Quote:
Originally Posted by GranteedEV
Not gonna assign a letter grade, but
- I'm not a fan of Treliving's "sign vets long term to create competition" approach. Competition should exist but it should allow for flexibility. Signing Derek Grant, Setoguchi and Trading for Shore/Hamilton were good examples of creating competition. Bringing in Engelland, Raymond were bad examples because they didn't make the team better yet held/have held back guys like Wotherspoon, Kulak, Granlund, and Baertschi from taking the next step (Granlund being a center I see as a direct consequence of that). No, I don't buy that Engelland is a better hockey player than Tyler Wotherspoon. He's just a "more veteran bad hockey player" than Tyler Wotherspoon. I also don't buy that Brandon Bollig is a better hockey player than David Wolf. The fact that the Blackhawks, who are not even "rebuilding" can churn out multiple NHL rookies on a yearly basis and our only non-top-5OA-pick-rookie this year didn't even last a 9 game audition says a lot about Treliving's philosophy. I honestly think this had some effect on Ortio's miserable season too, though I'm not going to get too far into the three goalie situation.
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Personally I'd love to find a way to get Bollig, Raymond and Hiller off the roster so I'm on board with the majority on this one.
I like Stajan and Jones though, and think they serve a purpose (both overpaid on current contracts, Stajan not too much).
But I don't see it as competition as you suggest ... I see it as a management group that honestly thought the team would suck for 3 years and needed
a) guys to get to the cap floor
b) good guys in the room to protect the culture
but instead ended up with a playoff team and two young players heading for monster second contracts.
If they had a chance to go back they wouldn't have done those moves but the team has altered its core faster than they expected in my opinion.