Speaking of Carolina, I nearly forgot that they hired Brind'amour as their head coach. Wasn't Waddell a temporary solution also? What the hell are they doing? They are the US version of Ottawa.
On semi-related news, Mark Hunter is available starting tomorrow. Possibly heading to Long Island but who knows.
I listened to former Maple Leafs asst. GM Dave Poulin a couple weeks ago on NHL Radio, he said it was Dundon's intention to "take the power back" so to speak. Felt that with the scarcity of bridge deals and what not that players were really in charge at the negotiation table. This would help explain why talks between Elias Lindholm's camp and the team grew contentious and eventually led to a trade.
And it doesn't sound like Dundon wanted to pay much for a GM, nor did he want to concede too much authority. We'll see what happens...they have a young coach, a decent young core, a pretty talented blueline, and a potential franchise player in Svechnikov. So far IMO Waddell has been okay, this team already looks a lot better (at least on paper) than it did under Ron Francis. In Waddell's defense, he worked for an ownership group in Atlanta that was busy suing the crap out of itself, which limited him severely in what kinds of deals he could offer to pending free agents. Doesn't excuse everything wrong that happened but there's a possibility he's not as bad as his stint with the Thrashers made him look.
I think as a general rule fans should be concerned about owners who seemingly go out of their way to be a public face. Melnyk, Katz, Pegula, Dundon all seem similar to a certain degree in my eyes. Conversely, I honestly forgot what Jeff Vinik (Tampa) even looks like, I don't think I've ever even heard the guy speak. The Kroenkes, for all their flaws, seem more like that. Of course it's not a hard and fast rule...Aquilini is a pretty low-profile guy and he's an AWFUL owner.