I know you have an intense love affair with Lou. And to an extent it's deserved. He has had incredible success in the league. He's completely turned around the Isles culture. Credit has to be given where it's due. The results have been there despite a lackluster collection of talent for years now.
However, I refuse to believe some of these false narratives.
Year after year he has not been able to improve the roster. Unforced errors with bad contracts has hampered his ability to attain talent. There is this dumb narrative that the Isles can't sign UFAs. Winning changes all of that. The Isles had two successful playoff runs. If they had managed the cap better, they would be able to acquire UFAs. With a stagnant cap, teams with cap space have a chance to acquire such players. A perfect example was JG this offseason. I disagree with you. JG would've signed with the highest bidder. You can't convince me that a team like CBJ won him over with their cannon and terrible roster. They quite simply gave him the best offer. By his own admission, the Isles never made an offer. It was between the Devils and CBJ by all accounts. It was reported that the CBJ made the better offer. He signed. Isles weren't even in on him, and under 10 mil, he's actually an underpay. Bad contracts are the reason the Isles didn't have the space to sign him. And yes, I know you think these are all great contracts on the Isles and not a single guy is overpaid. If that were true, they'd be movable to make space for a JG (an actual gamechanger). If you're right though, and they were movable (with positive value) and Lou chose not to move them is an even bigger indictment on his roster building acumen.
Now let's pretend you're right, and Isles can't sign UFAs. Debrincat, Bjorkstrand, Toews, etc are just some examples of players that had to be moved for cap reasons/high qualifying offers. This again points to cap space being a huge asset. You can pick up such a player for rather cheap cost because you have the cap space others don't. Pacioretty was taken for free just as a cap dump (I know he's injured, but at 7 mil x1 year, he's a much better investment than anything the Isles have in their middle 9.
Further example of Lou poor asset management is Romanov. He gave up a 13th overall pick for him. It's been less than half a season, but he's not good. He does not impact the game at all offensively. Defensively on 5v5 he is constantly out of position. His best asset is shot blocking. Spending a relatively high pick on a guy with negative value is another wasted opportunity. That pick could've been spent on a better asset.
I don't know. I'm trying to drink the same Kool Aid you are. I love this team. But when watching the true elite teams, and then watching the Isles, I'm constantly underwhelmed. They often look slower, less precise with their passes, miss the net, allow a ton of chances due to poor defensive structure. They have been kept afloat by incredible goaltending. However, the goaltending has been very average lately, and the results speak for themselves. This is not a good enough roster. It may be good enough to sneak in the playoffs. However, it isn't good enough to make the push you'd expect from a team that made two impressive runs two seasons ago. This is what happens when a GM falls in love with their roster. This is what happens when fans fall in love with the GM that falls in love with their flawed roster. They start making excuses.
