I don't actually agree with either of your narratives all that much interesting though they are
, I think the rebuild was destined to fail without lottery winnings and that's pretty much all there is to it.
But I'll offer my thoughts anyway cause why not.
It was a great theory. The execution failed.
This I agree with. Every time they looked to be going in on something the on ice execution was a half measure.
That said I do not think Keller is the player he is today without the Stepan trade. I think we're all sitting here concerned about what's going on with Keller as opposed to him just having a minor down year. I still make the deal
Barroway was originally part of the power struggle that lost in the fight over to full on buy into the blow it up rebuild and now the team under his ownership is seemingly trying to scrape out wins again over development. Even the owner can't stick to his plans
His rookie season is as stronger or stronger than Chychrun’s was.
2 years later.
I think before now, that was a premature conclusion.
Yes at the time. It's mostly about confirming priors now.
4. This trade is 30-40 games in and you declaring it a major loss? I would love to see what Gally can do with a decent coach personally. Domi was a player to love though and i really liked his game. That said i'm sure everyone knew he wouldn't maintain his hot start and he hasn't, his first 20 games he had 24 points, since then he's had 13 in his last 20 which is not much better than Gally by any means. I'm not saying Arizona won or lost this trade, just that it's to early to hold against Chayka as of now and its not as one sided as it seems.
I think the Domi trade is cause for concern regardless of how it works out in that it's yet another player we've pushed out and or let get away. Domi was one of the most popular players among fans from the second he became a Coyote as well. That maybe shouldn't be a factor in making trades but it doesn't annoy fans any less.
toccett is not a good coach,
I don't think anyone was super thrilled about his initial hiring. I do think he's better now than he was a year ago.
My main complaint is not the system itself but the rigidity of it. How much credit for the team defense improvements belongs to Allen vs Tocchet is up for the debate but I'd hesitate to give Tocchet no credit for it.
I don't think he's the main problem though as I said at the start. If they chucked him overboard I wouldn't cry over it though.
Stepan may be looking slower but he's still a #2 center
ehhhhh. His minutes are just brutal. It's hard to tell if his scoring decline is purely his own decline, linemate effects, or just the type of minutes he's playing. And in what proportions.
I think we don't know if he' still a #2 center. His scoring going down in two successive seasons while league scoring is going up is extremely concerning.
Item #1: Signed Alex Goligoski to big contract
I think if you look at what the defense was before we signed Goligoski you need to take that into consideration. I have way less issues with the signing even in hindsight than either of you. I'd move him though if we could now as we've outgrown him. That's okay. Even if we take a hit on his value, all we lost is money we had to spend somewhere anyway to hit the floor. We didn't trade anything serious for him unlike say if we have to take a loss on Galchenyuk next year. How that goes is critical.
Klas freaking Dahlbeck was playing 71 games for this team. Murphy was stalling and Stone was broken. Broken down Michalek played 70 games. Nicklas f***ing Grossmann played 58. They had to address that and they did. Was the right call at the time. His clause turns to a partial list soon enough.
Anywho, we could fire any of the people involved, or not. I don't think it will change much.
Speaking of confirming priors, I'll just quote myself from three years ago:
I believe that the odds of this team becoming sustainably good are higher with as high a percentage shot at McDavid as possible over the chances of this team actually successfully develop our current crop + whatever the hell we draft this year into a winning team within 5 years. Call it battered Coyotes fan syndrome or whatever. I have absolutely no confidence we are going anywhere through normal-tier blue chip prospects and developing them.
We may still even suck with #1 overall talent. But I think at least we'd have a chance.
Anyway I'm tired of typing now but you get the idea.