Babcock wouldn't demote Kunitz either. I'd guarantee that.
While Babcock does like his vets, if you look at the wings team right now, that's not exactly the case. However, it's not like he would have had many options. Winnik was playing terrible, Downie was a liability, Bennett is clearly not well, Lapierre is needed at center...you just run out of players. When trying to figure out new lines I was able to do it mostly...except for Kunitz...we just did not have the players. If Downie wouldn't run his mouth so much I would have chosen him.
I'll be ****ing furious if Babcock leaves Detroit and we choose not to pursue him because we don't want to hurt Mike "Bylsma In Disguise" Johnston's feelings.
THAT will be very telling of the organization. If Babs resigns in Detroit or goes to the UofM, I will be okay with it. If he states his intentions of leaving and teams pursue him and he signs elsewhere...and I found out the Pens weren't on the list...then that's the time to get furious. Absolutely. This team bounced around coaches in the old day like it was going out of style. This would be the golden opportunity to get a coach that will be part of the solution. Keep MJ as the assistant. The dude knows his **** I believe. I just think he was a little overmatched as a whole in the NHL as a head coach. There's just too much to like about Babcock being here that won't make it soul crushing when he goes elsewhere.
Yep. If the breaking point is giving Babcock full control to coach and make personnel decisions, I'd hand him a blank check and give him the business cards of some real estate agents around Pittsburgh.
**** it. Give him full control. Can't be nearly as bad as the disaster we've seen over the past 5+ years, from two separate coaches and GMs (even if the rest of the front office is exactly the same).
Won't happen though. Lemieux got his playoff revenue. Yinzers ate that **** up about injuries being the sole purpose for this team's demise. "We'll get 'em next year! Time for the annual off-season opening April pool party at Mario's!"
And that's what going to be so difficult. Guerin, Fitzy, and Buttercups are family. JR is a figurehead. It would be very disruptive to the entire organization to have someone coming in that wants full control. I don't believe the org is willing to give him it. If he wants to come here I believe he would have to be okay with just being the head coach but perhaps one that has a lot of influence (and ideally, the backing from ownership). His "control" would have to come gradually as the ice gets chipped off the AGMs over time after moves suggested by Babcock come to fruition.
Rutherford had the right ideas but nothing in the team's philosophy changed from Shero and Dan. The PR was spot-on and said all the right things, but the people in charge were the same other than Rutherford. When it came down to it, the biggest piece of the locker room we traded was James Neal. That wasn't acceptable.
If I'm JR with 20/20 hindsight there's a few things I do differently:
1. Get a draft pick in the Neal deal
Even a 3rd would have been huge for this team. Hornqvist was definitely worth getting, but the value just didn't seem equal, and not getting any futures was a bad sign.
Hindsight = 20/20. I've said this a lot before. AT THAT TIME (see * below) we needed Spaling more than a draft pick. I don't think Horn+Spal+3rd for Neal (without a pick coming back) was going to happen. We got what we needed out of that deal. Looking at Hornqvist's play in the playoffs and how Spaling looked in the last game, I believe I do that deal again.
2. Sign Vrbata instead of Ehrhoff
Ehrhoff looked like a great signing at the time, but it turned out the team wasn't willing to play to his strengths and use him in a PP role, so he was just another soft two-way defenceman on this team. Vrbata on the other hand had the killer season we all knew he would, and only had one more year than Ehrhoff.
I was confused when we signed Ehrhoff. I understood us signing him after reading more into it. I'm not mad we signed him per say. What I'm mad about is that we ended up with Downie, Comeau, and Goc instead of something like Kulemin and Grabovski. Injuries to Ehrhoff and the blatant gaps in the top 6 didn't help the situation. This is where Kunitz, Dupuis, and Scuderi signings killed us, in a bad bad way. The money tied up into them tied our hands pretty bad. Think, had we not had them we could have signed something like:
Perron-Sid-Horny
Kule-Geno-Grabo
Letang-Maatta
Martin-Ehrhoff
In the top 6 and Top 4. Instead, it was an aged Kunitz, a health-questionable Dupuis, and scrubs. Now, Comeau did play VERY well for his contract - I have to give him that and Downie provided much of what we needed since Cooke left but I believe it didn't give us the "depth" we ultimately needed and missed.
