What is the single worst decision your team ever made?

[Xspyrit]

The ones that come to mind for the Ducks are

2) apparently when Kariya hit free agency in 2003 he expected to remain with the Ducks but he just never got an offer from Bryan Murray, and then took the Avs offer. A similar situation happened with Murray and Daniel Alfredsson in Ottawa a decade later.

You have to consider ownership in these things. Melnyk didn't want to pay Alfie what he deserved after he took some paycuts

 

[OhBennyLeonard]

The hiring of Mike Milbury wasn't that good of a decision I would say.

Went to college with his son, lol I was his Resident Assistant in 1998-99.

Ok guy, real quiet.



For my Penguins:
Rescinding the offer to Scotty Bowman in the summer of 93 because of rumblings that Mario didn't get along with him, 3 Stanley Cups and Larry Murphy defection later so many wonder what might have been if those two just managed to get along.

 

[WatchfulElm]

Firing Savard/Demers and installing Houle/Tremblay to replace them.

I was about to say drafting Wickenheiser over Savard, but I think you nailed it. This literally signaled the end of the Habs as a perennial contender and successful franchise, and the start of a very long drought that still persists today.

 

[Xirik]

Devils Trading for Corey Schneider.

When both Parise and Kovie left it should have signalled a rebuild but we got Schneider and became a mediocre team.

 

[Jumptheshark]

Where to start with the oilers

I was about to say drafting Wickenheiser over Savard, but I think you nailed it. This literally signaled the end of the Habs as a perennial contender and successful franchise, and the start of a very long drought that still persists today.

Point of order.

Wick WAS ranked ahead of Savard by 99% of the teams the day of the draft

 

[BLNY]

I was about to say drafting Wickenheiser over Savard, but I think you nailed it. This literally signaled the end of the Habs as a perennial contender and successful franchise, and the start of a very long drought that still persists today.

I've always felt this was a hindsight is 20/20 instance. Wickenheiser was the consensus #1 pick in 1980. Savard went third.

Houle/Tremblay were transparently bad from the start.

 

[FirstRowUpperDeck]

A quick read, and I only found one response for the Dallas Stars, which was to hire Jim Nill. Pretty snarky, because he is a good GM who hasn't got us to the Cup. Not sure the age of that poster, but my memory goes further back!

Another more recent flub was to draft Gurianov in 2015 over some other very talented players who have done better. But, we got our 1C in round 2, so some redemption. Also, Nill did tend to go "off the board" several times on the first round pick. Lately, he seems to be betting better, with Wyatt Johnston in the first round, who looks great and getting Stankhoven (who most fans wanted to be picked first) in the second. It might be a much better sequel to the 2015 draft.

Going back further, it was trading several no. 1 picks post-2000 to "keep the core together" which never worked out, obviously.

Another post-2000 blunder was believing they could do no wrong in the UFA market. They let Hull go (probably the right move) and brought in Audette and Turgeon thinking they would just plug right in. They didn't ever develop any chemistry with anyone then on the Stars roster.

 

[Dr Pepper]

A quick read, and I only found one response for the Dallas Stars, which was to hire Jim Nill. Pretty snarky, because he is a good GM who hasn't got us to the Cup. Not sure the age of that poster, but my memory goes further back!

Another more recent flub was to draft Gurianov in 2015 over some other very talented players who have done better. But, we got our 1C in round 2, so some redemption. Also, Nill did tend to go "off the board" several times on the first round pick. Lately, he seems to be betting better, with Wyatt Johnston in the first round, who looks great and getting Stankhoven (who most fans wanted to be picked first) in the second. It might be a much better sequel to the 2015 draft.

Going back further, it was trading several no. 1 picks post-2000 to "keep the core together" which never worked out, obviously.

Another post-2000 blunder was believing they could do no wrong in the UFA market. They let Hull go (probably the right move) and brought in Audette and Turgeon thinking they would just plug right in. They didn't ever develop any chemistry with anyone then on the Stars roster.

Another miss was bringing in Sean Avery, and I remember at the time even saying on this very website that it wouldn't be THAT bad.

Alas, it was.

As far as draft bloopers go, nothing will top Scott Glennie as far as I'm concerned. What an absolute bust he turned out to be.....8th overall and he manages one measly game in the show. Looking back at that first round after Glennie though.....man, there were a LOT of misses there. Paradis, Schroeder, Cowan, Erixon, Ashton. Rundblad, etc.

Still. What a brutal pick.

 

[NYRfan85]

Of course the Oakland Seals which pretty much don’t exist trading Away the number one pick that became Guy LaFleur. Pretty much any of those 1960s-70s expansion teams that traded first round picks.

