In my opinion you don’t fire a GM in the middle of them building the team they want to contend with. PD inherited BMs team blueprint, and it didn’t exactly inspire contender confidence in the end.
From the looks of things, this is a good start in my opinion. I’m actually glad that we have finally started from scratch with the new GM. I like the idea that the new guys gets to have a crack at creating their own team, rather than simply managing the middling team they step into.
BMs team here just didn’t have the right core to get it done over the years, and while I wanted EK to stay, and then Stone and Duchene, I’ve come to really like the young team we’re seeing, and feel like our team has needed to have a complete reset for a long time now. I’m at peace with their respective departures.
I think BT is an excellent centre piece to build a team identity around, along with guys like White and Chabot, and our prospect pool looks deep and filled with players that ‘play the right way’. It looks like we’re being built from the net out, and that the players picked are being chosen based on being playoff type guys.
PD may not be a great interview, but his team is starting to look quite promising, and the best draft is yet to come.
It’s an unpopular opinion, but I don’t much care about the off ice drama to be honest, though I keep abreast of the latest rumors and speculation. It just doesn’t factor in much when I look at the roster, read about the prospects, listen to the interviews of players, coaches, scouts, and GM. The proof in the pudding will always be the team on the ice in the end, and I’m looking forward to the start of the season with this group.