Mentioned this in the playoffs thread but I’ll say it here.
I don’t think it was a bad idea to sign him given what they knew back then.
The idea of four great forwards COULD have worked in theory. There was no way for them to know that Marner would shit the bed every year and Matthews would underperform. To make matters worse JT got hurt and isn’t nearly as good as he used to be.
JT was a legit superstar and adding him could very well have put them over. It should’ve been a potent offense that could score its way out of problems.
So yeah, it wasn’t a terrible idea in theory. But in practice it’s been a disaster. You pay that much to four guys they at least better show up. Only Nylander has really delivered. And all these guys are perimeter players. None play with any jam and it’s been really one dimensional.
Hindsight is 20/20
It’s odd, because while I kinda agree, I also feel like my instincts have been “eh, idk..” on every move they’ve made, starting with that one. And I get the logic of “run it back, again. Retool. Fix defense, this core can work!” But at a certain point it’s the definition of madness, trying the same thing over and over again, and it started with signing Tavares. There were plenty of people saying “isn’t that a bit overkill?”, and I’m certain I was among them. There was also jealousy and fear, but a good portion of posters immediately called it top-heavy, and they were right.
You cite unforeseen circumstances, good point, but that’s kinda my next thing- once it wasn’t working, and once Marner no-showed multiple playoffs, my instinct was to friggin trade Marner. They tried again instead, and so far it looks worse than ever. Same coach, not sure why that’s never addressed, we just all accept that he’s good despite seemingly never managing this group in the playoffs. The front office appears professional, so we ignore that it was a bit of a clown show transition last year. It’s just more of a mess than the regular season would indicate, I think, and it’s not on Tavares. Spittin Chiclets just informed me of the Marner-Nylander spat on the bench- the f*** is happening over there?