What is he supposed to say? That he's not confident in the team?
I feel like we go through this every ****ing year, and it's always the same story. We don't know what Nill really thinks of this team. The fact that he seems to be gunning so hard for Karlsson points to him thinking it's not good enough as is (which most fans will agree with). But if he says that directly to the media, the players would have a mutiny. He has to be careful to keep his current players happy whether the team is good or not.
Couldn't agree more. Our drafting during Nill's tenure has pissed me off and 100% needs to be addressed more and fixed. However, Nill is not near as bad as we make him out to be. We haven't done jack shit in the post season yet guys like Radulov, Tavares, Panarin, and Karlsson all want to come here. The tax situation plays into it but I think theres more to it.
Nill has made this a place that high end players want to come to because of the way he treats people and handles business. He seems like a very honest and genuine person but also is very well respected and not walked all over. He has put together a pretty good team for having horrible draft results.
Outside of the obvious Seguin/Spezza trades he has made some really good deals.
Cole for Janmark and Backman comes to mind.
I remember a lot of wings fans bitter about losing backman, something to do with Babcock liking him a lot during his time there. Nobody said a word about Janmark on either side because nobody knew shit about him. Kid makes our roster out of training camp and has kinda turned into a fan favorite amongst the online stars community. That's a pretty damn good move by Nill.
Trevor Daley and Ryan Garbutt for Patrick Sharp and Stephen Johns.
Another slap in the face to the opposing GM from our perspective. 2 guys we were wanting out the door as soon as possible and we won that trade? How? It wasnt even Peter Chiarelli???
My point is that Nill gave this team a huge facelift instead of fully rebuilding just by pulling off good trades. It's not his fault theres a different excuse every year because when he goes out and fixes the issue another one appears the next season.
If Nill gets Karlsson or Panarin and this team misses the playoffs, is it his fault? I think thats more of a reflection on our core of Benn/Seguin/Klingberg than anything.
I'd consider moving Benn at that point before anyone notices his value plummeting.
.
