George McPhee an awful GM

[HansonBro]

I think he f****d it up too. Tanking is nice and all but who wants to go to Vegas to see Fleury get lit up every night? Is this slapshot 2?

 

[TOGuy14]

Buying out bieksa would require him to be healthy which he is/was not.

A team is about to LTIR a player for being allergic to hockey equipment.

Teams will abuse the system wherever they can to suit them

 

[Off Sides]

Vegas: Do you expect us to believe that a 106-point team would actually gut its defensive depth for picks? We call your bluff.

Sure, we may never know what McPhee could have gotten but the consensus is that he should have received more from Minnesota but chose not to press the issue to maintain good relations. Who knows--perhaps that could turn into a favourable deal in the future but that doesn't change the fact that he didn't maximize his value here.

Agreed, at the very least I'd think the Wild would have raised their offer by one 2019 1st round pick or something similar if LV pushed the issue.

No contend right now team wants to restructure what they are up to and take on a bunch of futures for a part of what is helping them contend right now.

 

[Filthy Dangles]

George McFleeced

 

[WesMcCauley]

I think he did well, got himself alot of picks and Theodore. Got Neal Who he can flip at the deadline for a good amount. Dumba/Vatanen/Manson would never be available for him if he hadnt made the deals he made. Only way for him to build that team into a competitive on is to get alot of draftpicks which he did. If he only took the best players available right now they would be decent now and a horrible team going forward and would probably have to suck and stock up on draft picks in 3 years.

 

[Hivemind]

Minnesota 100% finds a way to move or protect Dumba. Maybe Scandella is left unprotected, but do you honestly think Scandella does much for an expansion Vegas?

 

[Hivemind]

It's that the trades he is making to aide in his tanking are incredibly poor. The Methot trade is a perfect example. Why trade him right now for a 2020 2nd, when if he had just waited until the deadline he could probably fetch a 1st in a great looking 2018 draft. I also find it hard to believe he couldn't get a better offer right now, had he done a little more shopping.

Once again, McPhee has to get down from 30 draftees + free agents/13 defensemen to 23 players/8 defensemen before the opening of the season. The whole "waiting to the deadline" bit doesn't really apply. Some of those players have to be moved now, as opposed to later. And many of those defensemen (Miller, Schmidt, Merrill, McNabb, Reinhart) they want to keep as part of their franchise. They are forced to move some of the veterans who are not part of their longer term plans before the season starts. The offer for Methot doesn't look great in a vacuum, but if it's more than they're receiving for Garrison, Emelin, or Stoner, it makes sense to act on what they have in front of them. Waiting until the trade deadline is not a viable option, since it means losing players on waivers instead.

 

[ObscureAlien]

im not going to evaluate his expansion picks but there were some questionable ones (oops i guess i just did). however i did think snagging glass and suzuki was a positive for his franchise.

 

[Voight]

Why did Vegas even appoint him as their GM?

He overplayed his hand and trade Methot for a 2nd round pick in 2020 and a goalie drafted in the 7th round. That goalie, if he makes it is, is a long way from doing anything for them. A 2nd in 2020, damn... well that may or may not be a bust. Either way that pick will most likely not be on the team before the 2022-2023 season..

He could've kept Methot and flipped him @ the trade deadline for +1st rounder... dumb trade.

Vegas chose him because he IS a good GM, everybody has their ups and downs and he's made some great moves over the years. He completely rebuilt the Caps 15 years ago and they became a top team, even if they were bad in the playoffs. That's likely why Foley chose him, he built a good team - mind you having a generational/top player of all time helps - and knows what he's doing. Who would you have hired? Darcy Regier? Don Maloney? Don't forget he was hired a year ago so a guy like Lombardi wasn't available.

Methot - what if he breaks his ankle before the deadline and GMGM gets nothing for him? What if he plays awful? It was smarter to move him now and get what you could get. Also, I'm not sure any team is giving up a 1st for him.

 

[Meichel Kane]

You know who would've been fun as Vegas GM? Tim Murray. Jimmy Vesey would be on a eleventy year, $12B contract for them right now.

 

[Rhaegar Targaryen]

He misplayed the Methot situation. He should have accepted the Sens first round pick in 2017 (instead of asking for them to give their 2018 1st), and then taken Claesson from Ottawa.

 

[Gunnar Stahl]

McPhee can build a good foundation. He did that with the Capitals. He won't be the GM that takes a franchise from perennial playoff team to bonafide Stanley Cup contender.

 

[Damisoph]

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.

That core is god awful.

 

[ColdSteel2]

I think he f****d it up too. Tanking is nice and all but who wants to go to Vegas to see Fleury get lit up every night? Is this slapshot 2?

Visiting fans, this is gonna be awesome. I'm gonna save up for it.

 

[WesMcCauley]

That core is god awful.

What did you expect him to do? Which players should he have taken? Dumba, Vatanen and Manson would never have been exposed unless they already had a deal in place. He did the smart thing, got some good young players and stacked up on picks. Vegas was never going to be a contender in the first few years anyway. The dumbest thing he could do would be to take all the best players he could regarding of age and contract and just delay the building from the draft process. Could he have gotten a pick or two more? Sure. But he absolutely did the right thing in terms of creating a team that within the next 5 years have a solid team of young guys that they can build around and contend with. He also got some good players so the team they will ice doesnt completely suck. Trade Perron, Neal etc at the deadline for more picks and they are starting to build up a very strong prospect pool.

