Quote:
Originally Posted by Phanuthier
Honestly in the past 20 years, Darryl is the one guy that brought back respectability to the organization. Does anyone actually remember the 2002-03 season? What was it, 6/7 years of playoffs with Darryl? Zero under Coates, zero under Button, zero under Feaster... we'll see about the next guy.
|
The dramatically improved financial position of the Canadian NHL teams, including a CDN dollar a par and the salary cap, brought respectability back to this franchise. Sutter's tenure coincided with that upswing.
As for giving Sutter credit for rebuilding the scouting system, does anyone believe it didn't occur to his predecessors that it would help to have more scouts, or for the Flames to have their own farm team? Of course they wanted that stuff. But the team couldn't pay for it until the financial landscape of the small-market Canadian teams became solid. During his tenure, Sutter had one of the worst drafting and development records in the NHL. He left his successor with a capped-out team that had less under-26 talent in the system than almost any other franchise in the league.
Sutter has a lot more than a couple bad trades in his debit column. He has six seasons of short-term thinking, a poor draft history, a succession of bad coaching choices, and terrible cap management in the scales as well. There's a reason there's been no hint of another franchise interested in Darryl Sutter as a GM. He's walking proof of the Peter Principle.