Complete ********. Try it. 18 absolute garbage players handed NHL roster spots in 3 seasons. That's practically an entire team. Basically dressing a 3rd of an AHL team night-in, night-out for 3 years, I defy you to find me an actual credible GM with a record like that. Nonis is/was a godawful evaluator of talent.
haha, handed NHL roster spots. That's sweet, since most were NHLers before they got here and many of the names given didn't play here more than one season, if that.
Noronen might have been different if Nonis didn't acquire Luongo soon after. When you don't have a goalie, you put a few eggs into your basket until you get one. Once you get one, you don't need the other eggs. Not a biggie imo.
Carney and Weinrich were deadline deals supposed to help us make the playoffs so we could get healthy. We came into the season as Cup favourites, no way Nonis couldn't add some bodies at that time. Not exactly "handing NHL roster spots" seeing as they were both already on teams. Carney was pretty decent except that Crow wanted him to replace what Jovo brought; Weinrich ended up sucking big time, but the trade was considered a good one when it was made (much like Roy last year).
Isbister was an okay bottom six forward for us, on a team needing some size and with no cap space. Problem there, people for some reason thought he was being brought in for offense. Not Nonis's fault people are stupid. Anyway, he was a UFA not a trade acquisition. Probably better than acquiring Steve Bernier for two picks.
Bulis and Ritchie were both solid bottom sixers, as long as Ritchie wasn't on the PP. Probably one of our better 4th line C's in the last while, and Bulis became a great PKer.
Cowan iirc was a waiver claim brought in to give some muscle. Better than Hordichuck anyway.
Shannon = Tambellini more or less. We gave up Jason King and a conditional 3rd, and iirc the conditions weren't met, so we gave up Jason King. Big whup, Shannon was viewed as a good gamble at the time.
Chouinnard was supposed to be what Manny Malhotra ended up being for us, but obviously didn't pan out. Not really sure what happened, because he had been pretty good in Minnesota.
Every GM has misses. I consider Gillis a better GM, but he still had misses, and I'd argue some of Gillis's misses have been much more costly than any of Nonis's. I have no interest in going through a bunch of GM's transaction histories to prove that all GMs have misses, because it's just common sense. End of the day, Nonis made some bad moves, some okay moves, and some great moves. Team was in a better position when he left than when he took the reigns, and that's all that really matters (especially when discussing such a short regime).
