Chuck did such a bad job of trying to win. Horrendous.
Chuck also had almost unfathomably bad luck.
In his first full season as GM, 2019/20 he takes them from a 22nd in the NHL finish to a 6th in the NHL finish. Wins their first playoff round in 8 years.
But had their season, and their momentum, halted by COVID.
A season that also saw a promising young player in Oskar Lindblom, who I think was leading the team in goals at the time, find out he has cancer (and is never the same).
And their prized supposed top prospect in inherited #2 overall pick Nolan Patrick miss the entire season with a migraine issue.
Then before the following season, 2020/21, his first-pair defensive acquisition in Niskanen, who bolstered the D, decides unexpectedly to retire at age 34. Most likely because he didn't want to deal with all of the COVID stuff.
Their young #1 goalie, who is supposed to be a budding star in Hart, falls apart with an .877 save % (we probably now know why -- he found out about the legal issues).
Their prized 22 year old #2 overall pick in Patrick, back from the migraine issue, scores 9 points in 52 games and is a -30 while guys like Makar and Heiskanen look like superstars.
And it turns out that supposed young gem Phil Myers can't play.
Then we get to 2021/22. They trade Patrick for Ryan Ellis, who has been top pairing D his whole career. He plays 4 games, claims injury, and never plays again.
Their best player and #1 C in Couturier gets hurt and can only play 29 games.
Their #2 C in Hayes gets hurt and can only play 48 games, plus is dealing with the tragic death of his brother.
Meanwhile, the league has implemented an unprecedented flat cap because of COVID which constrains teams from making signing and acquisitions in the manner they could before, and the $7M per year JVR contract he was saddled with becomes even more burdensome.
It starts to become apparent that their inherited #7 overall pick in Provorov, who was supposed to be a future Norris contender, isn't that good and was the wrong pick by the prior regime.
It also starts to become apparent that other supposed top young prospects they inherited, like Frost and Ratcliffe, aren't very good.
Dave Scott, however, makes it clear he expects the team to turn it around and make the playoffs the following season.
So we get to 22/23. Their #1 C Couturier has a botched surgery in the summer and has to miss the entire season after only being able to play 29 games the season prior.
Again, they can't just snap their fingers and replace him, because they find out about the need for a 2nd surgery right before camp (and the flat cap adds to the difficulty in replacing him).
Their leading goal scorer from the prior season, Atkinson, ultimately has to have surgery and also misses the entire season.
Their $7M burden JVR only scores 29 points in 61 games.
Provorov stinks and is a full-fledged locker room problem.
I mean, Chuck wasn't able to fix the problems, it seemed nothing he tried worked out except for Niskanen, Braun, Seeler, and Tippett, but he also had to deal with an unreal amount of bad luck.
The best part of his tenure appears to be drafting, but he doesn't get to reap the benefits of that because it takes time; instead he suffered from the many drafting mistakes of the prior regime.
