So, with the bits of chatter we've seen on the possibility of MacT being named interim GM in the case of Chia being fired it sparked me to look into the trades made around the league when MacTavish was GM. At the time our biggest need was a #1 Dman, and a grand total of zero were traded. The best were Sekera X2, Wisniewski, Yandle, Leddy and Boychuk.
Yandle would have been nice, but NY put a pretty big package together that we were not in a position to match. Boychuk had one year of putting up points before the trade, and got a pretty hefty contract so would be understandable why we passed. Leddy was a miss for sure, but if I remember correctly I think the consensus at the time was that he was pretty terrible defensively, so again somewhat understandable.
Compare this to who has moved since Chia has been on board, Subban, Weber, Hamilton X2, Hanifin, Seth Jones, Goligoski, Karlsson, Yandle, McDonagh, Demers, Hamonic, Larsson, and a few other names that would be an upgrade atleast on our bottom 4 guys.
Look at each list and it's pretty easy to see which GM had more opportunity to fix the biggest hole on this team. Even if some of the names on Chias list were traded for eachother, the fact that he uses excuses like "these players don't move" or "not at this time" is unacceptable. We could have matched many of these offers or beat them had we not wasted our best assets on trash.
Add onto this that there was rumblings that many GM's didn't even know Hall was available. All this points to a lazy GM who doesn't put in the work when it comes to trades and scouting unless it's for Manning for a f***ing year.
Now don't get me wrong, I disliked MacT when he was here. And he did handle the Petry situation poorly, though I could see his reasoning behind it. As well as Eakins (though who knows, those teams had way bigger problems than the coach.) But looking back, maybe he wasn't such a bad GM?
I think a full out purge is expecting a bit much of Katz. And I see zero reason why K. Gretzky should get the job, he's been with Chia through most of this and stood by him. So if we must deal with the OBC, maybe MacT could set us straight? His "development year" line that got him canned when Chia took over would have set us up infinitely better than what we got now.
*Obviously recycling old Oilers is not ideal, but let's be realistic; Katz will not get rid of them permanently. And no one that's sought after will want to work with them.
Waste of cap space next year for a team in need of one next year to improve the team. This guy is a clown.