3. Trade Brandon Sutter for David Perron
That 1st round pick turned out to be a lot more valuable than Sutter, and we wouldn't have lost that asset. Keeping our 1st would have helped a lot.
I don't think that happens. I don't think in any roster scenario with give up Sutter for Perron. Not because of our perceived value per say but more because of league values. Sutter has more value than Perron. Centers > Wings .
4. Don't trade Despres for Lovejoy
Obviously.
Without Vrbata, and if we were still "all in", then at least
5. Trade Winnik assets for Jagr instead
There's no doubt that Jagr would have had a much greater effect on this team than Winnik in the playoffs. I'd rather keep the picks, but if we had to trade them then he would have been a better return.
This is an interesting one for me. Word was ownership wanted Letestu and Jagr at the deadline. Would Jagr have helped us? We he sure would have filled a top 6 gap that's for sure. Would he have been a difference maker in the series? It's just too hard to say. What I do believe, is that knowing the story of Jagr and what his possible return to pittsburgh would have meant...THAT would have boosted the slumping interest in the team. So was it a hockey decision or a money decision?
Again, hindsight tells us we over paid for Winnik. We did. I thought it at the time and I'm thinking it still today. He wasn't exactly the playoff performer I thought he'd be, though he was indeed overmatched on the top line so we didn't exactly put him in the best place to succeed either. Was kinda like starting Glass with Sid. We needed Winnik though...we need "a Winnik" I guess is more accurate. I believe we should have targeted Tlusty harder than Winnik. I think Tlusty would have been better in the top 6 than Winnik. We had enough bottom 6 guys.
Oh well. Better luck next year.
I guess I'm still in the minority who thought the Ehrhoff deal was a good one for us. Who knows what happens to him this offseason, but had he been healthy, I think he would have helped a great deal.
Letang-Maatta
Marting-Ehrhoff
Scuds-Lovejoy
Cole-Pouliot
That's a deep dman roster for the playoffs. Move Scuds is a logical move to the bench and play Cole/Pouliot or hell even Dumo-Chorney...and our dman roster rivals anyone in the playoffs. Again, not mad we signed him, I'm just mad at what we couldn't do because we signed him.
F'in injuries.
* I will explain this again regarding the Neal-Horny/Spals trade. AT THAT TIME, we needed Spaling in a big way. The bottom 6 at the end of the year was:
Kobasew-Sutter-Pyatt
Glass-Vitale-Adams
with Stempniak sometimes there and Goc in there I believe. Either way, 5 of the 6 were UFAs and ALL very likely to walk as they PROVED to be absolutely 100% ineffective. Sutter was a RFA and you had no idea his wishes on salary and term. You knew he wasn't great but had a solid playoffs. The uncertainty was there. With that...you potentially have to fill 5-6 roster spots. Think about that a moment. Let that sink in a moment. This is before July 1st...where you have NO IDEA what the market will be doing. You also have other signings in mind and may not be able to focus on bottom 6 at the time. What you DO know is that your bottom 6 was putrid and in shambles and you need to start filling it quick, fast, and in a hurry.
Enter Spaling, you have a young kid with decent everything. Not special in any category but not a liability anywhere. He can be a wing or a center and he's a RFA that likely won't be looking for the moon. The best part is, he's potentially available and he fits the perceived gap between Neal and Hornqvist. On top of that, he's likely a player Poile will let go to get Neal. If things go sour on Sutter, he's your new 3C. His versatility is a selling point.
Who drafted in the 3rd round would have been able to fill a bottom 6 / 3C possibly role? No one. What happens if we do Neal for Horn+1st? We take Kapanen. What happens if we switch 1st with Nashville...we take Kapanen. What happens with we trade Martin for a 1st...we trade up and take Kapanen. Who did we get while keeping Martin and getting Spaling...Kapanen.
In case you missed the series, Hornqvist was an absolute beast. Just beast. Period. Definition of playoff hockey beast. I would sell Neal for Hornqvist straight up after seeing what I saw in Hornqvist and know what I've seen from Nealer in the playoffs. Spaling also provide a lot of energy with Comeau and Lapierre on that 4th line. That's perhaps the best 4th line we've ever had in the playoffs in the Sid-Geno era. Better than Dupuis-Adams-Sykora/Satan...which may be 2nd best.
Quite *****ing about the Neal trade I guess is my point. It is what it is, we got good value based on what I saw in the playoffs.