I mean, the guy comes in and the first thing he does roster-wise is to move Neal for Hornqvist/Spaling. A move that makes us a better playoff team, and (ideally) gives us depth with Spaling. Then he drafts a skilled European forward in the first round of his first draft. Then he goes out and gets Comeau and Downie for dirt cheap to create more depth and give us a bit of physicality and snarl. I still want to be optimistic and think the Ehrhoff deal was a sign of Martin's departure, but injuries derailed that. Martin easily would have snagged us a first rounder, if not more.
I dunno. I absolutely hate the Despres deal, and think it really does counterbalance damn near all of the good JR's done, but a lot of question marks surround the front office in my opinion. Lots of things that just don't make sense, and JR's body language and tone during his deadline day presser really spoke volumes. Sounded like a guy who knew he was the one who was about to take all of the blame for something he had no control over in the end.