We look to be in a similar bind to what Doug Wilson put the Sharks in. Wilson was known as being pretty cautious with his contracts and then decided he wanted a segment in "GMs Gone Wild!" on late night cable. Before he left with his health issues, he was still convinced he had a solid roster overall with a couple of holes to patch in free agency. (The new GM is still swinging a wrecking ball into it.)In February 2025, we can do this with Granlund, Johansen, and Saros. In fact, we can go on a nice stretch by doing it also in February 2026 with Duchene, Sissons, McDonagh, Lauzon, and Ekholm too. Wooo.
Well. If they are still any good by then.
Meanwhile, we are stuck.
I don't even think Poile was necessarily wrong on the Players side of things... even today, I think our roster is good enough to make the playoffs. And if you're good enough to make the playoffs, sure, can't hurt to do so and see if you get lucky, while playing out that string to the contract expiries coming in 2025 and 2026.We look to be in a similar bind to what Doug Wilson put the Sharks in. Wilson was known as being pretty cautious with his contracts and then decided he wanted a segment in "GMs Gone Wild!" on late night cable. Before he left with his health issues, he was still convinced he had a solid roster overall with a couple of holes to patch in free agency. (The new GM is still swinging a wrecking ball into it.)
Yep. I agree that on paper, we have some talent in-house. On paper we made moves to address some weak areas, etc.I don't even think Poile was necessarily wrong on the Players side of things... even today, I think our roster is good enough to make the playoffs. And if you're good enough to make the playoffs, sure, can't hurt to do so and see if you get lucky, while playing out that string to the contract expiries coming in 2025 and 2026.
But he completely messed up on the coaching front, taking a guy who had done a terrible job in his previous spot, who nobody else wanted and would have been out of the league had we not hired him. And then doubling down on that guy now when the mistake has become glaringly obvious.
So instead of having a mediocre team that is at least in the "playoff hot streak" lottery while waiting for those contracts to burn out, he is left with a sub-par non-playoff team that is truly in the worst of all possible situations.
If Poile could send Tomasino and Novak down for about 4 more off-days, he'd have had enough money to buy that 4th round pick Minnesota bought, anyway.High-IQ GM doing high-IQ things.
Meanwhile in Nashville..
Yeah, I admit the comparison between the two teams is off. But the point remains. The Blues did that same reload when they missed the playoffs in 2018, and where did they end up?I mean....
Theyve played 2 more games then us
We dont have a tarsenko or ror to sell
Otherwise solid comparison.
We will see where the teams end up after the sell offs. It was a solid move for stl though just dont see why the nashville comparison is necessary.
They fired their coach and made a "miracle run" to the Stanley Cup?Yeah, I admit the comparison between the two teams is off. But the point remains. The Blues did that same reload when they missed the playoffs in 2018, and where did they end up?
What would you call from 26th pts% in the league in January to 3rd in the division? They won 15 of their first 37 ... finished the season with 45 wins ... then did better in the playoffs than the Lavy coached team.They fired their coach and made a "miracle run" to the Stanley Cup?
The Wild can afford to do this because their fanbase understands what is happening and is willing to continue attending games. That is not the case here.If Poile could send Tomasino and Novak down for about 4 more off-days, he'd have had enough money to buy that 4th round pick Minnesota bought, anyway.
He doesn't even have an option to do things like the Blues have done, though.
I think Minnesota is actually a pretty good team for us to look at. They really bit a huge bullet buying out Parise and Suter. They're going to let Dumba walk off their blueline in the summer, or trade him in the next couple weeks. All while still hanging around as Wildcard playoff wannabe like us. We could do similar things. Our buyouts wouldn't hurt nearly as much as Parise and Suter. If the organization was willing to take that approach.
I think its time to reload here but its gonna be difficult because we dont have any valuable ufas and the pieces with value are mostly ones we would want to keepYeah, I admit the comparison between the two teams is off. But the point remains. The Blues did that same reload when they missed the playoffs in 2018, and where did they end up?
I think it's partly that, but it's also a willingness to just burn the money. *IF* you believe (as I do) that we have players in house who can already replace Granlund and Johansen, say... then there's no reason we couldn't jettison them and roll with Parssinen/Glass/Novak/Tomasino instead. And the team wouldn't get any worse. And the fans wouldn't need to go away. Parise and Suter weren't good, but weren't completely washed either... they were just massively overpaid, and on top of that their buyout hits were insane relative to our guys. But as with our guys, they were easily replaceable, and the team in the end didn't even suffer from losing them.The Wild can afford to do this because their fanbase understands what is happening and is willing to continue attending games. That is not the case here.
St. Louis traded away guys on expiring contracts and have younger players already making an impact in their lineup.
On one of the flukiest cellar-to-Stanley Cup runs of all time.Yeah, I admit the comparison between the two teams is off. But the point remains. The Blues did that same reload when they missed the playoffs in 2018, and where did they end up?
What would you call our 2017 run?On one of the flukiest cellar-to-Stanley Cup runs of all time.
Almost as much of a fluke, had we won it. We weren't nearly as dire a team as St. Louis was in November/December of that season.What would you call our 2017 run?
The last Presidents Trophy winner to win the Cup was in 2013. Get in to the post season playing well, relatively healthy, then stay healthy (huge issue for the Preds in 2017) ... a mid or low seed can make that run.Dallas and Montreal also had fluke runs to the Finals recently.
Because of NHL parity, it’s not THAT uncommon. Making the playoffs is the ticket to that lottery.
Not as good as just going in through the front door like Tampa or Colorado or Boston. But still a whole lot better than being 22nd and picking #11.