- Dec 10, 2012
- 39,649
- 18,068
I already mailed in my resume.
Good luck to one of my biggest competitors then, may the better armchair GM win
I already mailed in my resume.
Those established, proven people have led the Leafs to 0 Cups in the last 50+ years. I don't think they would care who would get credit for getting them over the top.
Looks ripe for the Canes. But will he be interested?
Seattle
I'd be interested in seeing what kind of moves he'd make as GM for an expansion team. He hasn't always gotten the best value out of his assets via trade, but at the same time he was pretty good at turning a non competitive team into a perennial playoff team. Wonder what he could do starting from scratch.
Yes and they were there for that entire time as well
I can also feel your hate...
Very interesting actually.
Fletcher has been a solid GM and I'm a bit indifferent on his firing. Still two things stick in my my crawl and both concern goalies. The inexplicable 3 year contract he gave Niklas Backstrom after a terrible season and the 6 year contract to Dubnyk with a no-trade clause. You don't ever give a goalie that type a contract based on a 1/2 season performance. It's clear he'll never be more than average and has been nothing but mediocre in the playoffs. With that said 6 straight playoff appearances while being in the toughest division is pretty impressive.
The years for Dubnyk was to get the AAV under $5 million, same with the no-trade.
Which, if I'm putting 2 and 2 together correctly, was only really necessary because of his tendency to overpay certain players.
I don’t quite recall any overpaid players on the roster at the time, except maybe Pominville, but could be blanking on a couple names.
Locked up in high character guys, but not winners.Vanek was making 6.5M, Pominville was making 5.6M, Parise and Suter were making 7.5M, Koivu was making 6.5M
I guess it wasn't so much that players were overpaid, but we had a lot of money locked up in only a few players.
The Wild did a thing.About 8 years too late, but better late than never. You can see early on that Fletcher didn't have a strong ability to identify talent. He could spend money, but that doesn't build Cup winners. Wild fans didn't want to hear it, but what I warned about way back then came true. Years of mediocrity was the best we could expect from Fletcher. And now we've burned most of a decade and are in an even tougher position to contend for the Cup anytime soon. Wild fans deserve better.
But I think what's most troubling is the owner further cementing himself as the largest problem for this franchise. He refuses to accept building a contender slowly - with the probable losing associated with that process - so he handcuffs whoever is managing the team. He's like a crazed fan that doesn't understand that you can't just go out and buy or easily trade your way to a Cup. I don't trust him at all. He's already stomping on the duties of the next GM by saying he will only accept a tinkering. As long as Leipold owns this team, I don't have much hope for anything beyond ugly, mediocre hockey and an overpriced fan experience at the arena. Wild fans deserve a better owner.
A well run franchise doesn't spend 10 to 15 years in the wilderness. Three to five is about what it takes for a rebuild, seven maximum. The teams that have been bad for longer than that have been bad because of poor ownership.
About 8 years too late, but better late than never. You can see early on that Fletcher didn't have a strong ability to identify talent. He could spend money, but that doesn't build Cup winners. Wild fans didn't want to hear it, but what I warned about way back then came true. Years of mediocrity was the best we could expect from Fletcher. And now we've burned most of a decade and are in an even tougher position to contend for the Cup anytime soon. Wild fans deserve better.
But I think what's most troubling is the owner further cementing himself as the largest problem for this franchise. He refuses to accept building a contender slowly - with the probable losing associated with that process - so he handcuffs whoever is managing the team. He's like a crazed fan that doesn't understand that you can't just go out and buy or easily trade your way to a Cup. I don't trust him at all. He's already stomping on the duties of the next GM by saying he will only accept a tinkering. As long as Leipold owns this team, I don't have much hope for anything beyond ugly, mediocre hockey and an overpriced fan experience at the arena. Wild fans deserve a better owner.
I did a bit of research on this topic a while back and posted it up somewhere. I don't remember exactly what I found, but I do remember someone saying something like this at the time, and what I found was that the fastest rebuild (Blackhawks or Penguins, can't remember which) was about 6 years. It's more like 7 years minimum, and potentially much longer than 15 years max. If it reaches that point, you've likely got a terrible culture of losing and have destroyed multiple prospects development. About half the teams that fit the criteria (drafting in the top 10 for consecutive seasons) for tanking had actually successfully done it, and the rest were still bad years later with no end in sight. Some of that may be on team management/ownership, but it does seem to show that tanking can work, but it's risky and not quickly finished.
Can you ever just be positive for once?