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Ron Francis as Kraken GM ~ The Verdict Is In

hamzarocks said:
Prosoect pool is solid

Seattle likely takes off in 2-3 years while Knights begin a steep decline and rebuild starts in 2-3 years (lengthy one most likely at that)

VGK are the only expansion team to be this good right away for so long. Its not common for a reason
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With the cap going up and Vegas being Vegas I see no reason why they should decline. They are also run really well
 
VivaLasVegas said:
And he is guilty of being a bust as a GM, as predicted by many here including me. Every year, the Kraken just trudge forth in a steady mediocrity, got no future, have no past.
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We've got no future
We've got no past
Here today, built to last
In every city, in every nation
From Lake Geneva to the Finland station

Lol love the end to your post....Reminds me of one of my all time favorite songs (West End Girls)

As far as Francis goes.......Too much mediocrity and no man's land...............Need to replace him with a GM that will choose direction........
 
Suffering welcomes you into the brotherhood of Hockey, it's why Vegas is at least 10 years away from being welcomed.
 
JPeeper said:
lol @ people giving Francis shit for building a team of 3rd liners and 4-6 d-man.

Yeah no shit, that's how expansion teams are built when teams protect all their good players. GM's didn't go full Simple Jack this time like with Vegas and gift them top line players.

Vegas is not the norm, do people not remember the dozen expansion teams before them? They were all crap for years.
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You say that as if Vegas just stumbled on a Stanley cup by chance. They made some serious moves and it paid off.

Seattle just stayed passive and only reached for what's given to them. They get the expected results.
 
Big McLargehuge said:
Ron Francis has done a bad job. Period. That's the problem.

Teams were better prepared after the Vegas expansion draft, so he deserves some slack...but he still built a team full of third liners and 4-6 defensemen, has handed out some brutal contracts to middling talent, and hired two of the shittiest coaches of the 2010s back-to-back to lead them.
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It's funny because this is what everybody thought Vegas did too.
 
The expansion draft set them back massively. It was bungled in the name of cap space, and then he failed to use it in any good way. Gave out a few boat anchors.
 
Expansion teams almost never start out of the gate hot, Vegas ruined us.

I kinda like Seattle and what's been done. Are they good? No, they have okay forwards, good D and bad tending, but they've already won a round and they've picked up and will continue to pick up nice talent at the draft and will be flexible with their cap.

The only significant RFA they have this year are Kakko and Evans, I don't know enough about them to know what they'll do with Gourde and Tanev, I wouldn't resign them but they might but they won't be making what they made. They need a goalie but they can probably find one somewhere.

Not a horrible situation.
 
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bleedgreen said:
Right? They were idiots to not take Jacob Voracek and Carey Price! Vince Dunn over Tarasenko.....it bottles the mind.....
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More like threatening to take players unless a massive price was paid and then not taking them when teams refused. If you didn't want them you were better off caving and getting any draft picks or assets you could. They made 0 deals. Unacceptable levels of mismanagement there.

Also, there were several players like Taransenko, Henrique, Duchene, etc and several other legitimate NHLers and instead passed on them. Even if they didn't want these players, 2/3 return first round picks in trade within the next few seasons.

They could have had a better team today and tomorrow. Instead like I mentioned, they chose cap space which is fine I guess except they did nothing positive with it.
 
That Stephenson contract was ass the moment it was signed and everyone except Francis knew it. He's done really well with getting support wingers for cheap.. Bjorkstrand, Kakko, Tolvanen. That's about it.
 
Takes time to build a club through the draft and properly bring players along so that you have depth too.

People forget the expansion rules changed. I wouldn't write Francis off at all at this point.
 
HockeyVirus said:
More like threatening to take players unless a massive price was paid and then not taking them when teams refused. If you didn't want them you were better off caving and getting any draft picks or assets you could. They made 0 deals. Unacceptable levels of mismanagement there.

Also, there were several players like Taransenko, Henrique, Duchene, etc and several other legitimate NHLers and instead passed on them. Even if they didn't want these players, 2/3 return first round picks in trade within the next few seasons.

They could have had a better team today and tomorrow. Instead like I mentioned, they chose cap space which is fine I guess except they did nothing positive with it.
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lol. It’s like you think they didn’t even try. Of course they tried to hold players hostage for picks. No one cared, the other teams told them to just take whoever they wanted. They were prepared for it and were completely ok with losing whoever was taken. Francis has already talked about all this. No one cared. Tarasenko was available because they wanted Seattle to take his contract. Same with Voracek and any other big name. The teams weren’t afraid they were going to lose these guys, they spent three years preparing so they only would lose guys they wanted to lose. Doesn’t take a genius to see it.

Of course they took Dunn over Tarasenko. You still think that was the wrong choice?!?

They didn’t take guys that didn’t fit the style they wanted to play, and didn’t see the sense in taking a guy they didn’t think fit just to get maybe another pick down the road. They had seven picks in the first three rounds in 22 and another five in the first three rounds of 23….and they traded picks for Bjorkstrand. They drafted SEVEN second rounders in two years. That’s not enough picks for you? :laugh:
 
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Voodoo Child said:
Expansion teams almost never start out of the gate hot, Vegas ruined us.

I kinda like Seattle and what's been done. Are they good? No, they have lkay forwards, good D and bad tending, but they've already won a round and they've picked up and will continue to pick up nice talent at the draft and will be flexible with their cap.

The only significant RFA they have this year are Kakko and Evans, I don't know enough about them to know what they'll do with Gourde and Tanev, I wouldn't resign them but they might but they won't be making what they made. They need a goalie but they can probably find one somewhere.

Not a horrible situation.
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We don't need a goalie. Daccord has been lights out this season and keeping us in games where we had no reason be in.

The biggest issue with Francis has been that he has handed out 4+ years contracts to middling players hoping that they become more effective with an increased role. That just has not worked out well for the team and has made the team a salary cap team with no real elite forwards.

He has done a really good job drafting as well. Also, folks bring up him not taking Tarasenko or Duchene. Dunn has proven to be a much much better choice than Tank. Also, Duchene was coming off 3 terrible seasons and making 8M AAV at that time. People love to act like we had some great choices available in the expansion draft but we really didn't.
 
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Vegas was a perfect storm of new favorable expansion rules and what was essentially an era of a flat salary cap; it was rising just $2m each year at that point. Teams were desperate to shed unwanted contracts and saw the new team as a way to get out of poorly spent money.

Seattle was born in the actual flat cap era, but teams had already learned their lesson. And Seattle was less willing to spend actual money on bad players. They ended up with significantly less draft and trade capital out of the gate.

Say what you will about Francis, but I think Seattle's ownership is to blame somewhat if the expectation was to be anywhere near as competitive as Vegas has.
 
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Super Hans said:
Most notable part of their existence so far is what Val Nichushkin does in the local hotel rooms.
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goodfellaslaugh.gif
 
Kryten said:
Good. Expansion teams arent supposed to be good right away
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So does this mean that everyone who bitched and moaned about Vegas being “gifted” a great team can admit they were wrong, and that VGK’s success has been a product of

1. McPhee’s savviness
2. Other GMs’ stupidity
 
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