Trxjw pointed out to me last week that Sather was still signing off on moves until the end. He's correct. The overpaying his hand on Talbot, getting useless picks instead of a decent young player...
The high risk Hagelin - etem move that flopped. .
Even the E.Staal trade reeks of homage to the Sather dispensation.
I don't absolve Gorton in the above., but Sather is a huge factor.
Gorton moves from here on in , are all on him. Hopefully he has a game plan of what team he's looking to develop.
This all can't be done in one season. If the best deal they can make this offseason revolves around offense.. less on defense. .. you just have to go with it.
I have a very open mind regarding any upcoming moves...
So the moves that didn't work out are on Sather. Even the Eric Staal trade....Got it.
It shouldn't matter that the Eric Staal trade was made, even if it was made by Gorton because...well, it MUST have Sather's fingerprints on it. (And it also doesn't fit the narrative some posters are trying.)
Let's say it's true, that Sather made the Eric Staal trade. Why didn't Gorton attempt to stop it? He either has no backbone or was totally blind to how the team was playing last year. Either scenario is not reassuring.
So from now on we can judge Gorton, not from the day he was hired. Not for any and all moves he clearly had input in making. Seems reasonable.....
So the Hagelin and Talbot trades have nothing to do with Gorton. But who is this Jeff Gorton quoted in by Larry Brooks after the draft last season? Different guy, huh?
“At times it might have looked like there were better deals [available] but it didn’t manufacture that way,†said assistant GM Jeff Gorton, who spoke for the team. “In any scenario we would like to have gotten more.
“It went up, it went down; up, down. Sometimes maybe what was on the table was not what you remembered.â€
So either Gorton is bashing Sather here for not jumping at better deals OR Gorton is acknowledging he, himself ****ed up. Pretty reassuring stuff. But Hey, Sather resigned after the draft so, no worries for "Teflon Jeff" as long as Sather is the President of the team Sather can always get the blame for the bad moves.
I understand you don't absolve Gorton but to even mention Sather almost a full year after Sather stepped down.....I mean it's a bit ridiculous. It's not like Gorton came from another team to the Rangers last year. We can look at almost every trade made since Gorton came to the Rangers, it isn't Sather that's quoted. It's Gorton and we can't sit here and blame Sather when we all can assume Sather leaned on his support staff a lot more since the 2004 fire-sale.