giving up our 1st for Franson and Santo is looking like a very bad trade right now. I understood why it was made, but it is paying no dividends. meanwhile our draft spot keeps rising, to Toronto's obvious delight.
sad thing is if you had told me before the season started that we'd squeak into the playoffs and lose in the first round I'd have likely been cool with that because this was supposed to be a transition year... but now its going to be such a huge disappointment...
I disliked the deal. Value was fine, I saw the reasoning of it, and I also appreciate the effort to improve what was already a pretty good team. I also don't blame the trade for the slump, though I know it's hard to mentally separate them for most of us at this point. That all said, we needed to go a different direction. We're now facing dropping to a 3 seed
in the division and an off-season with no 1st rounder, swapped for two guys that, frankly, I hope to not see in gold again after this summer.
Would like to see a system adjustment as well, though too late at this point. Ditch the three "offensive" lines, roll the third line in a shutdown role, and let the 4th line fly around and bang bodies for limited minutes, rather than serving as energy AND shutdown line. The third line has been useless nearly all season, and rolling them out there without a distinct role they can actually fill just works to the detriment of the rest of the roster. Also tighten up the pinching with some of the d-men. Franson, in particular, lacks the footspeed to be successful doing it (when he actually makes the correct read), and unlike a guy like Volchenkov, isn't physical enough to just take out his man when beat.