That is 100% my point. It's MBs biggest mistake.
MB's biggest mistake is clearly not stepping down as it would have fired up the fan base just to not have him around any more.
But I don't see Timmins as the biggest problem, not when he drafts guys like Pac, Price, Subban, Sergachev, McDonagh, Gallgaher, plus lots of NHLers like Halak, Streit, Emelin, Leks, DLR, Chipchura and a current very deep farm system.
That said clearly he's made too many mistakes drafting forwards and in the 1st round. What Kotka and Caufield turn into could help there but the system is heavily loaded towards D prospects so unless they find some gems at forward in June he's likely going to continue to have major knocks against his drafting of forwards.
It's not only the 08-16 period. It's the entire time Timmins was here. The main reason people are getting restless now is because his 17 and 18 picks are disappointing at this moment. Yea I know it's still early but so far, Poehling has looked outright bad, Brook is struggling in his first year pro, Ikonen is nowhere to be found, Fleury surprised many but got sent down, and KK has struggled for over 1 calendar year now. Romanov has upside to be a solid defensive d-man but is still in the KHL, Olafsson (see Ikonen), Ylonen is starting in his North American hockey career, Primeau will likely be a starter eventually but needs time. As you can see, there's a lot of disappointments and unknowns and combined with what we were given from Timmins since 2003, there's a legit reason to think that none of these players will pan out to become what they were supposed to be.
BTW, do you really think that Timmins has nothing to do with the trades that Bergevin has made? I remember precisely in 2017 after the Drouin trade, Timmins was all smile and said: "No Sergachev, no Drouin". He implied that if he had gone for needs (like many fans suggested) the year before and drafted a center (Logan Brown, Mcleod, Jost), then the Habs wouldn't have been able to get Drouin in 2017. Timmins is Bergevin's assistant GM and is his trusted right hand man. You can hear them talk and defend one another all the time.
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you can't really get too focused on the '17, '18 guys just yet. It's indeed looking very concerning for Poehling (though he has been handled terribly once again) and Brook has been a major disappointment though he's playing his best hockey to date as a pro.
Ikonen can't stay healthy so we have to wait and see there, it's not the scouts fault there as I don't recall him having any injury history before being drafted. Fleury we'll see what he turns into. Kotka last year fans were over the moon as well on draft day, so we'll see how it goes for him.
Romanov crushed it at the WJC's again and should be here in the Fall. Primeau after being the top goalie in the NCAA at 19 has had a good year in the AHL, Caufield one of the best goal scorers in the NCAA.
Just as Sergachev continues to look like a very good pick, Leks the 2nd highest scorer in the 2nd round of 2013. Pac is having a career year. Tinordi might finally be able to stick in the NHL.
Clearly Timmins can find NHL players, the problem is he needs to find better ones and more forwards.
As for the trade I don't know how that went down, I'm certain he would be consulted on the Pac trade since he would have scouted Suzuki the year before especially since he was teammates with one of our prospects in McNiven. We know he wasn't happy when McDonagh got traded and he wasn't made aware so I don't know what GM's do if they consult the others like Scott Mellanby, Timmins or not.
It's the same thing that we don't know if MB says to Timmins in '13 we need to draft bigger players after bringing in his buddy Churla that year. There's lots of unknowns as to what goes on, who gets credit for what, who gets blame. At the end of the day everyone in the organization needs to do a better job or we wouldn't be in this mess.
I keep saying the same thing, first move is hire a real president and get a new GM, then go from there. If the new GM cleans house then so be it. (though I hope they keep the new Swedish scout to see if he's legit or not)
