And only 2 of which had them in position to be sellers at the deadline.4 years
And only 2 of which had them in position to be sellers at the deadline.
I don’t get it. Neither option is good, but how can anyone say Hextall? He got great value in trades, but the reason our season went to **** and the value of guys like Simmonds tanked is because of his inaction in the off-season. Dude was deluded into believing Hak was going to lead this team to victory and any losses were part of the development process.
He should have fired who needed to be fired and traded Simmonds in the off-season. Should have played the kids early. Instead, we’re forced to dump guys at their lowest value and make a 1% or whatever the **** bid for the playoffs.
Neither is good, but Hextall clearly was deluded and, as indicated by his inactions and the JVR signings, thought this team was ready to move forward instead of build.
Yeah and?
So Hexy was just inept at acquiring talent in those more competitive years?
He was smart and didn't blow his beans trying to eek out another round of hockey. Hextall knew the deal with this franchise and knew that we weren't there yet after Homer robbed us of our prospects and stocked the cupboards with bad contracts. Hextall took on one bad contract (Lehtera) that was pretty irrelevant all-in-all in exchange for restocking the system. Hextall changed the outlook of this franchise and I am dumbfounded that people still nitpick over him doing minor things like wasting a 4th on Petr Mrazek or something. Only thing he deserves REAL criticism for is not firing Hak during year 3 -- that was the point where I couldn't really defend Hexy.
Dude had a long-term rebuild plan while simultaneously having a roster with some all-stars that could stick around long enough and be effective once the rebuild was done. Now we have to trust Fletch to not bungle this prize of a franchise he was given. Not starting off well, IMO.
Heck, maybe even Lehtera at 50% retained could of brought back a late pick.
Ask yourself this simple basic question (that the OP proposed):
If you knew you had to trade Wayne Simmonds in the next 2 weeks and you had to choose between one of the 2 GM options here to handle negotiations, who would you choose? (one has to be chosen)
He was smart and didn't blow his beans trying to eek out another round of hockey. Hextall knew the deal with this franchise and knew that we weren't there yet after Homer robbed us of our prospects and stocked the cupboards with bad contracts. Hextall took on one bad contract (Lehtera) that was pretty irrelevant all-in-all in exchange for restocking the system. Hextall changed the outlook of this franchise and I am dumbfounded that people still nitpick over him doing minor things like wasting a 4th on Petr Mrazek or something. Only thing he deserves REAL criticism for is not firing Hak during year 3 -- that was the point where I couldn't really defend Hexy.
Dude had a long-term rebuild plan while simultaneously having a roster with some all-stars that could stick around long enough and be effective once the rebuild was done. Now we have to trust Fletch to not bungle this prize of a franchise he was given. Not starting off well, IMO.
Hextall tried to straddle the line of competing and rebuilding and it left us in a pretty mediocre spot. Sure he did clean up a bunch of things Homer left us with, but over a 5 year period, that is the expectation. It shouldn't take longer than that. And people need to stop fully associating the drafting with Hextall. With a competent scouting staff, literally anyone... you, me, Trump, could draft well. He had an abysmal professional scouting history, and refused to cut ties with possibly the worst coach in franchise history over a fairly lengthy period. When considering everything he did, Hextall was an extremely mediocre GM. Maybe Fletcher will be worse, but we probably weren't going to accomplish anything significant with Hextall anyway.
...The OP doesn't ask that, it just asks who you would rather have as GM for today. Hextall's judgment was completely ****ed as proven by his off-season and in-season decisions before being fired and I have zero faith he would have even traded Simmonds. He's also the reason Simmonds was even there to trade in the first place.
You still didn't answer the question.
Fletcher or Hextall.
Literally no one has ever complained about Hextall trading a 4th for Mrazek.
The complaints about Hextall mostly revolve around:
1. Hiring/keeping Hakstol as coach.
2. Keeping Lappy around and generally not doing anything to improve the godawful PK.
3. Going into the season with Elliott/Neuvirth as goalies.
4. Not being aggressive enough in the offseason to upgrade the team in other ways (a Grabner for speed and PK ability, a veteran D, getting in on a big trade like Dougie Hamilton).
5. Not promoting the kids fast enough.
6. Being mediocre at best at acquiring NHL talent, and not exploiting bad GMs enough. For example, Chiarelli wanted Manning.
7. Accepting mediocre vets being used for big minutes and not accepting the fact that people like Lehtera and Weise were sunk costs.
8. Not trading Simmer sooner.
Does me not starting the first post you quoted by saying, how could anyone say Hextall, not imply the answer?
Your reading comprehension was apparently off before concerning the OP and apparently there's no room for implication and everything must be explicitly stated for you as well. MY VOTE IS FOR FLETCHER.
Yes, there is no room for implication when I ask a direct question to be answered with "Hextall or Fletcher" only.
I'd ask you to justify your vote of Fletcher, but what's the point.
Hextall straddled the line because he totally could. Let's say he went full rebuild: How much longer would that have taken? Even longer than this did, right?
It most definitely is NOT the expectation to have Holmgren's wasteland cleaned up in the 4+ years (not 5, but splitting hairs) when he left such a just nightmare behind...and Hexy did it while STILL being at least a somewhat competitive team. That's rare.
Draft picks ALWAYS fall on the GM ultimately (unless there's some goofy coach/GM role that sometimes exists like in the NFL)- they were Hextall's picks and that can't be taken from him; I'm not buying that argument for a second.
I'd almost call his pro scouting as an incomplete, but I'll be generous and call it not-good. The coach thing I already said was his big issue, so we don't need to beat that to death.
You're right -- Hextall only revitalized the franchise and set us up for the next 10 years but no biggie. He was clearly awful because he got Weise's contract wrong (which EVERYONE agreed was a good signing initially, in the NHL or fans on this board) and because he signed Elliot (which was a terrific signing considering the market -- people still refuse to understand that). Those moves really ruined this franchise and outweigh all of his positive stuff.
The question was who would you want at the trade deadline. Making trades for today.I don’t get it. Neither option is good, but how can anyone say Hextall? He got great value in trades, but the reason our season went to **** and the value of guys like Simmonds tanked is because of his inaction in the off-season. Dude was deluded into believing Hak was going to lead this team to victory and any losses were part of the development process.
He should have fired who needed to be fired and traded Simmonds in the off-season. Should have played the kids early. Instead, we’re forced to dump guys at their lowest value and make a 1% or whatever the **** bid for the playoffs.
Neither is good, but Hextall clearly was deluded and, as indicated by his inactions and the JVR signings, thought this team was ready to move forward instead of build.
The question was who would you want at the trade deadline. Making trades for today.
If he just fired douchebag 2 years ago or even 1 year ago he'd still be here and we'd be winning. He was his worst enemyObviously Hextall.
His flaw was coaching decisions, but outside of that he was far better at pretty much everything.