Replacement*
Checked out
I'm curious as to how many people listened to the interview before commenting. I didn't walk away from it thinking poorly of him. I bet there was a lot of truth in what he said. He lost me when he started complaining about the working out but it's not hard to believe that the organization didn't handle him properly. After the glory days how many 1st round picks panned out for us during Sather's time here? Obviously Smyth did. Arnott turned into a good player but it didn't work out in Edmonton.
This is of course fair comment to an org that had lost the script by the 90's and that was flailing away.
The management and direction had ceased being any good and Sather and Fraser in the 90's were a parody of what they had been a decade earlier. With most of the org having passed the jump the shark moment.
A different way to look at it is how much the Steve Kelly and Jason Bonsignore drafts signalled how much this club had lost its touch.
Later dismissing talent like Whitney and Satan being further instances. These were players under our noses that even the fans noticed were good. The club dropped them indicating they had insufficient talent.
The Arnott situation is interesting as well occurring so closely before the Bonsignore draft. We all know Arnott was a player. Everybody knew it. Never in doubt. One of the best rookie years we've seen here (amazing given the talent we've had here) and Arnott just being a dominating leader here in his first year. But the club rode that pony relentlessly that year for lack of much else and to limit the club being an on ice embarassment.
How many nights we threw Arnott over the boards endlessly to get some meaningless wins in a meaningless year.
We all know the story with what happened. Arnott eventually broke and Sather didn't effectively protect his young star from the media glare and criticism. Sather, who was good at precisely that a decade earlier apparently haven lost that touch.
Finally, the Club repeated the same thing with Smyth although luckily with a personality that was unbreakable and would absorb any icetime and attention given him. Smyth being a rare and special breed requiring no management.