Vancouvers biggest difference is that they have oodles of depth. I dont think they go far but having like 5 role players doing well has certainly given them a fighting shot every game, even if Lindholm looks like absolute garbage for them
I think each situation is different, but the main point I was making is that we see these sorts of things every year. The Winnipeg Jets were on the verge of a rebuild with nobody wanting to play there and they've bounced back (and re-signed their guys), the Capitals looked dead in the water and are starting their rebuild but are somehow in a playoff spot. Some teams have been rebuilding for what seems like a decade and haven't moved the needle in any meaningful way.
I'd listen to the argument on both.
My "axe to grind" with Lamoriello is the state of the team. I don't know how you look at it and think he's doing anything but a piss poor job.
We know, you've popped up out of nowhere to post this same opinion as a fact every time you've posted in the past week.
And he's gonna trade Nelson now? He's more likely to extend Nelson than he is to trade him, especially for futures.
Let me know when that happens and I'll get upset too.
Finally I harp on Romanov and Horvat because the logic at the time (and still defended here) was that they made the team better, made the team even good. Did they? Do they?
They have made the team better, yes. Is the team good? They're mediocre.
The argument I've made (that you won't engage on) is simple: the team is poised to miss the playoffs for the second time in three years, has the worst farm system in the league and is capped out.
I find it a little rich that you think I won't engage on the topic when I've been posting every day here for years and you popped back up a few weeks ago for the first time in eons.
I don't mind engaging on the topic, and have many times over, my issue is engaging with someone who doesn't seem genuine when they're posting and/or won't be around to continue a conversation, but I'll give it an honest go.
Here's a post of yours back in 2022:
2-3 Moves? No. 2-3 Trades? That's all you're getting in the next 12-18 months, yeah. There's a limit to who can be moved based on the roster and the cap. The three players I'd move if the price was right are Beauvillier, Mayfield and Varly. Obviously the price has to be right, but they're probably the pieces the team can move and no have it cripple them going forward.
As for Mayfield, he's a good player and a nice piece, but him as a 3rd pair RHD is a luxury. This team has far too many needs to carry around a luxury like that. Especially one that's going to be a UFA in 16 months. His replacement isn't in the system, sure, even if you wanna give Hutton the shot, you still have to find someone to come in via UFA. But looking at the available RHD UFA's and you see that it's not impossible to fill the hole, even somewhat sloppily.
But you're advocating for a total rebuild and you're not offering anything of value save, what, Nelson? If they're rebuilding, which they shouldn't do, then why are they keeping a 29 year old player who's gonna want a lot to resign? If they're in a total rebuild then Mayfield's gone, too.
And I'm sorry, the notion that he's part of the core is pretty out there. He's a good player, but one whose game has been too inconsistent since Toews left. And to be honest, his game was inconsistent before Toews got here, too.
As you yourself noted in 2022, you didn't think they should rebuild. In hindsight, that's the year he should've started to re-tool. The team went on some deep runs and Lamoriello tried to address the issues those teams had, by bringing in Pageau and Palmieri. I have no idea what you thought about those moves at the time because you didn't post for six years. The reality is that the team was pushing and trying to win a cup. They ultimately didn't succeed but I don't mind Lamoriello making any of those moves. For the umpteenth time, the Pageau deal in particular needs to be seen through the lens at the time in which it was made. The flat cap has negatively impacted that deal more than any other deal on the team and there's no way for any GM to have known that was going to happen.
Unless you were advocating for a complete rebuild in the summer of 2018 when he came here, it's hard to suggest any/many of the moves he made prior to the first year the team missed the playoffs were terrible. Komarov is probably the worst deal and I think that was blown way out of proportion, and was also impacted by the flat cap created by COVID. People like to throw the Toews deal around too, but that was another COVID issue, though there's a bit more of blame for that one since it's possible that a different deal might've been available (but we won't ever know for sure). The hatred of that deal really ramped up in the following season when Toews had a career year and was near a point per game player (something he hasn't come close to replicating since). I think most of that criticism is mostly overblown as well. Here we are with Dobson a few years later putting up better numbers (and Toews has the luxury of playing next to one of the best defenseman in the entire NHL).
He brought in a lot of different players, addressed holes, but couldn't ever get a superstar. We know it wasn't from lack of trying if we're believing the reports on the trades and the free agents that have been available over the years. So I'd say he did a pretty good job up until the year they missed the playoffs.
I do like the Romanov deal, he's a good defenseman who is young and will grow with the team. There's risk when drafting players and Lamoriello decided to avoid that risk and address a current need and a future need by making that trade. If the team plans to compete in the near future than trading for Romanov is a perfectly acceptable deal. If you think that pick should've been used in a different trade, okay, I don't have a problem with that. Saying they should've used the pick means that this team would have to wait for that prospect to mature and hope that player becomes impactful and/or valuable enough that they can trade them later.
Horvat is more of an issue if you don't see the team competing in the near future but he's 28, so it's jumping the gun a bit, and he's the best player Lamoriello has been able to bring in.
If we're looking at the last three years, Lamoriello hasn't done a great job. Let's say they miss the playoffs this year, then it's two out of three years. If we look at the totality of his time the team has made the playoffs five out of six years so far and made it to the ECF twice. That's a pretty good run. The pretty good run doesn't mean he's beyond criticism or hasn't made some mistakes. Lambert was a mistake, signing Mayfield to a seven year deal was a mistake, signing Varlamov to a four year deal was a mistake, having Aho on the roster was a mistake, bringing back Clutterbuck and Martin was a mistake, and the Engvall deal isn't looking great in year one (there's plenty of time to turn that around though).
To say he's done a piss poor job is hyperbolic and reactionary to a bad few years. I'm not suggesting that Lamoriello gets to be here for as long as he'd like or gets a pass for any missteps, if they miss the playoffs again this year he needs to make real changes or be replaced by someone who will.
The speculation that those changes are impossible to make because of the situation Lamoriello put the team in is just that, speculation. Until that comes to pass it is no more true than anything else people are speculating about. Even if some of the deals are hurting now, like Pageau or Palmieri, they were worth the risk at the time they were made.
