I'm enjoying your posts.
Would've liked to hear the Staple interview, but that station hasn't archived it yet. That said, it's a big deal that I missed it because I learned a LONG time ago that Staple basically knows nothing unless snow wants him to know something. Staple is like the dog that hangs by the dining room table hoping some food hits the floor. The problem is that snow eats in his bedroom with the door locked.
Basically unless snow consciously opens the door and throws food in the hallway Staple ain't going to eat. And in the meantime Staple has to try an connect dots from the last time he was fed until now to make very loose assumptions on what snow is doing/thinking/going to do.
Because Staple is a good soldier, snow usually "allows" him to break most all Isles news when it comes to player movement. He's the only beat writer the Isles have so the breaking news (and a sense of humor where he doesn't take himself too seriously) gets him a lot of cushion from Isles fans, but truth be told he really doesn't add much else (probably why you thought the "other options" portion of the show was unconvincing).
What's crazy is that I wanted snow fired a long time ago. I could give a bunch of reasons, but the bottom line is that he's BLOWN every top 5 pick he's had except for Tavares. He blew it on Strome, Dal Colle, & Reinhart (maybe the worst pick of the past 10 years). The one top 5 pick he did well with (Neiderrieter), he claimed had an attitude problem (no doubt just calling out snow using him to reach the cap floor), and he then traded for a 4th liner (Clutterbuck). I won't even get into others, but had snow just hit on 2 of those 4 picks that Isles would now have two of: Fowler, Scheifele, Hamilton, Brodin, Rielly, Forsberg, Trouba, Nylander, Ehlers, & more.
That's the kind of talent snow left on the draft floor. I mean think if snow just took Scheifele instead if Strome, and Forsberg instead of Reinhart. This thread would be non-existent and there wouldn't be a debate about Tavares staying.
And after all that I keep coming back to Sakic and how he's running things in Denver. Let's say the Isles move on totally along with Nashville and Columbus. What is Sakic going to do then? He may be in a power position because he has job security, but he could wind up setting the Avs back years if he doesn't play this Duchene deal very well, and since it's hard to believe he's done so so far, I have my doubts he's going to get this right in the end.
Not even Eklund contradicts himself that hard. What a clown.
