Stay the course. The single season vets are placeholders.
no one cares about selling “a few more seats” at this point, and no one cares too much if we’re losing hard fought games.
The point of the vets is to hold down roster spots so that players have to kick down the door when an opportunity arises.
I don’t want anyone getting a spot without making an impact close to what Paul has finally done. We don’t care about sucking as much as we care about making sure the kids are dialed in on what it takes to make the NHL, and this club in particular.
We may not be great right now, but management and coaching staff is looking at the kids being players on the team that this roster ‘will’ ice and the type of team they ‘want’ to develop into, not what the vets are providing on the ice today.
The way we become the team we want to be is by making sure that when we give a kid a roster spot it’s because he’s earned a spot on the team we want to become, not a spot on the team we are today.
There is so much back and forth about roster moves in here, but I think we stay the course. Vets can be replaced when someone comes up and makes an impact right away, otherwise they get a taste and go back with positive reinforcement. Mann seems to be doing a great development and continuity job in Belleville.
I’d be ok with trades that net us young potential core prices, or medium term guys that can be part of the team during the rebuild, but we don’t need to trade for bad contracts and crap players, unless we see a way to flip them.
Every year we can add a vet or two to fill a spot until a kid takes it by storm, rinse and repeat until the roster is filled out with kids who fought for their spots and aren’t willing to give them up without a fight to the next batch of hungry kids.
It looks to me like we’re not just building a team, but we’re building an organizational standard and practice. Dorion, scouting and coaching have talked non stop about character and playing the ‘right way’, and we have watched this team put its money where its mouth is in that regard. We’re seeing development take its time, we’re seeing guys earn their ice time, and we’re also seeing a hearing guys buying in both in the AHL and NHL. The cynics will pan all this, but who cares? They’ll get on board again when it’s right for them, others will enjoy the ride from the start. Either way the hope is for this to all pan out no matter what ‘kind’ of fan you are.
To me this is a great sign of what is needed to create a legacy. Like back in the day when we rode bikes all the time because fitness mattered, eventhough we were laughed at, and conversely how we consistently ignored the needed grit when we were top of the league. We’re seeing a culture being created again, and the draft and trades seem to be for players that amongst other things need to fit in with that culture.
Fast, hardworking, hard nosed, attack hockey. Everyone backing each other up, guys working with and for each other. No one taking shifts off.
If finances can sort itself out and stop driving people away, this could be a culture that style that becomes an example.