This is an all-time blunder, one of the worst in the history of the league. Could you imagine if we'd still have the Seals today, if they kept that pick and took LaFleur?

This thread is a fascinating read down memory lane, and seeing that every team has made some truly awful decisions!

 

[FirstRowUpperDeck]

How could I forget Sean Avery......as much as I have tried!

Yes, Glennie was brutal. All the draft gurus thought he mostly got points because of his linemates. I recall them interviewing Niewy about the pick and he mentioned that they needed a RW. Drafting for position rarely make sense, and Glennie was a reach. He was similar in some ways to Richard Jackman, picked in the first round in 1996. I saw him in a preseason game and thought he looked NHL ready, but then the drinking problems started, although I think in both cases, they were there and the Stars didn't do their character research well enough.

So, in no particular order other than in order, we have Jackman, Glennie, and Guri in the drafts. And Avery, Turgeon, and Audette in the UFA categories of mistakes. After that, there are all the garden variety draft picks that didn't work out, like Honka and Tufte, who, while we saw the reason to draft them, didn't work out at all.

 

[Ugene Magic]

Seems a little dramatic for a franchise that has multiple bankruptcies and threats of relocation.

Nothing tops RoboPigeon. Nothing.....

 

[RustyCat]

Selanne for Kilger and Tverdovsky

 

[the penitent]

For the Penguins, a team with a rich and storied history of trade screw ups, I'd go with Markus Naslund for Alek Stojanov. It's a close call over the Jagr trade for Kris Beech, Michal Sivek and Ross Lupaschuk, though Jagr pretty much forced that trade.

 

[glenngineer]

Fiala for Granlund or moving down to take Pickard when we could've selected Karlsson.

 

[Sky04]

Toronto signing Tavares when they had a whole crop of good forwards coming up has gotta be up there. Matthews about to walk into free agency without sniffing the 2nd round.

 

[Preposterone]

Oilers:

Can’t wait till Hart gets traded and I can bring this GIF back out for Flyers GK bashing threads

 

[Hivemind]

Not extending Barry Trotz

 

[Lahey]

Toronto signing Tavares when they had a whole crop of good forwards coming up has gotta be up there. Matthews about to walk into free agency without sniffing the 2nd round.

I think this thread was about your own teams mistakes. Pretty clear agenda you have tho, nice try. What good forwards did we have coming up that aren’t still here lol?

 

[Sky04]

I think this thread was about your own teams mistakes. Pretty clear agenda you have tho, nice try. What good forwards did we have coming up that aren’t still here lol?

5 years in and you still don't realize that that's the issue with the Leafs, kinda funny if it wasn't so sad.

Let's reword this, what have they done with all those forwards in the last 5 years? Hmmm....

 

[Lahey]

5 years in and you still don't realize that that's the issue with the Leafs, kinda funny if it wasn't so sad.

Let's reword this, what have they done with all those forwards in the last 5 years? Hmmm....

Lmao ok man whatever you say. Won’t bother arguing with someone who clearly has a bias. You also limit who can view your profile lol. Saw some of your posts tho. Basically all bashing the leafs and players like Matthews, marner, etc.

Stay classy.

We love the haters. Rent free.

 

[Sky04]

Lmao ok man whatever you say. Won’t bother arguing with someone who clearly has a bias. You also limit who can view your profile lol. Saw some of your posts tho. Basically all bashing the leafs and players like Matthews, marner, etc.

Stay classy.

We love the haters. Rent free.

So nice of you to dodge the question because obviously you know I'm right and it's a sensitive topic for you.

What have they done in the 5 years since they signed Tavares again? How many playoff rounds have they won? I'll let you think about it a little longer buddy. Perhaps it'll stay rent free in your head.

 

[mtlmonk]

Mcdonagh for Gomez

 

[StumpyTown]

1) Drafting Jimmy Mann ahead of Michel Goulet.
2) Dave Babych for Ray Neufeld.

Sorry, I couldn't resist going old school with this one.

 

[Son of Petter]

Canucks A: Allowing local slumlords, the Aquilini’s, to buy the team. The Aquilini’s subsequently putting the dumbest of the brothers, Francesco, in charge.

Canucks B: Francesco hiring Benning/Weisbrod.

 

[treple13]

For the Flames it's Darryl Sutter's job choice at the end of the 2006 season. The Flames were a great team in both of his 2 years as coach. Unfortunately he steps down as coach and becomes GM only.

So we end up wasting Iggy's prime with bad coaches when we have the perfect one upstairs, and Darryl as GM only is a disaster as well.

If Darryl quits being the GM at the end of 2006 and focuses only on coaching the team would have been way better.