My other favorite is that "this is still Gorton's team" despite the only 2 contracts of significance on the roster signed by Gorton are Panarin and Kreider. Panarin has produced well and helped drive regular season success every year he's been here, and Kreider has been a horse for this team and a big driver of the 2 ECF runs.
There is probably merit to both contributing to the negative culture with this group (1), but you also can't say they haven't been part of the team's success over the last few years.
He has thrown around a ton of asset value trying to improve this team. He has traded a few good/useful NHL players (Buch, M Barron, Howden (give him a pass)), 3 Firsts, 6 Seconds, 5 Thirds and essentially has nothing to show for it. All wasted on rentals and duds. If he invested this capital in options that weren't so bad or short-sighted, maybe he wouldn't still be managing "Gorton's team."
(1) If you want to talk about culture issues Panarin is probably exhibit A, but he produces so it flies under the radar. He has never really changed how he plays the game across various coaches; fair because it works in the regular season, less fair when it leads to clear issues in the postseason. He has been very stubborn about this, vocally so via his proxy Ryan Strome. He never speaks to the media. $11.5M a season and gets a complete pass on this, is a complete joke. He also expressed not wanting to play with Kakko in his rookie season. Fair enough to a degree given what we have seen from Kakko, but another example of forcefully doing his own thing regardless of what the coaching staff or org wants.