NJ signing Grabner simply wasn't a good fit for the team. He excelled under Vigneault due to his ability to use his mobility. NJ has always played hockey in another way, it's still mobile, but it hasn't been as fast and north/ south in an extreme way. Grabner was very happy under Vigneault, because his system rewarded Grabner's play to the maximum. NJ plays with more of a east/west traffic movement kind of game once the team enters the zone, which I as a NYR fan would call quite elegant, because it's quite precise. But it wasn't the enviroment for Grabner. A guy NJ needs more is a player like Lee in NYI.
I still think the NJ idea of playing hockey still is legitimate, as it's not left in the dust in the way of playing modern hockey. It only needs some more player quality and some tweaks.