I disagree with this a lot, both now and back then. Everyone at the time said we overpaid for the guys we signed...mostly because of the term, not just salary. Guys were signed for too long because Tallon thought he was saving money by doing so. But I think its pretty obvious that Tallon was hit & miss on evaluating the actual talent too. So that evaluation actually has ended up costing more money in the long run.
Now if we look back at 2011, there were plenty of UFAs that signed for less than 3 yrs, guys that had similar or better reputations to what we signed. Instead of signing Jovo for his leadership for 4 yrs, could've signed Roman Hamrlik for the same thing for 2 yrs (not a big upgrade but produced the same amount their 1st yr and then we actually we would've been free from that deal anyway in the 2nd yr when he was waived) and not stuck with an injury prone player for the last 2 yrs. Another guy we could've had for less yrs was Kaberle (3 yrs @ 4.25M/yr so same price as Jovo) and while he didnt work in Carolina, at least they traded him pretty quickly and got out from under that contract. Instead of sigining Upshall who was injury prone and only had one proven yr, he could've signed Michael Ryder to a 2 yr deal (same price too) and he was a more proven goalscorer. Heck sign Raffi Torres for 3 yrs instead of 4 and at least get more consistent play. There were plenty of guys too that would've signed for 1 yr instead of signing Matt Bradley for 2 yrs and having to buy him out (Konopka, Carcillo, re-sign Dvorak, Glass).
Dude, I don't think you're being realistic. You have to entertain the possibility that some of the guys you mentioned were offered deals by us but didn't want to sign here. We'll never know, but you can't just say "we should have signed this guy" every time. Yeah, Tallon could have made a couple of better signings probably, but you can say that about every GM. You have to account for real life factors. Tallon did a very good job that summer all in all.
Everyone said we overpaid that summer because 1) they were jealous of us, 2)they don't understand or just ignore because they hate us the fact that we have to overpay to get players to come here. We might have also had to tack on another year or two in some cases to outbid another team. Again, the real life factor. You can point to other players we could have signed, but perhaps those were not Tallon's 1st or 2nd choices. He made some mistakes, but again, he did a very respectable job. You are expecting way too much perfection. With that many UFA's signed, we hit on a lot of them(at least in 11-12 which allowed us to make the playoffs for the 1st time in a decade), and it was a tremendous success rate. Usually a GM signs just a handful of UFA's and a couple don't work out(as we see this season on our team, and admittedly Tallon didn't do the best UFA job this summer. But in 2011 he did a great job).
I think that tells you a lot actually. First, it means Tallon is relying on the talent he has already brought in here because he is going to wait the 3-5 yrs for those college guys to develop (which as we've now seen, isnt working). Second, while the quality of the NCAA has improved, its still not the main source of talent for most NHL teams when drafting & developing. Sprinkling some NCAA guys to your pool is good but we've been focusing way more heavily on that instead. Lastly, when you draft a few more CHL kids and have to develop them on your own, it means you have to be smarter about how you manage your AHL team as well. The Rampage has had such up & down success since we re-affiliated with them which seemed to be a direct reflection of the talent there and how to manage the roster. They've either never had enough good talent (because most prospects were in college) or they've had to sign mediocre (and/or the wrong) veterans to bridge the gap that they havent had any sustained success in the AHL.
And again, Tallon may not be personally making the picks but he HAS to be directly influencing the scouts to select those guys. So Tallon is responsible in one way or another, even if he's not specifically saying, "draft that kid from University of Michigan/Minnesota/Denver/etc". You cant totally put this on the scouts.
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We cannot have taken many more CHL players than we have. With your mindset, a bunch of them would be doomed to fail anyway then, and I'm glad our organization doesn't have that mindset. And if we did have some good CHL prospects that we would then have to cut loose because we don't have contracts for them, then how would that make sense? It makes more sense to develop more NCAA kids so they can stay in your system for several years.
The NCAA is a great league. It is better than the CHL for some kids, because some kids need more time in the weight room, and more time developing in amateur hockey before they hit the pros. Yeah, it's not as good as the CHL, but a ton of NHL players have come out of college, so it's not like you're making out. There's no reason to think a prospect that goes the NCAA route has a minimal chance of making the NHL. If he's a serious NHL prospect, he has a great chance. There are a lot more players in the NCAA than the CHL. So of course the success rate isn't going to be the same.
Also, how can you say our college kids aren't working out? Sure, some of them are bound to fail. But Bjugstad? How's he looking? Matheson is a stud. Rau is looking great. Grimaldi is looking very good. McCoshen is looking very good. Downing is looking solid. Brittain has had injury setbacks which is not his fault, but he's having a solid senior season as well. I still maintain Brickley could have a role in the organization in the future. He been alright, and he was never projected to be a top 6 guy.
The Rampage have suffered a little from a lot of our talent being in the NCAA, but part of it has also been that the CHL have disappointed. Petrovic is still inconsistent. Which is fine, he is still young, just saying though. Robak has been OK, but for a 4th year pro he's not where he should be. Howden hasn't scored as much as we've hoped. Also, Tallon, or more specifically Santos, did not make the best free agent signings in the summer of 2012. THat's why the Rampage suffered greatly last season. They were short on quality veteran talent. You can ask any Rampage fan, that would be their #1 reason for why the Rampage sucked last season.