Do you feel slightly confused about how this board is celebrating like Mardi Gras from signing a 4th line player? Note how something insignificant is somehow bringing the fans the degree of elation that's quite uncharacteristic of similar moves?
It's all because of this lovely peach of a (former) GM of ours:
Think about the primary duties of a GM, you know, from what you know as a fan: trades, contract negotiation, signing UFA, drafting, talk to the media sometimes, communicate with ownership, talent evaluation, managing team assets, hire the right team to help you with your job. Yeah that's about the gist of it.
This guy, who was somehow able to maintain his position as our GM, failed at all of his duties. No that's not just "oh we're just say'n that's all". No, I mean this man failed at literally everything. It's almost a mythical power of sort, that allows him to fail in such thorough and complete fashion. You'll probably think you're going insane just looking at what this guy did in the near-decade tenure.
- Trades: dreadful, routinely overpays for trades and consistently overestimate players he set his eyes on, was recognized as a fat pigeon by other GMs (probbaly).
- Contract: dreadful, signed countless horrendous contracts and crippled our cap for years to come. We have little to know cap flexibility to fix our pitiful defense.
- UFA, dreadful, think about Eriksson...our lovely GM thought it was a great idea to give him 6X6...
- Drafting, borderline tolerable, some would argue this is the least shitty part of his job, which might be somewhat valid, until you realized that he used 5th on OJ, and 6th on JV...all while fans from this board, who wanted Nylander/Ehlers/Tkachuk, watched in horror and screaming into a pile of pillows.
- Talk to the media, or anyone, dreadful, he fumbles his sentences, slur his words, can't seem to get his thoughts straight, repeats himself a lot and with a weak voice, he projects the very opposite of confidence.
- Communicate with ownership, uncertain, if him talking to the media is of any indication I'd imagine his communication with Aquaman isn't any better.
- Talent evaluation, dreadful, he thought Sbisa was worth a shit, he thought Eriksson is worth 6 mil, and he thought Forsling should be tossed in exchange for Clendening...the list goes on and on.
- Managing team assets, dreadful, we traded in Toffoli then led him walk, we have a solid defenseman in Tanve and he led him walk, Markstrom was a solid goalie, and he led him walk. He thought draft picks were the works of the devils and threw them in shit trades. And he kept bringing in these reclamation project players who almost always failed.
- Hire the right man for the job, eh...he f***ing worked with John Weisbrod...
Didn't meant to let this post run for so long, but it did.
I think he would easily taken the spot as the worst Orca GM in history, and will have a VERY promising shot at the worst NHL GM in the history of this sport.