It's still early, but the improved play of Stajan and Bowmeester are proof positive that coaching fit for your players is very key. Starting to wonder if D.Sutters biggest mistake or down fall as GM wasn't actually the player moves he made (not saying he gets a pass on all his bad trades) but rather his inability to properly hire a coach that could use the pieces he was assembling. Maybe not enough thought in what is my coach like and what tools would work in his system.
Right or wrong, D.Sutter clearly identified Bouwmeester and Stajan as key cogs for this team based on the contracts he signed them too, but B.Sutter clearly wasn't able to use them properly. And this isn't a B.Sutter bash, clearly the results as a whole are no better with him gone, if anything it's a D.Sutter comment.
Seems to me D.Sutter wasn't able to really transition the part of the GM job where he needs to assemble a team for his coach, or pick the right coach for his roster. Assembling a team he wants and expecting the coach to completely use the pieces the way he might as a coach simply won't work. Results went down hill the second he left the bench, and clearly he's a very good coach, but I think failing to get the coach roster match up part of his job may be the biggest reason this team didn't see the results it wanted post lock out.
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