golfing together, so it's not like it's a cutthroat win at all costs mentality.

Man I really rustled some jimmies in this thread. Sorry about my over simplified explanation but I didn't feel like typing a long drawn out breakdown of every move and press conference that led to my opinion. I still stand by that I currently don't think Army is a good GM. However, if this offseason goes as well as last offseason then I am open to changing my mind. In other words he needs to prove his solid 24/25 moves were not a fluke.

This is a really weird hill to be dying on.

Nobody has said that GMs don’t make mistakes. You are just, for whatever reason, severely underestimating how difficult it actually is to be a GM in a professional sport. As if it’s easy to “learn from their mistakes” and build a championship team. Winning is hard and we don’t even know half of what goes into building an organization.

In a hypothetical world where you become a GM, you would make tons of mistakes. You would obviously never even get an interview in the first place, because you’re not qualified for the position. And I don’t mean that as a shot, it’s just the truth. None of us would do a good job, despite how much armchair GM’ing we do on Internet forums. Look how many bad trade proposals are made here. Since it’s just a forum, we can laugh them off and not care. But if you were actually on the phones with other professional GMs, they’d eat you alive. You wouldn’t last a month.

 

[execwrite1]

Free agent RHD


Aaron Ekblad 29
Neal Pionk 29
Dante Fabbro 26
Johnathan Kovacevic 27
Nick Perbix 26

 

[Vladys Gumption]

Free agent RHD


Aaron Ekblad 29
Neal Pionk 29
Dante Fabbro 26
Johnathan Kovacevic 27
Nick Perbix 26

Pionk just recently signed an extension with the Jets.

 

[Linkens Mastery]

Free agent RHD


Aaron Ekblad 29
Neal Pionk 29
Dante Fabbro 26
Johnathan Kovacevic 27
Nick Perbix 26

Didn't both Pionk and Kovacevic sign extentions?

 

[MissouriMook]

lol what are you related to one or something? How many GMs don't have a horrendous signing, trade or draft catalog under the belt? How many GMs fail to build a competitive team, get fired, and then continue to make the mistakes with their next team - thus showing they don't learn? All GMs make mistakes, very few actually learn from them and get better over time. Sure they are competitive, but they also all hang out and go golfing together, so it's not like it's a cutthroat win at all costs mentality.

Man I really rustled some jimmies in this thread. Sorry about my over simplified explanation but I didn't feel like typing a long drawn out breakdown of every move and press conference that led to my opinion. I still stand by that I currently don't think Army is a good GM. However, if this offseason goes as well as last offseason then I am open to changing my mind. In other words he needs to prove his solid 24/25 moves were not a fluke.

This perspective reeks to me of the same kind of mindset that believes that all baseball players suck because even the best ones fail at their job over 70% of the time.

 

[SirPaste]

Didn't both Pionk and Kovacevic sign extentions?

Yes they did. Fabbro is the obvious choice of that group IMO, I think there is a good chance he resigns with CBJ though.

 

[Linkens Mastery]

Yes they did. Fabbro is the obvious choice of that group IMO, I think there is a good chance he resigns with CBJ though.

Fabbro is the guy i want as well. He was the guy CBJ were pairing with Werenski and was damn solid letting Werenski activate like crazy.

 

[Brian39]

I have no freaking clue what kind of contract Fabbro is going to land this summer. He's hitting UFA at the perfect age and played the best hockey of his career in the 60 games leading up to free agency. But he was also waived in November, which suggests that none of the 31 other teams in the league were willing to give much of anything up for him at $2.5M against the cap.

As always, the UFA market for RHD sucks and there are way more teams looking to upgrade the right side of their blue line than there are RHD upgrades available. I could see a crazy bidding war over him, but I could also see a bunch of teams not buying into his play this year as sustainable and keeping their offers largely akin to how they valued him 6 months ago.

I'm really interested to see what he gets. I'm also really nervous about the Blues being the team that makes him the best offer.

 

[SirPaste]

I have no freaking clue what kind of contract Fabbro is going to land this summer. He's hitting UFA at the perfect age and played the best hockey of his career in the 60 games leading up to free agency. But he was also waived in November, which suggests that none of the 31 other teams in the league were willing to give much of anything up for him at $2.5M against the cap.

As always, the UFA market for RHD sucks and there are way more teams looking to upgrade the right side of their blue line than there are RHD upgrades available. I could see a crazy bidding war over him, but I could also see a bunch of teams not buying into his play this year as sustainable and keeping their offers largely akin to how they valued him 6 months ago.

I'm really interested to see what he gets. I'm also really nervous about the Blues being the team that makes him the best offer.

Not necessarily, on the day that he was claimed, the Jackets were 27th in the league so only 4 teams passed on him, considering Nashville was one of 5 teams below them in the standings. I bet there were several other teams interested in his services.

Edit: Just reread your post and looks like I misunderstood your point in that nobody was willing to trade even a late round pick for him

 

[Bye Bye Blueston]

I have no freaking clue what kind of contract Fabbro is going to land this summer. He's hitting UFA at the perfect age and played the best hockey of his career in the 60 games leading up to free agency. But he was also waived in November, which suggests that none of the 31 other teams in the league were willing to give much of anything up for him at $2.5M against the cap.

As always, the UFA market for RHD sucks and there are way more teams looking to upgrade the right side of their blue line than there are RHD upgrades available. I could see a crazy bidding war over him, but I could also see a bunch of teams not buying into his play this year as sustainable and keeping their offers largely akin to how they valued him 6 months ago.

