Quote:
Originally Posted by Hackey
Wasn't a fan of the Phaneuf trade but other than that those trades are all pretty minor. They all pale in comparison to landing guys like Kipper, Cammalleri, Tangauy, Langkow, Huselius, Bourque who all had career years as Flames. Also made some solid smaller moves like Reinprecht, Ference, Donovan, Nilson, Nieminen. His good moves far outweigh his bad moves. People have short memories and its a what have you done for me lately business.
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Sutter's moves had one thing in common: what can you do for me right now? Almost every single one of those trades involved getting older. Was Bourque worth a 2nd? Sure. Was Nilson worth a 2nd? Maybe. Did we have to get rid of Wayne Primeau because of the cap? Sure, but we shouldn't have had him in the first place. Was it worth a 2nd to do it? Nope. Was Steve Staios worth a 3rd? Doubtful.
Slowly, steadily, as these players age and you have absolutely no depth on the farm, your team turns into exactly what we had from 2010-2013. Window closed, old, expensive, and no youth coming up.
Darryl systematically overvalued "post-apex" players and systematically undervalued youth and draft picks. Yeah, he made a few great trades. He also made a few disastrous trades. Most of them were somewhere in the middle. On the whole, I would argue his tenure disclosed a series of moves that steadily leaked value and aged the franchise. Coupled with a failure to recognize that the team was inherently flawed, this precipitated a bottoming-out that we're just climbing out of now.
In my mind, good general managers always add value and youth, until the time is right to "sprint". Only then can you afford to make the kind of moves Darryl made pretty much exclusively, and you make them to try to win a cup. You don't make these moves to try to make the playoffs.