I think you can probably even lump in the Schultz trade as not that great. Under McClellon I think he may have flourished a bit more. They have some great young players in Yamamoto, Bouchard, McLeod, Puljujarvi, Bear, Safin, Rasanen, Brind'Amour, Skinner and Rodrigue. They just have to fire Chiarelli, keep McClellon and get someone that won't run their team into the ground.
Yeah, I just listed trades and signings that were significant in a good or bad way, the Schultz trade was bad regardless of any defensive woes he might have had at that point.
I think part of the problem is the timeline for some of those players, that team can't be stuck in development hell with a player like McDavid on their roster. By the time some of those players will be hitting their stride in the NHL they'll have likely burned through 3-4 years of McDavid's contract.
Take Hellebuyck's development path as an example for Skinner, it took Hellebuyck around 4-5 seasons post-draft to become a top starter in the NHL. Goalies are a crapshoot as well, so it's possible that he ends up more along the career trajectory of Comrie.
And maybe McLeod has a path to the NHL like Brandon Saad, but it's more likely that he takes a few extra years like Lowry or Copp who took 3-4 seasons post-draft to get to where they were better than your average bottom 6 players.
The timelines for the examples might be a season or two off, they were just off the top of my head, I think I might've underestimated the length of time for Copp and Lowry.
They're also in a bad position cap-wise and for whatever stupid reason Lucic was given a no move clause.
Downgrading Eberle to Strome was another bad move but not on the "this will be on the worst trade list for 100 years" level of those other two. The Klefbom signing is the only good thing Chia's done. I suppose locking up McDavid to play another 8 years in hockey hell should get a nod too. (Edit: I guess Talbot's also a positive...this brings Chia's score up to an F- from F--).
