You're not wrong but I also think you're leaving out the whole truth if you think this is strictly a Laviolette issue. This is an organizational issue that starts at the very top. You could change the name Laviolette to Trotz and change names like Daniel Carr and Daniel Sprong to Mike Richards and Jake Vrana or Tim Gleason and Nate Schmidt and it's the same conversations we've been having for 6, 7, 8, 10 years.
Laviolette didn't go sign or trade for Raffl or Carr or Larsson or Hagelin. He didn't hand out extensions to Oshie and Backstrom. He didn't trade Vrana for Mantha. He didn't sign Chara and trade Siegenthaler. He didn't play Stephenson as a 4th line wing. To what extent he was consulted in or requested bringing in some those guys you mentioned in is unclear but what is clear is that for the last decade, this team has prioritized veterans over young players at every step of the way. It's why Burakovsky asked for a trade. And Siegenthaler. And Stephenson. It's why Tom Wilson, drafted in 2012, is the most recent homegrown forward on the roster. Sure you have guys like Snively or Protas who are bouncing in and out of the lineup but they don't have a more recent draft pick playing meaningful minutes at forward than 2012 and that is a marked change from how this team used to operate.
If you want to fire Lavi for a fresh voice or because you don't think he's maximized the roster's potential then that's fine but this starts with Ted. He has no eye on the future for either the Capitals or the Wizards. He has condemned the Wizards to mediocrity because he refuses to look at what's best for the long term of the franchise and only operates on a year to year basis and that flows down to how Tommy runs the team. He's incapable of making short term sacrifices for the betterment of the team longer term. It's been the exact same with the Caps except the players he anchored that directive to are now old, broken, and mostly shitty so the strategy isn't working any more.
Bring in a new coach but still operate under Ted's philosophy and nothing systematically will change.
I don't think this is strictly a Laviolette issue, nor did I say it was. GMBM (and perhaps Ted) are certianly not blameless, and I have made my gripes with GMBM public on these boards repeatedly. However, I do think Laviolette is very much a big part of this issue, and he has done very little to suggest otherwise.
For as much as we complain about Trotz and others also having veteran pets, I find it very hard to see any of them as being worse than Laviolette has been in his DC tenure. While there were certainly rocky moments in youth development, Trotz still brought along plenty off skilled, young forwards. Kuznetsov, Burakovsky, and Vrana were given much more of an opportunity to learn and grow without being instantly stapled to the bench than prospects under Laviolette. Tom Wilson started to find his offensive game under Trotz (although the full bloom, at least in terms of regular season performance, came under Reirden). Trotz even had a lot more confidence in players like Brett Connolly than Laviolette gave Daniel Sprong. What young forward has blossomed under Lavi? I suppose a 30 year Nic Dowd has broken out under Laviolette, but that's about it.
Are other coaches perfect? Absolutely not. Nor do I believe that removing Laviolette will fix everything. But he's done little to acquit himself of the complaints against him, and I don't think any suggestion that he's simply been saddled with a bad situation holds a ton of water. GMBM has certainly given him an old and slow roster, but Lavi has refused to utilize the handful of tools he does have to change the situation.
Ultimately, I do want Laviolette fired, but for a confluence of a few reasons. Laviolette's selling point has always been the immediate results in the first couple years with a team. We didn't really experience that Lavi-bump, and it seems unlikely that he's going to reverse course on his career track record for this trend. It's not likely to improve going forwards. Moreover, he's not building towards future success (in either short-term or long-term). He's not pushing his assistants to find new ways to invigorate specific areas of concern (of note - the power play). He's not developing younger assets to step into the types of roles the team needs of them. And he's not producing the type of short-term results that could justify turning a blind eye to the lack of middle-and-long-term planning. I know people talk about Ovechkin not wanting to be part of a rebuild, but under Laviolette the team's trajectory is heading towards that same type of mediocrity and disappointment, only without any of the draft and prospect upside. I've moved beyond just wanting Laviolette replaced in the off-season (which seems more and more likely with the lack of extension in place for him), to wanting him fired in the coming days to see if the team has any chance of a rebound before the trade deadline to help set their course of the remainder of the season.
