That's more on Murray than the scouting staff. The scouting staffs job is to scout players, not make trades or even suggest players unless they're being asked to give an opinion. They just file in their reports and it's up to Lee who's in charge of the player development and Dorion to look at those and make recommendations to Murray. Then comes the complications of making a trade like NMC, interest to trade a certain player, is there a match between teams to do a trade and etc..
Unless Murray, Dorion(who was a scout himself) come out and say hey we want a defensemen right now find us something interesting then there's not really much they can do.
We have one of the top 5 scouting in the NHL, if theres one thing keeping us alive it's certainly scouting being a budget team.
Excuse me, do you honestly think these scouts go and watch 100s of games and don't provide any input unless asked?
Scouts are paid to evaluate and report on talent and offer opinions, and it is highly likely their recommendations could trigger trade discussions.
Bryan has basically allowed Pierre (past T.Murray) to run the scouting department, build out the draft potentials/order and allows them to execute their plan.
Example, Bryan traded up to get Karlsson on the recommendations of his scouting department, not his knowledge of the player.
The pro-scouts job is more difficult because it is a function to a larger extent by specific needs/requirements, not only by their GM but by the any GM that engages Bryan in potential trade discussions.
While the draft is controlled only by order and availablity at a point in time, trades are controlled by the bartering system.
In trades a GM has to give to get and sometimes that doesn't always work out as planned for a myriad of reasons, just like the draft.
So if you think Murray's pro trades have been failures, Tim and Pierre likely share most of the responsibility. Of course likewise if the trade is a success.
What BM likely does is set the criteria for the type of team he wishes to have and the type of player that suits the vision and the players he may like to upgrade.
Of course a GM always has the right to disregard or veto recommendations from his staff, however if BM was acting in that fashion regularly I doubt he would have people that stay with him as they have.
As far as Randy Lee involvement, I would think given his responsibilities his involvement in trade discussions would be in regards to any potential impact to the organization's depth chart and any risks that may present.
