Continued from: http://hfboards.mandatory.com/showthread.php?t=2023075
Tank mode: engaged!
Tank mode: engaged!
IMO we should have went this direction earlier. Finally it offers some hope to get off the bubble track. I'm glad we didn't keep trying to prop up this team to hold that sacred middle ground. Again IMO the current core of players have proven incapable of carrying a contender especially against the very powerful teams in the West. As fun as last season was long term squeaking into the playoffs and then being swept cost us draft picks for rentals and draft position. Happily it looks like we snagged a guy at 17 that would go much higher if you gave GM's another crack at it. But now we could really use more high end young talent to build on the younger core, especially if we are fortunate to land the true #1 franchise center. An extra 1st round pick and prospect in a Ladd trade, maybe helps us add much needed prospect depth on the blueline. And if we need to bump along the bottom for another season I'm good with that if we can add another high end prospect or 2 by moving out more vets at next years TD.
How else do you acquire cheap talent? You can't abandon D & D. You can't do what Buffalo did or what the Leafs are doing in perpeuity. You choose your moments and hope for the best.
I don't think management wanted to put a pure tank team on the ice from day 1 though. They wanted a team that could be competitive on the ice while they went through the process of building up the prospect base. I think the team has been a lot better the last two years than the first three, despite the results. And if we had Frolik, Stempniak and Hellebuyck starting this season with the Jets, instead of Petan, Thorburn and Pav, we'd probably be fine right now.
Mgt has a focus on developing the younger core though and trading down the older core where they feel appropriate. It's a strategy that I think is working, but perhaps isn't necessary to build a winner.
We sit at a really interesting place right now. I agree with your earlier post when you asked grind for the chart purposes can we roll back in the prospects/pick assets from the Kane Bogosian draft? I up pose that is mostly for optics the results are the same either way and it looks like we have done really well pending outcomes of said prospects, retroactively adding 2 x 1st round and the 31st pick increased the quantity and quality of draft picks since 2011.
These next few days are important. What we get for Ladd and how this draft goes will go a long way to shaping our next 3 seasons (the end of the Toby, Wheeler, and Little era).
To Grinds chart. I do think adding quantity of picks is a very sound principle and we need to be a bit more diligent doing it in the future. It wouldn't hurt to borrow a bit of the leafs philosophy and dedicate at least one of our roster spots to one year UFA rental flip types. How does that hurt as long as they can carry their water that season it's a great strategy to add additional picks in drafts for very low cost.
It should be standard operating procedure to get a team to throw in an extra pick on every trade. It's so marginal to value of larger trades, but if you always do it, they add up.
Even adding "our seventh for your third" to the close of a trade helps the process.
Sure Gil if you can do it.
But teams will be more and more protective of their picks. In a cap system they mean a lot.
If we really want that extra pick, other teams are likely wanting to keep it just as much.
Agree ps.
I have a feeling the Enstrom era isn't going to be too much longer.