I also find it a strange perception that has become conventional wisdom for some around here that Boucher has power over Dorion to the detriment of the club. That seems to me a pretty speculative leap of logic. Dorion hired Boucher because they see things so much alike, and work so well together. And the fact that our GM values our coaches input so much is a fantastic sign that our management team is all pulling in the same direction. And its not like bringing in guys that Boucher vouched for like Pyatt were bad moves, it was a great move.
I was wrong about Sakic, he definitely did manage to create a bidding war for Duchene. There are apparently several upset teams now that they didn’t offer up enough to win the Duchene sweepstakes. Dorion won it by finding the right price to win, and it was one we could afford to do that others couldnt.
This idea that we can build a team by never overpaying anyone, all trades are fleecings for us, and we never need to trade a away a draft pick, if that is your bar for a good GM then I give your expectations an F.
And saying we have drained our prospect pool- what nonsense. Some prospects we will develop, some we will convert into other needs. That is good usage of prospects. Hoarding them all out of fear that one might become good 5 years from now is the bad usage of prospects imo. Especially given where we are in the development life cycle
Its hard to find and obtain good players. You need to have developed enough prospects and players usually to allow you to overpay to get them. That is good GM'ing to me. Taking risks is good. Muckler sitting on his hands over fear of overpaying was the bad GM'ing.
If we were a cap team, the complaints about overpaying a McCormick would be even worse. So suggesting it is bad cause we are allegedly a budget team, a term i also disagree with, seems more a convenient complaint than substantive.