I'm a little surprised by how negative the board is about this year. To me, this was a fun year where the team, and many individual players, exceeded expectations. I thought they would struggle to get 200 goals and they ended up with 290 - 5th in the league (I think). It was a fun group and easy to root for. I went home after most games feeling like I got my entertainment value out of my tickets. Given the expectations going into the season, any success in the playoffs was gravy.
MM hedged his bets all year. Every deal he made (except one) had a future piece to it. Rookies played up to expectations (Stark, MacNeil, Arquette) or exceeded them (Romano, Reid, Lam, Ellinas). Diracollo and Campbell were nice pickups at no or low cost that might turn into contributors.
At the trade deadline last year, MM said that there would be a 2 year rebuild coming. To a certain extent, he kicked the can down the road, so there is likely to be more pain next year than there would be otherwise, but it was a fun year and you don't have to squint too hard to see a path to future success.