This is in no way a negative criticism...but i am amazed folks have the time to post like this. That would take me two hours to put together.
Fortunately for me and unfortunate for you all, I work in a field where I'm online pretty much the entirety of every day so it's not too tough to do.
Thanks for finding that post. Seems like a pretty prescient post, all things considered. When you look at that, it doesn't seem obvious in "hindsight" that they should have re-tooled then when idiots like me were calling for it. And you're right in 2022 they didn't need a rebuild. Just a re-tool. Which, had they done properly, they might be coming out of around now.
But they didn't do that. The rebuild is now inevitable. And also interminable. Gonna take a few years for this turd to finally get flushed down the toilet. But once it can the 5-7 year rebuild can start (unless they get lucky).
Because they can't re-tool now. There's too much crap Lou's piled on this franchise between 2022 and today to re-tool. Unless you're gonna convince a bunch of guys who all have some form of NTC to waive them, that is. And I can't see Lou, who has never waivered in his belief in this core, doing that. Maybe one. But a bunch, like they need?
As for Horvat and Romanov, they're part of the reason why a re-tool is all but impossible. Romanov is an okay player, one who has benefitted from playing with Dobson this year. He's Ryan Lindgren, basically. The issue is they gave up the 13th overall pick in a very good draft for him. Had they given up a less valuable asset, the trade would be fine. But they didn't. And it isn't. Horvat, the pick hurts, but the contract hurts more. The NTC most of all.
But again, all of this is largely moot. Lou's gonna do what he's gonna do. And because he's bad at his job, he's gonna f*** it up. People here will defend it. I'll vanish again and the wheel will turn.
You provided almost no rebuttal to anything I posted, repeated the same things you've said in every post, and this is precisely why I "avoided" this.
Also, for what it's worth, I didn't and don't disagree with what you said in 2022 as a game plan and nowhere did I call you an idiot. It's just amazing that he's done such a bad job this whole time that only now are you calling for a rebuild.
I feel like we often kick the can down the road with our ownership/GMs. Sometimes they've already shown you enough ineptitude and now you're just wasting time not replacing them. I know for many of us out there we were done with Lou months ago (if not longer). I mean what good GM keeps doubling down on a fringe/non playoff team?
I think it's important to give people time before judging them. In today's sports world we judge GMs too quickly and don't allow them to correct for mistakes they've made.
As for the last sentence, this year is enough for me. The team made the playoffs last year after losing Barzal but gaining Horvat. There was the potential to build off that and they floundered.
The reality is that Trotz covered up snow and Lou's work. As we're seeing no other coach could've had them get this flawed roster far as they did. Without Trotz this team might have missed the playoffs 5 of the last 6 years, and he's not coming back.
I'm a huge fan of Trotz and the way he coached. I love defense first hockey so I think he absolutely made the team better than the sum of its parts. The team is significantly older now and some players have fallen very far off from what they were then so I'm not sure if we can use Lambert/Roy as a barometer for whether or not those teams would've definitely missed the playoffs without Trotz. I do think they wouldn't have had the same level of success even if they had gotten in the playoffs.
Either way we were one terrible loss by the Penguins last year from missing the playoffs 3 years in a row. And currently we are up against the cap, need some of our our limited picks to clear up that cap mess, have one of the oldest teams in the league, and literally zero farm system. Maybe you are continually giving Lou benefit of the doubt because of his name as opposed to his body of work, but not sure why you need more time to make a judgment on this GM's resume.
I really don't like this because the team made the playoffs. Every team plays the same number of games and the Islanders got in, as the seventh seed too.
Like I said, he can be replaced and I wouldn't be upset.
As for the farm system, I don't get too worked up about that stuff. I remember when the Islanders had one of the top ranked systems and it resulted in nothing. Having good prospects is important, obviously, but I don't worry about rankings and generally I think prospect pools can be replenished fairly quickly.
Again...See above in terms of seeing how Lou "does it."
In terms of the cap going up...We should actually be scared of Lou having access to more cap. All we need is more money committed to average players on long-term deals.
You're so afraid of what he'll do and I judge off what he's done so we'll always be at odds.
I don't know how many "good moves" Lou has made in the past 6 years. I think he's made one very good move (Horvat) and then many ok/poor moves. This is still mostly snow's team, and I believe with all my soul that Barry Trotz was the most valuable Islander employee of the past 20 years.
Lehner, Varlamov, Sorokin, Horvat, Palmieri, Pageau were all good moves for me. I mentioned what I think of Trotz above.
But regardless...Can we get an official date on when you'll call for Lou's head? Because honestly feel like you've been saying that for a long time. At some point it's plain as day that the GM/coach/player isn't cutting it and has to go.
It's based off what he does, not an official timeframe. If he goes out and signs Martin to a seven year deal I'll be pissed and he should be fired on the spot. I'm also not as passionate about firing people.
Bottom line...We should judge a GM (and team president) on the teams' record under his watch, and not sure how you can say that after hearing over and over and over how much Lou "believes in this team," but then can't even make the playoffs how that is tolerable. I mean Lou is even failing miserably by his own standards.
I agree that we should judge management that way. His record currently that the team has made the playoffs 4 out of 5 seasons, has made it to the ECF twice, and to the second round once. Currently the team is struggling and seems to be on a plateau/downward trajectory so if that doesn't reverse course he needs to go. If the team misses the playoffs this year he should probably go, especially if a team like Washington makes it over the Islanders. That said, I wouldn't be at the point where I'd need to be screaming it from the rooftops, but I would if he signed Martin to a crazy deal (or did something else equally as dumb).
