It wasn't meant as a "defense," (what am I defending?) I am just pointing out some differences between a bunch of players who are getting lumped together. Keith Carney was a perfectly reasonable acquisition who performed fairly well for us, and still had enough in the tank to play two full seasons in Minnesota after. Jan Bulis too was a perfectly cromulent player signed to a cheap deal from whom fans wanted more just because he happened to score exactly 20 goals the year before. It was unrealistic.
On the other hand, Eric Weinrich was completely done. I have nothing good to say about him (well, the visor.) It boggles my mind to this day how pro scouts watched Weinrich that year and thought he could help; he couldn't keep up with the play at all, it was embarrassing. Looking it up, he was a -13 in 16 games! Anyway, so yeah. Chouinard falls under this category as well, I guess. These guys ostensibly were good for the team they played with before, and fell apart on our team for some reason.
And then there's the Isbister/Ritchie class of players who just suck and shouldn't have been signed. But you know, these happen. Hell, we had Cam Barker just last year.
Anyway, so that's all. I am not "defending" anyone, I just don't see much consistency to the list that was posted. There are at least 3 different classes of players there, in my opinion. I also don't really know how Santala fits in to this. A low-risk European gamble. Didn't work, oh well.
