This team has had a culture and/or accountability problem for a long time, at least since Pierre Dorion became GM. Between the combination of a bad owner and a incompetent GM it all flowed down hill from there. This may be an unpopular opinion but I would add a bad captain in Karlsson in that period too. EK65 was a star offensive player but was never made accountable to actually play defense by coaches and management. If the captain was not accountable how could he make anyone else accountable.
By all accounts the mess with Hoffman and Karlssons significant others did not help. Karlsson reportedly not speaking to Hoffman, management letting it get out of control.
Back to Pierre Dorion and his awful asset management almost from day 1, throwing in extra picks left right and centre to save a few bucks on contracts. Other than getting very lucky on the Karlsson trade he lost most of his trades. That culture of Dorion being a lone wolf not a team player filters down to the team too.
He had a reputation for great drafting but was it warranted? First round only
2016 he traded up to pick Logan Brown at 11
2017 Shane Bowers at 28
2018 Brady T but it helps when the pick is top 5
2018-26th JBD looking like a miss
2019 Lassi Thompson at 19 - another miss (traded away his own 1st 4OA to get Matt duchene, the 19th was part of the return from dumping MD after a bit over a year.
2020 Stutzle at 3 and Sanderson at 5
2020 another good one at 28 in Grieg
2021 Tyler Boucher at 10 jury still out but
2022 7OA pick traded to get 1 yr of Debrincat now have a ;ate 2024 pick to show for it
2023 12OA pick traded to get Chychrun - may recoup a late 1st out of that yet
Of the 1st round picks he made 3 out of 9 across 9 drafts hit but they were all top 5 picks. Made the same mistake 3 times trading what was or ended up being a high 1st round pick to get an established player with not much term left. Matt Duschene, ALex DBC and Chychrun only to dump 2 of them for later 1st rounders and same likely to happen with the last.
So where does that leave us, I am confident that new ownership and management can and will fix the culture/accountability problem but it won't be quick. some current players may have to be moved if they are not buying in. The team is not a couple of pieces away, for a team coming out of a rebuild the cupboard of prospects is surprisingly bare due to Dorion's miss management.
All that to say, yes there are culture accountability issues -root cause being poor management that tolerated stuff if not encouraged it for too long and they are fixable but it won't be fast. If I am a new owner that just paid almost $1B for the team, while I would like a quick fix- I am going to take the time to do it right. If that means taking a step sideways I will do it. Not many steps back as team is close to a bottom feeder.