I'm really interested to see what he gets. I'm also really nervous about the Blues being the team that makes him the best offer.

Josi and werenski each played best hockey of their career paired with him. If we think he is guy who can unlock broberg offensive potential, I’d pay good but for that. Otherwise, he’s just a guy. Maybe 4x4? 5x5 feels rich.

 

[Beninnola]

All this opinion tells me is that you either don't understand the job they do or simply aren't a good evaluator of job performance in this field.

The NHL is composed of 32 teams owned by 32 different people/groups, all of which are directly competing with each other to win 1 prize at the end of the year. The pretty large majority of these owners are extremely competitive and spend millions of dollars per year to construct a front office to manage a billion dollar asset. All of them have incentive to be the group that finds the competitive imbalance in their front office and there have been several teams that have actively looked way outside of hockey to try to find that balance.

The claim that almost all of the extremely well paid front office people are bad at their job while there is an untapped pool of (almost certainly cheaper) candidates that would do better is pretty tough to believe. Based on that premise, it should be extremely easy to bring in an outsider who runs laps around the 25-30 incompetent NHL GMs to build a dynasty.

I’m down to try.

I think tho I’d add: imo the majority of decisions come from owners. Gms just manage the situation. They don’t necessarily choose.

 

[Memento]

I'd go for Perbix. Yes, he's going to be expensive, but he's still young and thrived on a talented Tampa team.

 

[Brian39]

Jodi and werenski each played best hockey of their career paired with him. If we think he is guy who can unlock broberg offensive potential, I’d pay good but for that. Otherwise, he’s just a guy. Maybe 4x4? 5x5 feels rich.

Whether they did that because of him or he just happened to be in the right place at the right time is certainly the 8 figure question.

FWIW, I don't see too many similarities between Broberg's game and Josi/Werenski's games. I see a hell of a lot more of those players in Fowler than I do Broberg from a size and style standpoint. And I do think that Broberg/Parayko could form a hell of an all situations pair. If we went after Fabbro, I wouldn't be at all surprised if we eventually landed on Broberg/Parayko as a top pair with Fowler/Fabbro as a higher-than-average-minutes 2nd pair.

I just have no clue if those amounts would be enough to land him. I am real uncomfortable offering $5Mx5, but I also think that someone will beat that by a decent margin. I see arguments for him betting on himself with a short term deal and I see arguments for getting as much term as possible to lock in wealth for the rest of his and his family's lives. 4 or 5 years seems like the way to get the best AAV, but then he's next hitting UFA at 31 or 32 and could largely miss out on getting another really good contract.

 

[Brian39]

Not necessarily, on the day that he was claimed, the Jackets were 27th in the league so only 4 teams passed on him, considering Nashville was one of 5 teams below them in the standings. I bet there were several other teams interested in his services.

Edit: Just reread your post and looks like I misunderstood your point in that nobody was willing to trade even a late round pick for him

Yup, my point was that there obviously weren't teams offering to throw them a 3rd round pick before they decided to throw him on waivers. I'm sure that several teams put in waiver claims for him, but Nashville wouldn't have put him on waivers if those teams had expressed interest in giving them a pick for him.

 

[Bye Bye Blueston]

Whether they did that because of him or he just happened to be in the right place at the right time is certainly the 8 figure question.

FWIW, I don't see too many similarities between Broberg's game and Josi/Werenski's games. I see a hell of a lot more of those players in Fowler than I do Broberg from a size and style standpoint. And I do think that Broberg/Parayko could form a hell of an all situations pair. If we went after Fabbro, I wouldn't be at all surprised if we eventually landed on Broberg/Parayko as a top pair with Fowler/Fabbro as a higher-than-average-minutes 2nd pair...

Broberg is far more defensively responsible than Josi (and presumably Werenski, but I don't watch CBJ much). What I was getting at is he has shown flashes of elite offense, times where he blows by opponent and drives the net. He would be freed to do more of that, as Josi does, playing deep in O zone if he had a partner he could rely upon to cover for him. With Faulk he had to limit how daring he could be. That is where I see a stronger defensive partner can really open up broberg offense. If we could find that without breaking up fowler/parayko- who complement each other amazingly- we would have darn good top 4d.

 

[Mike Liut]

From watching the Leafs, you can just see players that can play playoff type of hockey and players that don’t. We have several playoff type of players, but I wouldn’t mind building a team that can physically dominate you. You definitely need skill guys who can carry you through 82 games, because you can’t play that type of hockey night in and night out.

 

[execwrite1]

From watching the Leafs, you can just see players that can play playoff type of hockey and players that don’t. We have several playoff type of players, but I wouldn’t mind building a team that can physically dominate you. You definitely need skill guys who can carry you through 82 games, because you can’t play that type of hockey night in and night out.

Totally agree. The 2019 Blues were playoff warriors. The 2026 Blues could be that style of team.

 

[Stlblue50]

Totally agree. The 2019 Blues were playoff warriors. The 2026 Blues could be that style of team.

Berube has to be pretty pissed at the soft team he has now.

 

[Stlblue50]

Totally agree. The 2019 Blues were playoff warriors. The 2026 Blues could be that style of team.

Would love to add Bennett as a 2C. Seeing he doesn’t put up a ton of points could possibly mean the Blues could get him in the 5-7M range.