Cutting a team's expenditures is the easy part. I don't think anyone doubted that he was going to slash salaries. The questions are, why is this the correct move now? And why should we have any faith in this specific management team to lead a rebuild?
I'm with you. I was reinforcing that any fan who didn't see this coming as early as February 2018 simply hasn't been paying attention.
As for the direction, I have faith that the team will draft well.
I have limited faith that the team will hire the best coach to develop young players. I might be surprised on that one. More importantly, I don't support the concept of developing players while in the NHL. They should develop in the AHL or elsewhere before getting to the NHL.
I have limited faith the team can retain any player who has the option to leave, such as Chabot and Tkachuk eventually.
As for my overall engagement with the team, there are three comments from "the stooges" that killed any lingering hope of fan connection.
1. Get a new girlfriend
2. The day Dorion traded Stone was his best/happiest as a GM (I forget his exact wording).
And what for me is the most delusional of all....
3. R'ski saying that it is a good thing to trade all these elite players because the team has to get to the cap floor so fans can look forward to acquiring new players.