Last offseason bothers me, but I think it's a culmination of the last 3 years of complacency from Poile.
We've watched a pretty good stockpoile of assets diminish. 3-4 years ago, we had Hamhuis, Zanon, Radulov, Zidlicky, Ward, Sullivan (w/ trade value), Dumont (w/ trade value), Pickard (w/ trade value), Franson (w/ trade value), among others. Asset-wise, we have nothing to show for all these guys.
Sure, last year's FA class wasn't the best, but there have been options over the last 3 years.
His contract tendencies are extremely frustrating. I feel like we could have signed Weber a year ago with his old agent. He was just named captain, "wanted to be in Nashville for the long haul", etc, and Poile said he would talk to his agent when they were in the same city. Recently, he said "call me old fashion, but I prefer to negotiate in person." There is something to said about face-to-face meetings, but you need to use every tool you have available. Most people do business over the phone these days, and the "let's wait it out" approach will only get your team so far. We've seen him operate this way for 12 years now, and he's not a guy working the phones to make the team better. He's patient, and complacent to a fault. The only time he's really comfortable trading significant assets is at the deadline, when the price is a premium, and we typically further squander assets.
As for now, we need more pieces to make these team better, but we are desperate. Making moves out of desperation rarely works, especially now that we don't have any kind of NHL ready depth to help fill holes created by a trade.
Our best hope right now is that Trotz can turn below-average talent team back into a playoff team. I have much less hope that Poile will sign Rinne, Suter, Weber, or make a good trade.