Babcock should have been fired last offseason. It was clear that he had lost the room and had been badly out coached in both playoff series against the Bruins.
While I get that Hyman was not likely to do more damage to his knee the fact that Babcock had a one legged guy play as much as he did against that Boston series show me how uninspired his troops were and his inability to motivate. Every player should have come to him and said coach I can and will pick up the slack, Matthews, Marner and Nylander should have all been playing 22+ mins a night. Same with Kadri when available.
His defensive deployment was terrible too, this year he almost single handily ruined the start of our season. Telling a what 8+ year vet maybe he needs to change his game.... I get it you want players to always strive to be better but Barrie is not a defensive stalwart and never will be. He was not the player we needed and unfortunately it’s looking like a bad trade.
Hopefully Dubas has learned a little bit in terms of roster construction. We obviously have some really great young players that are still growing. Get rid of the redundant players, free up some cap space and work on getting some hustle players like Hyman throughout the lineup.