I agree with you in theory, but there's a temptation to under value some of your own prospects when you have a million of them.
Look at the Morrow for Morrow trade. Because Shero ignored forwards for so long in the draft (other than mid to late round 4 year NCAA prospects), we had 0 NHL ready forwards and he had to go out at the deadline to acquire them. Again, because we didn't have any forward prospects to move or promote, he ended up selling low on a prized 1st round pick (the fact that he wouldn't pan out wasn't known at the time) because we had depth at the position. He basically even said as much in his interview after the trade.
Maybe if he would have looked at organizational need and drafted a damn forward every once in a while, we wouldn't have needed to overpay for them at the deadline.
His theory was draft PMD and trade for wingers like they did with Gogo and Neal. Problem was, Gogo was decently established already before a deal was made. Bylsma...for the most part...wanted nothing to do with young players. So when it came time for those possible trades, they didn't have the value to return a Neal, they had the value to return a Morrow. Compounding on to that, because Smug Dan refused to play and trust young kids, when they actually needed an NHL dman, they didn't have any of those prized prospects ready! They had to go out and sign Mark ****ing Eaton. What a decable 2010-2015 was for this org. Dear lord.
Which is where the end of Shero's tenure got really cloudy. He was picking the best puck moving defensemen, failing to realize that a defenseman has to play defense.
Bylsma didn't help. Shero chaining himself to him was ultimately his undoing. He should have been gone after that 2012 debacle and most certainly after 2013. I think between Letang, Morrow, Despres, Harrington, Pouliot, Dumoulin, Maatta, we could have had a pretty good lineup but...the org didn't good anything cultivate any of them.
I call 2007 to 2009 a success for Shero. Post 2009 to his firing was a net failure. The one oddity there is the emergence of some of these kids that were essentially an afterthought - Wilson, Rust, Kuhnhackl, Simon and now with Sundqvist ready to break out and Murray obviously doing well...it remains to be seen the entirety of his tenure here.
Thoughts on Schultz's next contract? He's been good so far.Still making mistakes defensively,but very active offensively.If he keeps up,points will come.
I'd resign him to a 2yr contract at his current value right now. Raise may be iffy but I've been very happy with the Cole-Schultz pairing. They work well.
He hasn't proven to me that we should re-sign him yet. The points need to come first.
True, he got a goal last night. Hopefully he builds on it. He gets limited 2PP time and is on the 3rd pairing. I'd be happy with 10-15pts this year.
FWIW I completely agree with McLennan here.
The two starting goalie thing always sounds so much better on paper than it plays out in reality. There's a reason you don't see this kind of 'play for your job' mentality in the playoffs...well...you don't see it succeed in the playoffs, St. Louis.
Frankly this scenario hurts both goalies more than it helps them. Confidence is one of the most valuable 'skills' for a goalie to have, and having that thought in the back of your mind that a bad/unfortunate goal may mean you don't play the next game or three doesn't exactly nurture that feeling. Really the only time it ever works is when one gets hurt...which results in the other simply being the starter and not having to worry about losing starts with each and every tough goal.
So...pick your poison. Have a competition which generally negatively affects both goalies, but have that safety net of having a guy capable of starting still on the roster in case one gets hurt...or just go with a starter and hope he doesn't get hurt.
Couple that with the fact that MAF completely falls apart when he has competition...it just doesn't bode well for him or the team. Sometimes it's just time to move on. Iginla moved on from Calgary. Bourque moved on from Boston. Jagr from Pittsburgh. Broduer from Jersey. This isn't unprecedented.
