Well played Drake and I agree. But I also think Trotz has been here too long. How much of free agents turning us down was Trotz being the coach? I know it's mostly cause we are Nashville but still.
Has Poile ever drafted any finishers/pure goal scorers besides Rads?
Really hoping we don't embarrass ourselves tomorrow.
I don't think much of it has to do with Trotz. There was another thread some time back where we were hashing this out, and there are just a lot of teams, especially in the Western Conference, that just don't seem attractive to free agents. It's not just us, it's also Vancouver, LA, San Jose, Anaheim, Edmonton, Calgary, Phoenix, St. Louis, etc... Anybody outside the New England/New York area, Eastern Canada, and the Great Lakes, generally seem to have bad track records as top-tier FA destinations.
We can put the lack of a finisher on drafting, but our drafting record for producing NHL players is fairly solid overall. There have definitely been mistakes (Pickard? is Wilson going to be the player we hope he'll be?), but a lot of it can be attributed to our average draft position as well. It's a bit optimistic to assume that the likes of Watson, Aberg, Leipsic, Sissons, etc... are going to drastically change much though.
We have had some ups and downs with acquiring talent through trades, which is where we'll need to get it if we can't draft or sign it. Our trade depth has been depleted in recent years, so it's tough to blame Poile for not bringing in a top scorer at will at the moment, but I would like to see us be able to make such a deal in the next few seasons, if we have not acquired the desired scoring depth through other means. The Forsberg trade was a good start, but only a small piece of the puzzle. A lot will depend upon the organization's continued ability to develop defensemen, the progression of Ellis/Ekholm, and the health of Josi, so that one of Josi, Klein, etc... can be traded for an offensive asset.