People were speculating that the state of affairs is not PD's fault as his hands are tied by Euge.
I stated that he signed his 3 year deal knowing full well Euge's MO
You stated that I could not know this so we cannot treat it as fact
I stated that you could not know Euge interferes so that cannot be fact either
I then said that if that is the way we are going to look at things then PD needs to be evaluated on his record, gave him a grade and supplied the material to support my evaluation.
I thought it was fairly straight forward. BTW, message boards like this are for rumour, speculation and viewpoints.
I know what you posted, and I appreciate the effort you put in, but we're circling back to the point that we can't authentically evaluate PD's performance outside of the environment that he's operating in. We don't know the particulars of what he's allowed and not allowed to do, but we have a good idea that the following is likely true:
1) We have an internal budget
2) PD has made several moves dating back a few years that have all had financial implications along with the hockey deal aspects.
3) The organization has seemingly pared down the organizational staff to bare bones, only recently hiring two front house executives, amid sale rumours
4) EM has hinted at not being able to afford a premium salary offer to EK
5) Debt was restructured to provide cash to operate with.
6) Offers have been made to buy or partner in on the Sens, have been rejected to date, but obviously being entertained to some degree
7) Assistant GM in legal trouble, is unlikely to return to his post, and has been away from the team for virtually the entire summer. No indication that he ever had a hand in contracts or trade negotiations, was a Murray promotion.
All of these things indicate that the team is likely suffering from a lack of funds, not just a budget team, but one that has to recoup money here and there as much as possible. A team that had to thin out the hockey ops side of things to a skeleton crew to keep costs low.
This is a pretty extraordinary position to put a GM in, especially a rookie GM who lost his mentor too soon. I doubt that there is another GM in the league that has the working pressure that PD has on him since day one. Pressure from angry fans, pressure from an outspoken and universally disliked broke owner, pressure from players wanting to be payed fair market prices, and no one to lean on or help out in the office beyond a top notch, but small, scouting team. All the while he has to try and put a positive spin on things for the fans, and protecting/handling his boss. I'm not trying to argue that he's been great at all, but I wouldn't expect him to be given the circumstances. He was nominated for GM of the year his first year, which is admirable.
Yes, we don't know exactly what EM has been doing (has he been pushing for play-offs or refusing big contracts to Turris, etc...), or what PD has had to deal with, but taking a look at the environment gives us a good indication that it's not business as usual for a GM.
One of the reasons why I like PD is that I am assuming that he has a crazy situation that he's working in, and yet he goes in there and tries to make the best of it. The players seem to like him, he's not afraid to go out and make deals, and he's learning on the job about how to deal with the media effectively. I like several of his trades, and not as much some others, but he's clearly doing what he can given the circumstances. Is this another case of us finding out just how much behind the scenes stuff PD had to deal with down the road when he's gone?
Are we really that sure that another GM could come in and somehow run a better show under the same circumstances? I know I'm not.
