Wouldn't you agree though, that clode has a lot of say in the type of player chia targets? They seem to be pretty in sync about the system and type of players needed to make it work? Its obvious someone has prejudices towards certain players.
Don't you think Chia's moves are a product of Claude's system and input though? How many players have to leave this system and light it up somewhere else? Kessel leaves and becomes a top 10 scoring forward. Seguin leaves and becomes a top 10 scoring forward. Even Boychuk looks like a completely different player.
The coach isn't letting these elite players his GM is giving him reach their potential. When that happens the GM has to make adjustments. He has to give his coach the players that fit best into his system. If Seguin was putting up 80+ points for a coach that let him play his game would Chia have traded him in the first place? I doubt it. I don't think it would have mattered who we traded Seguin for. They would've come here and regressed.
Sure, Chia's drafting has been sub-par at best, and he's had some bad contracts, but I think the coach and his system are just as much to blame. Claude needs to do a better job of adjusting to the skill set of his players and letting them play their game. Not everyone has to be Jordan Caron.
I'm not in the business, just a longtime fan. I really don't know the dynamic between GM and coach as far as player drafts and trades go. I have noticed that coaches often defer and deflect questions about player acquisitions to GMs, often noting that they have no control over that and they'll do the best with whatever players they have, but that certainly could be simply lip service.
That said, even if Chia were trying to draft to fit Clode's system, I still think that he could draft and trade for quality players regardless of whether they have HERETOFORE played a Clode-like style. That is, most talented players can be molded to play as such. We've got Pastrnak now, who, by all accounts, would play nothing like what Clode would want, but we still got him (which is good) and hopefully he can be molded.
I still fault him for the Seguin deal; no way anyway can tell me he wouldn't have been able to perform well for this team. The immaturity stuff was just a canard. His partner in crime, Marchand, who is only marginally more mature, could probably nonetheless have kept him in check. And, Chia's handling of JB is still perplexing to me.
Bottom line, if we had good players, they could play Clode's system and ride it all the way. Problem is, because of subpar drafting, poorly thought-out signings, and questionable trades, we don't have all the good players we need.
