BMac has made clear he's got offers on the table. I think he's being smart to not negotiate against himself. He's put the offers out. Folks are waiting for better offers but not getting them. Someone will come back around looking to make a deal and at least one of Mantha and Loafnetsov, will almost certainly be moved.
As for the history...
In 18-19 they were fairly dominant all regular season, and even with the loss of their #2 D and #2 RW, they win the Carolina series in 6 if Holtby had been even remotely the guy he was the year before. There was no reason to think they would not still be strong the next year. Who ever thought Kempny would f*** himself up for good right as he was recovering from this injury.
Agree that 19-20 was an embarrassment, but Mac had't intended for Sammie and Vanacek to be playing every game and he made some big moves after the loss: He fired his guy Reirden, brought in a respected vet coach, let Holtby, his Cup-winning, "The Save"-making 'tender go, and signed Lundquist, a HOF goalie, to serve as a backup to his promising youngsters.
I literally can't remember much about 20-21 because that was COVID year 1. Anyway, his new coach had just started and, despite having no training camp, playing with no fans, and all the rest of the COVID stuff, the team but was second in the conference that year and had looked good. There was reason to believe that they'd be better in a normal year.
I noted before that while they were WC2 in 21-22, they didn't just squeak in; they were 20ish points ahead of the next Eastern Conference team and Kuzy was playing well. All this despite Lundquist having an irreparable setback and having 2 young goalies. So while yes it was puncher's chance, and you could argue that Mac should've blown it up then, his coach had 1 year left and they'd had Florida on the ropes in that series and looked like they could contend but blew it. Plus with Nick going in for a surgery that no one comes back from, Mac may have thought he'd have some cap room to play with.
So he gave it one more year, while also bringing in some young blood in Strome, Brown, and Milano and upgraded not one but 2 goaltenders. And then every f***ing thing went wrong: Kuzy decided to suck again. One key--and one planned key--guy blew out their knees practically on day 1. Nick's surgery went well enough to convince him he could come back and play. Carlson got his head blown off. Ovie's dad died. I mean... Those are all things that had nothing to do with age and just screwed the team at every turn.
And even though he could have said, well, last year was just bad luck and we're gonna run it back and expect better, he has not done that. He traded his UFAs and collected assets and youth (Sandin). He brought in arguably the most coveted young coach in the league, and with term. He has offers pending to shake up his top 6. He drafted a stud at #8. His pick from '22 is looking like a steal. And he's got a bunch of young guys who just won an AHL championship and are gonna show up at rookie/training camp hungry for a shot.
So you can call it excuses, but the fact is Mac has identified weaknesses every year and made moves to address them even with a flat cap. And he's done it while honoring the greatest player(s) and roster this franchise ever had and supporting Ovie's pursuit of 895. You can surely debate the moves themselves, but suggesting he's been asleep at the wheel, or that there was a clear point where he should have blown it up, is just silly.
tl:dr: GMBM has and continues to make moves to improve the team. You can argue whether they've been the right moves, but there's no point in the story to date before this season where the team was obviously bad and needed a major overhaul.
EDITS: I conflated some stuff. Now fixed.
