Johnston's a different story to me. Is he the right coach? I don't know. But he's not incompetent. He's not incompetent. The best evidence anyone can point to of Johnston's incompetence is the prominence of Kunitz in-season. The problem is, when it comes time to suggest an alternative all anyone comes up with is dead silence or Bennett, which are the same thing.
For my money, his work at the deadline and cap management tells me JR is incompetent. There's nothing like that to grab onto with Johnston.
That's a fair point, bb. I'll buy it. Would you accept, then, "doesn't command enough respect to be NHL head coach?", or "doesn't have enough presence?"
Iggy, in his prime, is a much better use of a 1st rounder than Perron. But we didn't trade for that. We traded for a 30-something UFA. Perron is the same age as our core and signed for another season. Trading for Perron is a much wiser use of that asset.
I'm not sure what gives you the impression that this organization would have drafted and developed a winger that would be able to have a bigger impact on the team than Perron in the next 3 years. We took that first round pick and put it in a time machine.
OK, I don't want to rehash the whole Iggy thing again because it was painful then and it still stings now, but you do realize that Iginla outscored Perron by 18 points THIS season right? He scored 12 more goals. Iginla had 61 points LAST season in Boston, a notoriously defensive outfit. He also scored 30 goals. Perron had 57 points, 28 goals last season. Career year for him. Down year in a defensive system for Iggy.
The conclusion here is the problem is Pittsburgh. Iginla comes here, we move him to left wing and he bombs and leaves town with his tail between his legs. Perron comes here and suddenly nobody can score on the team, Perron included.
But there is a difference in the caliber of player here. Perron has never outscored Iginla. MAYBE when Iggy turns 40, but then Perron will be 30 and he too will start to decline. Iggy's a freak. He's one of the best players of his generation, and we threw him to the curb like he was Josef Beranek.
Furthermore, we need to stop saying things like, "I'm not sure what gives you the impression that this organization would have drafted and developed a winger that would be able to have a bigger impact on the team than Perron in the next 3 years."
THAT is the problem, people. You don't just keep trading picks away because, well, 'we can't develop wingers properly anyway.' That is how teams go from champions to also-rans. It's how teams become mediocre and stay there for a LONG time.
We are headed down that road if we continue to lack draft picks, have no clue how to use them at the table, fail to develop the players we do pick and are constantly forced into surrendering more picks for the Daniel Winnik's of the world.
Is Bill Guerin going to suddenly turn this franchise around, and start doing smart things? I highly doubt it. He's going to keep going down the same road, making bold moves here and there and playing the cards as if we are close to another Cup. And as he does that, we'll keep moving further and further away.
So basically we're in the deep stuff here.
