George McPhee an awful GM

[BB88]

It was going to be bad no matter who he chose and you know it. McPhee chose some decent players all things considered but for the most part is stocking up on anything he can for the future. Personally I think some ppl are overreacting.

Bad& abysmal are different things.
And again I'm surprised by how few assets they got as a reward for icing roster that bad.

They don't have anyone to drive offense, I question if they have a player to build around the defense, what's the net looking like after Fleury and so on.

 

[The Grim Reaper]

I'm not educated on upcoming prospects. Are there any generational talents coming up that are worth tanking for?

Derek Morris.

 

[Langway]

Did lv hire the old caps scouting team? Do people seriously think gms make the choice for picks based on the few games they watched over what their expert scouts tell them. Maybe I'm crazy but I'll bet when he was gm of the caps he was drafting based on info/lists his scouting dept gave him.

He did hire one of the two European amateur scouts that Washington leaned on over the years. McPhee does also shape those lists and refine that process over time.

I thought Vegas had a strong draft and McPhee deserves credit there but it's clear they don't plan on being highly competitive for at least three seasons or so. They have gladly walked away from established talent due to believing they can find impact upside in the draft. The problem with outright tanking is it guarantees nothing re: draft position. Look at Colorado this year. That won't happen all of the time but it's not like it used to be. Next year's draft seems sufficiently deep to where they should get a possible franchise player in the top five regardless but it's tougher than ever to make that the sole building philosophy of a team.

 

[Brainiac]

I think he would have been better off just picking the very best players he could and trade them for future. The deals he made before/during exp. draft were meh.

 

[Perfect_Drug]

I love how the logic was: Every team could trade all their players that were exposed.

Because no other teams had protection issues right???

Which teams could take Manson, Dumba, and Vatanen?

If they were traded, it would likely free up another protected player.

 

[sheriff bart]

It sure looks like he left a lot of meat on the bone. Canes fan here. He took a guy I didn't even know was in the system (and certainly no NHLer) and a 5th and passed on Stempniak and Nordstrom. Stemp could have been flipped at the deadline for a lot better than a 5th. Nordy would have been a cheap, young forward that would have been a legit NHLer for the Knights.

 

[ICanMotteBelieveIt]

(mod) Instead of playing hardball and forcing some GM's hands. He chose to hold their hands and promise to not pick a lot of players of said teams roster for a very small incentive most of the time

This is what's boring with the league. The GM's are afraid to offend other GM's etc. There's a reason as to why you EXTREMELY rarely see an offersheet.

Even if they know they could **** up that team/possibly land that young RFA. They don't take the chance.


It's quite sad really.

 

[tarheelhockey]

And having Vegas be that bad for that long is exactly what the NHL was trying to avoid.

That's the part that's mystifying to me. The league basically said, "here, go make yourself a decent team". And GMGM was like, "no I'm good, I'd rather start from zero."

And then just to be sure, he salted the earth and poisoned the wells to make sure he didn't accidentally stumble across something valuable.

 

[Hivemind]

The problem with the "he could have flipped [player] at the deadline for more!" logic is that he has to move players now. No matter how he drafted he was getting 30 players for a 23 man roster. He was either taking waiver exempt guys (few of which were exposed due to the rules) or he has to trim the roster down to 23 via trade. Otherwise he's going to lose some of these players for free via waivers.

 

[Sam Spade]

He's tanking. I don't know why so many people are surprised by this.

If only he were actually smart enough to tank. He is a moron and any Caps fan that has followed the team for the last 20 years will tell you that.

Dumb deal (Forsberg/Eakin, all of his trade day acquisitions) after dumb contract (Nylander/Poti, etc.) his legacy draft picks (Gustovson), his wasted high draft picks (Jeff Schultz), just on and on.

I am blown away that the owner of an NHL team looked at his resume of complete failure and gave him the job of running their franchise. Unbelievable really.

 

[KPower]

The problem with the "he could have flipped [player] at the deadline for more!" logic is that he has to move players now. No matter how he drafted he was getting 30 players for a 23 man roster. He was either taking waiver exempt guys (few of which were exposed due to the rules) or he has to trim the roster down to 23 via trade. Otherwise he's going to lose some of these players for free via waivers.

So 7 players he has to shed...

3 or 4 he drafted would pass through waivers if not more.

So he needed to trade 2 or 3 guys..and he has until October to do it.

Teams will be scrambling for a top 4 dman like Methot after the free agents are gone.

 

[Hivemind]

7 players + every free agent he signs. Shipachyov already brings it to 8. And once again, October isn't the trade deadline. If you feel he could earn more on players in October than June, make that argument. But for now the trade deadline is a straw man.

 

[sheriff bart]

The problem with the "he could have flipped [player] at the deadline for more!" logic is that he has to move players now. No matter how he drafted he was getting 30 players for a 23 man roster. He was either taking waiver exempt guys (few of which were exposed due to the rules) or he has to trim the roster down to 23 via trade. Otherwise he's going to lose some of these players for free via waivers.

