Ownership and Management

[Topper]

The previous admin did a rebuild under ownership's blessing.

Rebuild/Retool/Hybird is nothing but semantics.

For whatever reason, the current clowns decided to decimate what they inherited. They completely botched it.

What have they brought in that was better than they shipped out?

You could only argue Horvat/Hronek as a wash.

[Ronning's Ghost]

Has Aquaman finally awoken to the fact that staying the course will mean another 13 years of the same and now he's finally willing to risk the rebuild in hopes that 5 more years of all but guaranteed hockeyless springs will result in multiple years of playoff hockey?

Did he finally lose long enough?

That's the thread of hope on which hangs any further interest in the affairs of this franchise on my part.

[Topper]

Reports Kane's agent has been given permission to seek a trade.

What was management big off season acquisition?

Failure, yet again.

[Hockey Widow]

I don't know that Kane was a failure. All it cost us was the return to Edmonton of their 4th round pick they gave us for Podkolzin. There certainly was a failure in signing Sprong and trading Podkolzin. That one was a head scratcher.

Now Kane's cap may have prevented us from signing someone more suitable or in trading for a top six centre. I dunno. But overall it was not a failure. There have been no reports of locker room issues. I think the plan all along was to get to the playoffs where his past playoff performances would indicate he could be a good playoff performer for us. OTOH, the back up plan was to flip him at the TDD and recover at least a 4th.

I was not bothered by his trade. Nor was I overcome with joy. It was a meh move. As I said the bigger head scratcher was in trading Podkolzin. Our Russians did not do well under Tochett.

[Topper]

Failure because it was completely pointless and against their oft stated mantra of younger faster.

The goal was 2C, instead they brought in an old winger then put their hands in our pockets.

[BoS]

Failure because it was completely pointless and against their oft stated mantra of younger faster.

The goal was 2C, instead they brought in an old winger then put their hands in our pockets.

With fingers crossed Chytil would answer their prayers.

[Topper]

https://x.com/DanRussellST/status/20191 ... 27430?s=20

[donlever]

Yeah...Russell stealing our shit...again.

Chaos Giraffe.

Tank Commander.

Bunch of fucking plagiarism out there...

[UWSaint]

What have they brought in that was better than they shipped out?

You could only argue Horvat/Hronek as a wash.

I'd argue that Hronek/Horvat was a very good move -- the key asset returned addressed the team's greatest weakness, secured that asset for years at a reasonable price, he played as good as or better than advertised, the hole it eventually created in the middle was not the result of that decision but other decisions or circumstances, and they really needed to move EP40, Miller, or Horvat because the cap and team structure didn't permit keeping all 3.

I also think they got excellent value from Zadorov for 2/3 a season and 2 playoff rounds at the price of a 3rd and 5th.

Other than that, it is moving deck chairs, taking losses, and trying to maximize value for problems either of their creation or at least under their watch (Hughes). The decisions in the past year have been increasingly poor, both as a matter of evaluation of players and evaluation of where the team sat overall. Thinking there was Hughes in the future, I wasn't against the idea of playing for everything to go right knowing it probably wouldn't and ending up in a similar place to where the Canucks are -- but that's not what they did. They made moves to make a team that peaked at mediocre, and in the process pissed away future assets that would be nice to have if things didn't go well (as they haven't).

Get rid of them.

[Lancer]

The core management chose was toxic from the get-go. We've all seen what happened to Petey the last 2 1/2 seasons. Miller has imploded his team. Demko continues to be made of glass. Hughes is happy, now that he joins a team on the upswing instead of having to do the hard work of leading a team out of its funk as a team captain and face of the franchise.

A dainty, busted-up tin-man; an old-school misanthrope; a physical and mental snowflake; and someone who would have preferred anywhere south of the border to Vancouver unless they were contending for Cups yesterday.

Lotta potential, though, and I can get the seduction of potential to the baldies. If everything went right, they would be geniuses, but everything HAD to go right.

The lesson from this for current and future management is to not fall in love with your players or what they could be, regardless of whether you drafted them or not. Don't be afraid to jettison players who give the slightest hint of not being up for the challenge of building a cohesive winner in Vancouver.

I won't blame any fan who holds off anything more than tepid interest until the next core proves that it can do better than this one. Owners better buck-up for some red ink the next couple seasons.