Sure, that's a fair opinion.
But there's no scenario in which Dorion and co didn't know what Stone wanted last summer, and they absolutely knew whether our budget/plan would be able to accommodate it. They should have been honest with themselves then, and traded Stone before the season started. They would have received a much, much better return.
The most important thing in a rebuild is proactively managing your assets to sell high. And yes, that involves making hard decisions that fans might not like.
Instead, Dorion traded all of his assets when their value was the lowest: Karlsson, Hoffman, Stone and Duchene. And for what? To make it seem like they were "trying" by dragging "negotiations" out until the last second, something every single person saw through?
Complete mismanagement.
Karlsson and Hoffman should have been traded in February 2018.
Stone and Duchene should have been traded last summer.
We'd be in significantly better shape if they were.
Disagree that it was a complete mismanagement.
First, Stone with an agreed extension with Vegas returned more than what we could have expected had we traded him at the last minute before his arbitration date.
You have to consider that Stone was playing both sides to his advantage, as we all would. According to all sources Stone was actively negotiating staying, saying all of the right things, and seemingly leaving the door open to staying. If you refer to how the team must know how Stone felt, it would seem like Stone felt that if the right deal came along that he would stay, and that the two sides should keep negotiating to see if they could find it, much like JT did.
You can’t really say that trading EK was when he was at his lowest, but then advocate for Stone to be traded at the very same point as his high point.
In my opinion you need to look at the three guys as separate entities. EK was offered a deal, chose not to negotiate making it clear that he was going to head for UFA, as the captain of the team you need to trade him before the season starts if you want to avoid potentially having locker room issues again. Sure the deadline before would have been better in my opinion, but if you wanted to try and sign him, and make an official offer, that time frame wasn’t really an option.
I think Stone was traded at the best time. The arbitration negotiation window would have given the team a good idea of how close they were to a long term deal. Instead of busting a quick nut before the hearing, they chose to look to the trade deadline months away. That gave PD months to continue negotiations, while also explore trade returns. I think he get a better deal at the deadline. Branstrom is the best single return piece that we have seen a star return in a long time. We all wish it was more, but we returned a league-wide top prospect, who happily plays D.
Hoffman deal was a straight up quick attempt to appease EK, and the player return was needed to show a ‘compete now’ face. EK left anyways, but hey, it was worth a shot. In hindsight a second and third would have been better for us now.
Dis gene said all of the right things all year, had a monster year, and talked himself all the way to UFA as many around the hockey world thought he would. Shockingly he got his playoff run, and then signed with the team that almost all rumours had pointed to all season.
I’m not sure why people find it so hard to believe that we were trying to sign these guys, but EK didn’t want to negotiate, Stone had a foot out the door, and it looks like Duchene had both. I mean, looking at two years of bottom finish, why in the world would any of these guys opt to stay when they were all looking at UFA? PD should have just signed them?!? I mean, I love the Sens, but I would have walked as well; more money, and play where I want to trumps rebuild using up the last years of my prime.
Oddly, the way things appear to have played out, supported by both management, and the players involved, makes the most sense. We didn’t get less than market value for any of the top guys, we got exactly what the market would give for UFA’s, with more for Stone since he worked out a deal. Duchene wouldn’t because he wanted to be UFA, and EK was heading for UFA, coming off an injury and a subpar year. His was the worst deal value-wise, but wholeheartedly agree that we couldn’t start the season with him on the roster as captain.
Anyways, just my opinion, good chats.