And that's fine if you are getting a 1st rounder to "lay off" a guy. When you are getting a 5th, not so much.

 

[King In The North]

The way he has constructed that team is honestly shocking to me. The NHL laid out a set of rules that gave him a good chance to skip the "terrible expansion team" phase. And even until the day of the draft, it looked like he had done a great job of maneuvering assets to get a lot of bang for his buck.

Then he started calling names, and ever since then it's been downhill. I can understand passing up good players to position himself for the future, but he's collecting 5ths and ECHL-level prospects. It's bizarre.

He gets a pass given that it's his and the franchises' first few years so he's going for a lottery pick.

I still understand why Ottawa and Vegas couldn't work out a deal for Methot, though.

 

[Bandit]

He's tanking. I don't know why so many people are surprised by this.

Because there are a lot of goobers around here that actually though Vegas was going to be a playoff team in 2018.

 

[Mc5RingsAndABeer]

He's tanking, but doing it stupidly. You don't just bottom out and then make a few high draft picks save your franchise. You need those high-quality supporting pieces (e.g. Vatanen, Dumba, etc...), but it looks like he was too worried about being competitive.

 

[theIceWookie]

Man some of you don't have a fricking clue.

Vegas is in great shape and they won't be as bad as people think this year. Shipachev, Perron, Marchessault, Neal, Fleury, Eakin, Garrison, Smith, Theodore is a better core than a lot of tanking teams from recent years (EDM, ARZ, COL, TOR, BUF). They will also sign free agents and possibly bring in one of Gusev or Dadonov. They will be plenty competitive until the trade deadline, where they will unload some vets, as they should.

They drafted 4 quality prospects at the draft + added a lot of other prospects and tons of draft picks, with more on the way. What they need to do is collect draft picks and prospects.

McPhee is doing a good job, and no, Vegas won't be part of the playoffs in the next 3 years and that's just fine. But we will bring up all these threads in a couple of years when Vegas is a young power house with a lot of depth, and it will be funny to see all these clueless posts bashing McPhee!

He's playing the long game, which is the smart move.

Being a team that can compete for a playoff spot this season is all fine and well, but it doesn't do jack for the team long term. In fact it sets the team up to be in the mediocre middle ground that can be so hard to escape from.

McPhee decided to set the team up to win long term. Adding 12 draft picks in their inaugural draft, including 5 in the first two rounds is huge. They used those picks very well, adding a strong four prospects with their first four picks.

He did a fantastic job

 

[Jag68Sid87]

Man, I can only imagine the reaction on messages boards and social media when the expansion Islanders, Capitals, Jets, Senators and others started playing back in the day. It would have been truly ugly.

How can you judge a General Manager based off of one expansion draft and one draft weekend? As Rodney Dangerfield would say, "boy, tough crowd I tell ya."

Give the man a little bit of time, shall we?

 

[The Macho King]

Man, I can only imagine the reaction on messages boards and social media when the expansion Islanders, Capitals, Jets, Senators and others started playing back in the day. It would have been truly ugly.

How can you judge a General Manager based off of one expansion draft and one draft weekend? As Rodney Dangerfield would say, "boy, tough crowd I tell ya."

Give the man a little bit of time, shall we?

GMGM is a known quantity though, and other teams didn't have nearly the opportunities at expansion that he did. He had Minny and the Islanders over a barrel, and let both of them off easy. Doesn't really make sense (especially Minny because the return was dreadful - would have gotten more just from taking Scandella/Dumba or whichever forward they would have had to expose to protect them).

 

[Kamiccolo]

Methot trade is just one of the worst deals I've ever seen. I'm confident the average HF poster would know to hang onto him until mid summer when a team gets desperate enough after FA to offer their first.

Or play the season and move him at the TDl @ 50% if you wanted to tank. A top pairing D cheap would demand a top prospect + first.

Only way the deal makes sense is if Methot said he wouldn't report and GMGM moved him before the news got out or something.

 

[NotProkofievian]

I think it's pretty smart to position yourself to be terrible for next year's draft.

 

[Duke Silver]

Vegas picking up Glass/Suzuki/Brannstrom in the first half of the first round last weekend is a great start to their prospects cupboard.

 

[Bjornar Moxnes]

I'm not educated on upcoming prospects. Are there any generational talents coming up that are worth tanking for?

2018 is the Fallen for Dahlin tank.

 

[Havok89]

^Yeah, seems like he doesn't have the balls to do what it takes.

This.

He could have taken Dumba and traded him for a much better package than Haula + Tuch.

 

[cramdizzl]

Terrible job, George. Left a lot on the table. A lot.

What benefit do these GMs think they're getting by trying not to upset their competition?