At what point will Dubas’ effort stand on its own and not need propping up by Lou Lams failings?
It's not propping up, it's just the reality of the post elc transition period. A reality that some don't want to face. It's nothing new. It's been talked about going back to 2016 and 2017. The Marleau signing brought it to the forefront.
We're through to the other side now, with the core intact and a super bright future. There will be yearly cap struggles, but that's the reality of having a great team.
Looking at what Lou's done to the Isles it's easy to infer that this isn't the spot he'd have us in. We might have been marginally better these last two seasons but he'd have gutted the future of this team to do it. He gets a lot of credit for his Islander and Leaf success, but the fact is that success has come on the back of his stars being on ELC or cheap bridge deals, and he hasn't shown any sign of being able to manage the transition to them getting full value.
So in terms of "standing alone" there are only really two points of relevance for bringing up Lou when talking about Dubas-
1. That the 3rd year of Marleau's contract + NMC made a tough situation almost untenable this season. We could not keep Marleau, keep the core intact, and be competitive this year. Without the Marleau dagger the other two were hard enough to balance.
2. Playing whatif - People blindly thinking things would have been better despite all evidence to the contrary.
1. should start to fade after this years draft. What's done is done we're through the transition
2. will only go away with winning. As long as people bring up Lou in a wistful "what if" way his failings are going to be thrown back in their faces.
