Just checked out that Athletic list, it’s a big circle jerk of mostly Canadian fans hate voting down other Canadian teams, aside from ridiculous praise for the Jets, placing them in 6th (much wow, they acquired two middle pair d men). Montreal is next up at 17th and all of the other Canadian teams are 20+
Detroit is 3rd “cuz Yzerman”. Wonder if he’s done tanking yet?
The dude is so over rated as a GM, people act like he's some savant and he gets a tonne of retroactive credit for their b2b cups. It was JB who put the finishing touches on that roster and made the cap work. Y got nominated for GM of the year in 2010 after like half a year on the job, all he did was re-sign MSL and they went on a miracle run to the ECF. Miss the playoffs two years, then swept in round 1. Sounds a lot like us... Then Kucherov wakes up and they go SCF loss to ECF loss to missing the playoffs, to ECF loss, to him quitting and them getting swept after a historic season.
We can give him credit for Kucherov and the 2014-16 deep runs, but the team never won while he was there. Only after he gets replaced that some GM puts the cherry on top and they actually win. Weird reading this thread and seeing Chiarelli get some retroactive credit for our miracle run.
DET doesn't seem to have any aspirations on getting out of the basement soon and the fans are more than happy to crone about "Stevie Y and the Prospects", like they're the band opening for George Thorogood and the Destroyers.
Absolutely. I am not sure exactly why this is so
My personal theory is that the owners want to appease the massive and rabid fan bases. And most casual fans want that grey-haired vet GM who has been in the league for 20 years and is in the "old boys club". Its easier to have hope in those guys and hiring those guys results in the least backlash.
Whereas with small market US teams, they arent shackled with that, so can often look at other, not as traditional candidates. And the GMs they do hire (whether former players or new candidate), do not have the fan base pressure to bring in a certain type of player. Canadian fan bases want to see the rugged vet with cup experience brought in. Small market teams dont have the pressure or the cap space even to make big runs at these guys, so often get creative with the players they draft/sign/resign .
Just my theory
It's the opposite, US market teams need to actually appease their fanbases while the Canadian one's don't. We sell out regardless of how much we stink, if the US teams are in the basement forever they lose money. By virtue of having disinterested fanbases that can wander over to MLB/NBA/NFL, the US NHL teams actually need to be well run in order to get to the playoffs and keep their fans.
When you operate a team where the next best sporting entertainment is the Elks and you're in a comparatively richer market - you don't need to give a shit about winning. Canadian teams fail into profit. US teams fail into relocation or sale. Most Canadian fans don't know anything about the GM but what the media tells them, so I really don't think the casual person in this city has some kind of informed opinion about who they want brought in before he's having his hiring press conference.