The justification is this:
1. He showed during 2013-2018 the ability to identify and acquire a talented core (Panarin, Jones, Werenski, PLD) capable of being a solid playoff team which looked like it would develop into a contender.
2. This current core (his second) is only 3 years in. This one looks better than the last. It's Gaudreau, Werenski, Laine, Jenner with Fantilli, Jiricek, Johnson, Marchenko. The latter are very young.
3. The key right now will be stability so that you can keep the players / talent that have been collected. Firing the coach (third this year) or firing the GM indicates a shake up and the players may want out. Also, if you fire the coach, I want to know who is currently available that you would immediately hire to do a better job. I want a name. To me, I don't see anyone out there.
Like it or not, Jarmo was given the greenlight to assemble another core which takes 3-5 years to become competitive. This is year 3 which indicates to me they should be close to competitive. That in my opinion is an 80 point finish. So we will see where they finish at the end of the year.
Personally, I think the team's PDO is low and will turn around. Unfortunately, the low PDO is happening while they have the easiest part of their schedule but this was expected given they hired a coach right before camp.
He has acquired some good players via trade, we all know his track record and its quite good.
However, the contracts given out have been pretty bad. Werenski isn't worth 9.5 million a year, he's not a horse that you can rely on and be your #1. He looks winded and lazy in his d zone. Say what you want about him recovering from a long term injury, he's always played like this in his own zone. The guy is an offense generating machine when he's on but has never impressed defensively.
Severson was a desperation signing to improve the inept defense. Jarmo is obsessed with "puck moving dmen" who don't actually play defense well. (I.e. Boqvist, Severson, Werenski.)
The Elvis contract was another huge blunder, 5 years to a goalie who had one good year? Now we're stuck with a guy who has no confidence or consistency.
The Elvis contract alone was enough to fire him but I'm sure ownership are already thinking about it since the results aren't there.
The previous core was a much better situation. Jones was a legit #1 dman who covered up SO many mistakes for this team. Part of the reason why so many people on this board think Werenski is so good is because they saw him paired with Jones every night. Seth let Zach do whatever he wanted offensively while Jones put out all the fires defensively. Now Werenski is tasked to do Jones' job and he's no where near the same level.
Bob as your goalie, nuff said. True #1, saved this team multiple nights.
Panarin- elite play driving winger. Carried that team offensively, I'm still not sure how he managed to do it. Johnny isn't producing the same kind of play that Panarin is.
PLD was never a legit #1 center but while he was here, he was damn close.
Im not convinced at all this "new core" is better. There's a bunch of young players who are struggling to look effective. This team is at least 2 years away from competing in the playoffs. Kj, Chinakhov, Fantilli, Marchenko all need to develop consistency.
I'm also not blaming Jarmo for those players wanting out of Columbus, those are things out of his control.
The question is, do you want Jarmo at the helm singning more potential mediocre to down right bad contracts for the rest of this rebuild? There's potential with this team because I can respect Jarmo's drafting ability but his contract signees are future land mines.
I'm not advocating to fire Vincent, he's stuck with a young team. Fire the person who put this roster out there.
