mathonwy
Positively #toxic
- Jan 21, 2008
- 19,312
- 10,323
The question isn't "would you offer Lucic / Eriksson X amount of money".
The question is "would Lucic / Eriksson accept X amount of money to join the team considering what kind of a state this team is".
From a team dynamics point of view, you want to sign veterans that are willing to play second fiddle to Jake Virtanen / Jared McCann / Bo Horvat / Nikita Tryamkin / Philip Larsen.
This is why Hammer should be resigned.
This is why Brandon Prust was traded for. The problem with Prust was Jimbo's horrible pro talent assessment skills as well as his negotiation abilities.
I really can't see Lucic buying into the rebuild efforts here. He's a very moody guy that can get really negative and when he gets negative, he does really stupid things like sticking other players in the groin. In Boston he had Chara and Bergeron to keep him balanced. In LA he has Doughty and Carter to keep him balanced. There's literally nobody here in Vancouver that can babysit him emotionally and I could easily see him start pouting hard because of how much losing we'll be doing next season. Just like Ryan Miller and Radim Vrbata.
Our best bet, believe it or not, is to mend fences with our existing veterans and get them onboard the mentoring rebuild strategy right from the get go (this includes Vrbata). The reason our existing veterans are our best bet is because they have the most skin in the proverbial game. All of them have been living in Vancouver for a very long time (Vrbata excluded) and all of them have, at one point or another, been emotionally invested in seeing this team succeed.
If I were Jimbo, I would be holding a veterans only meeting at this end of this clustereff of a season and selling them hard on a 3 year rebuild plan. I would honestly relinquish authority and let the vets decide on whether or not WD is the right coach for them going forward.
The top priority is buy-in into the strategy and on-ice performance is secondary. We desperately need our veterans emotionally invested in the continued development of our young guys regardless of how much winning or losing we'll be doing. Throwing unknown veterans at the team that may or may not be emotionally invested in the strategy is gambling (Dorsett), something that we can ill afford at this point of time.
The question is "would Lucic / Eriksson accept X amount of money to join the team considering what kind of a state this team is".
From a team dynamics point of view, you want to sign veterans that are willing to play second fiddle to Jake Virtanen / Jared McCann / Bo Horvat / Nikita Tryamkin / Philip Larsen.
This is why Hammer should be resigned.
This is why Brandon Prust was traded for. The problem with Prust was Jimbo's horrible pro talent assessment skills as well as his negotiation abilities.
I really can't see Lucic buying into the rebuild efforts here. He's a very moody guy that can get really negative and when he gets negative, he does really stupid things like sticking other players in the groin. In Boston he had Chara and Bergeron to keep him balanced. In LA he has Doughty and Carter to keep him balanced. There's literally nobody here in Vancouver that can babysit him emotionally and I could easily see him start pouting hard because of how much losing we'll be doing next season. Just like Ryan Miller and Radim Vrbata.
Our best bet, believe it or not, is to mend fences with our existing veterans and get them onboard the mentoring rebuild strategy right from the get go (this includes Vrbata). The reason our existing veterans are our best bet is because they have the most skin in the proverbial game. All of them have been living in Vancouver for a very long time (Vrbata excluded) and all of them have, at one point or another, been emotionally invested in seeing this team succeed.
If I were Jimbo, I would be holding a veterans only meeting at this end of this clustereff of a season and selling them hard on a 3 year rebuild plan. I would honestly relinquish authority and let the vets decide on whether or not WD is the right coach for them going forward.
The top priority is buy-in into the strategy and on-ice performance is secondary. We desperately need our veterans emotionally invested in the continued development of our young guys regardless of how much winning or losing we'll be doing. Throwing unknown veterans at the team that may or may not be emotionally invested in the strategy is gambling (Dorsett), something that we can ill afford at this point of time.