Hard to disagree here. I would try to keep Bolland though on a very short-term deal because of what we paid to get him and basically had a solid impact prior to his injury.
Flushing away assets is just terrible assets management. It's fine to let one or two pieces go, but we are essentially letting walk 3 really good players and 1 bargain bin player that should have been traded. It ****ing sucks to let them go for nothing after such a terrible season.
Bob MacKenzie: "make sure to not throw out the baby with the bath water".
Meaning a small adjustment like a new coach could make the difference as opposed to doing a complete overhaul of the players.
Two seasons ago JVR, McClement, McLaren, and Fraser made a difference. JVR costing the most, but the others were signed cheaply or came from our system. Hopefully we can do the same this offseason.
every report i have heard regarding bolland is that he is looking for $5 million + term. even if he compromises on the dollar amount its not wise to give injury prone players coming off huge injuries long term contracts. its also not wise to sign bottom 6 players to long term contracts.
i agree that typically it is poor asset management to "flush away" assets but the time to get something of value for these ufa was at the trade deadline. the problem is at that time we thought we were going to be making the playoffs.
i agree a different coach with the same roster could possibly have a different result but i think ultimately we have some major issues that no coach can fix. predominately leadership, overall defensive play, compete level. a coach can motivate and preach defense but at the end of the day the players are responsible.
the way i see it we have 10-jack suited. its pretty good but its not pocket aces or even ace-king. sometimes you need to be patient and fold a half decent hand and wait until you get your cards.
at some point we are going to have to promote from within. it is the cheapest, easiest way to get players and for whatever reason the culture of our prospects with the marlies is the polar opposite of what it is with the leafs. players like damigo, ashton, holland, bodie, etc are all heart and soul, blue collar, effort every shift guys. we need these types of guys sprinkled in with the talent.
id be more then ok going into the season letting the kids show what they can do. the reality is there are no free agents that are good enough to fix this team on their own and we dont have the assets to make a trade to change things up without hurting us somewhere else.
baring something improbable happening like stealing eric staal out of carolina, im hoping to go into the season with,
jvr-bozak-kessel
lupul-kadri-ashton
damigo-holland-clarkson
marlie-mclemment-bodie
orr
phaneuf-gunnarson
rielly-gleason
gardiner-ranger/granberg/percy
bernier
reimer