 

[Nucks N Canes]

Minnesota 100% finds a way to move or protect Dumba. Maybe Scandella is left unprotected, but do you honestly think Scandella does much for an expansion Vegas?

Yeah I don't see how Haula and Tuch is not a win when you compare it to Scandella who Minnesota is reportedly having issues trading. Yes McPhee could have gambled and waited to see if Minny could trade Dumba but I don't know anyone who is a massive fan of him either. He could be a top pairing guy but hasn't shown it yet, same could be said for Theodore. He got guys that him and his scouting department obviously liked and then went into the draft and grabbed a few more potential foundation pieces.

To be an expansion team and have your first year with a potential young starting five of R. Smith, Marchessault, and Tuch, filled out by a good d pair of Theodore and one of C. Miller, N. Schmidt knowing that these are guys that have plenty of room to grow behind vets like Garrison, Neal, Perron and Shipachyov I think was really what they were trying to do the whole time. The vets that are there can take the heat and insulate this first group of young guys while the draft picks get some seasoning in the A or juniors. That being said hard not to see Glass having a good chance to crack that line-up as it stands at least.

 

[CrypTic]

So he can add yet another defenseman to the mix, another guy who would have to pass through waivers after training camp next fall?

Engelland makes sense from the standpoint of having a leadership group in place for Year 1 of the franchise.

Except he's a UFA. Couldn't have McPhee signed him on July 1st and taken someone else from Calgary? If Engelland was going to sign with LV anyway, why wouldn't he sign on July 1st even if LV didn't draft him? And if he's signing with LV, wouldn't he want them to get another asset from Calgary? If Engelland's not going to sign with LV on July 1st, it's throwing a pick away. That's the issue, not that he wanted Engelland to play for Las Vegas. He passed on a free asset.

I don't understand why he didn't hold on to some assets until later in the summer, when teams may have been more desperate. If he needed cap space to sign FAs, he shouldn't have taken so many cap dumps for his picks. He should have narrowed down his potential selections based on their cap hit, taking into account how much space he needed and that he could potentially be in an excellent position to retain (and get more assets) if he managed the cap wisely. Then he should have had a team of his assistants on the phone non-stop figuring out which players he could immediately flip for the most assets, and picked them. I don't understand the Methot trade at all.

It looks like he did well in the draft. I don't think he's done horribly and many of the players ppl say he should have taken were never really available but some of his decisions are perplexing.

 

[Lebowski]

Why did Vegas even appoint him as their GM?

He failed to surround Ovechkin and Backstrom with a great team. He panicked and traded a bluechip prospect in Filip Forsberg for an old declining meh player in Erat just to try to save his ass.

He said **** our future, gonna trade a potential star just so i might stick around here. Selfish as **** and dumb.


He took Haula + Tuch when he had the upperhand vs Minnesota. Dumba could've been Vegas's player by now.

He overplayed his hand and trade Methot for a 2nd round pick in 2020 and a goalie drafted in the 7th round. That goalie, if he makes it is, is a long way from doing anything for them. A 2nd in 2020, damn... well that may or may not be a bust. Either way that pick will most likely not be on the team before the 2022-2023 season..

He could've kept Methot and flipped him @ the trade deadline for +1st rounder... dumb trade.

Sbisa, Emelin etc were real bad picks, but he'll retain and dump them @ the deadline this season for some mid-late picks in 2020 or something.


All in all i feel like McPhee isn't the right person, he's not competent enough IMHO.


What do Vegas fans and fans of other teams feel towards him and his decisions so far?

The same Capitals team that has been the President cup favorite for almost a decade?

 

[Damisoph]

What did you expect him to do?

I'm replying to the guy that said it wasn't a bad core and they are in great shape.

 

[WetcoastOrca]

It would have been a good strategy to deliberately tank a few years ago but now the odds are not that great for getting a number one pick. He should at least be icing an entertaining product but it doesn't look like he will.

 

[Wats]

He's obviously taking while adding as much picks as he can. I think the interest in Methot among teams not on his no trade is overrated.

 

[Nalens Oga]

Trading isn't his strength but he's a decent GM. Yeah not everyone liked all his picks (I didn't personally like picking all of Garrison/Emelin/Sbisa) but look at any expansion mock list and pretty much every single one had at least a few guys you'd disagree with.

I think he's pretty solid at putting a team together, getting the AHL club going, getting the right people in place, etc. There's more to GMing than just trading. He didn't put together all those great Capitals teams (despite their playoff failures which continue) without being a good GM. And Vegas will probably move on to a new GM once they've made the playoffs a few times I'd think. For now, he's a good GM to have when it comes to developing the actual club and adding some stability. And even in the playoffs, this guy did get that 90s Caps team to the final, he just had some bad luck in the 2000s with the new group having certain issues I won't get into when it came to the post-season.

 

[GregSirico]

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

Maybe he's an HF Board poster?

 

[flyersfan187]

This team is much worse then it should have been. I hope if their record is terrible, they drop in the draft like the avs did. Drafting one of the worst Flyers made me happy but pissed me off that that was a terrible pick for them.

 

[Sleepy]

This.

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

No matter how many times its said in this thread, people still can't understand that Dumba would not have been available without the deal in place.

There are valid criticisms of what GMGM did, but they're drowned out by all the silly statements with unbelievable premises.