Hard to not give him good marks. He's responsibly stewarding a team in the middle of a rebuild. Most of the complaints will be at the margins such as signing or not signing some depth players or based on hypothetical fan-fictions such as why he didn't trade player x when he had the opportunity.
On hypothetical trade scenarios, we just don't know the markets for these players. Wideman is likely not moveable. I would have loved to have seen the fan reaction to trading Hudler at the draft prior to him falling off a cliff this season. Very difficult to grade him on a performance that we have no information by which to assess performance.
He signed toughness early thinking the team would be pushed around. I don't hold that against him. That's responsible.
He's had a problem with goaltending, but people were singing a different tune last year with how he hit a triple on goaltending. Difficult to really hang the goaltending thing on him, something went wrong in training camp when it was too late to really do anything about it.
In the end, he's traded depreciating assets when he's had the opportunity for futures. He's patiently inserting players into the lineup. He's made good FA acquisitions after his first round of toughness building. He's taking a measured approach to developing prospects, if you're ready you play, if you aren't you continue to develop. He appears to have overpaid on some homegrown contracts but it's a difficult situation to negotiate if you don't have replacements. And he isn't afraid of pulling the trigger on a big deal if it makes sense for the longer-term window of this team.
What's not to like?
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