I did not hate the Francis hire.
He has historically been great at negotiating contracts with RFAs, his drafting is above average, and he has always shown patience with prospects and willing to build things slowly through the draft - which is a fault of his when trying to build a contender, but a good trait to have in a GM for an expansion team.
Francis may never have been the guy that was going to make the big moves needed to turn a cup contender into a champion, but he was a guy that could stockpile the assets to put a team in a solid position so that the next GM would have the assets to make the moves needed to push the roster over the hump.
What can't be overlooked here is that a "slow build through drafting" was the obvious plan from day one, but ownership went public pretty early on in the offseason or start of season 2 stating that winning now was the new priority and the future was secondary. How Francis has switched gears to change his tactics has not been stellar, (and making those kinds of moves are the moves he has historically been bad at), but that is an incredibly tough position for even the most astute GM to be placed in. I am not sure anyone in the league currently pulls it off or comes out of that scenario looking like a genius. (Note, I am not defending last years UFA moves, I called them bad then and still do not like them).
Francis is the wrong GM for a team trying to quickly compete without a solid young competitive base in place, but I still do not believe he is the worst hire for a team looking to slow build a competitive roster with the future being a huge priority over short term success. Let him start it and do what he does best - just do not expect him to complete the job.
He has historically been great at negotiating contracts with RFAs, his drafting is above average, and he has always shown patience with prospects and willing to build things slowly through the draft - which is a fault of his when trying to build a contender, but a good trait to have in a GM for an expansion team.
Francis may never have been the guy that was going to make the big moves needed to turn a cup contender into a champion, but he was a guy that could stockpile the assets to put a team in a solid position so that the next GM would have the assets to make the moves needed to push the roster over the hump.
What can't be overlooked here is that a "slow build through drafting" was the obvious plan from day one, but ownership went public pretty early on in the offseason or start of season 2 stating that winning now was the new priority and the future was secondary. How Francis has switched gears to change his tactics has not been stellar, (and making those kinds of moves are the moves he has historically been bad at), but that is an incredibly tough position for even the most astute GM to be placed in. I am not sure anyone in the league currently pulls it off or comes out of that scenario looking like a genius. (Note, I am not defending last years UFA moves, I called them bad then and still do not like them).
Francis is the wrong GM for a team trying to quickly compete without a solid young competitive base in place, but I still do not believe he is the worst hire for a team looking to slow build a competitive roster with the future being a huge priority over short term success. Let him start it and do what he does best - just do not expect him to complete the job.
