Quote:
Originally Posted by CorsiHockeyLeague
This is true, but the flip side is that it makes a mockery of the league. Experts and pundits and the best and most experienced minds in the sport couldn't predict this and can't explain it, and analytics doesn't have a convincing answer either. It's just baffling. Everyone who supposedly understands the sport from whatever perspective is at a complete loss - apparently, none of them really know anything after all.
Some people are all for that because it'd be funny, but you have to think about what it entails. When we get to free agency and everyone's talking about Tavares and will he or won't he leave for greener pastures, and will the Senators trade Karlsson, and all these other stories... but who even cares anymore? None of it actually matters at all. Signing big stars is unnecessary. Painstakingly building a team over years is just wasting time. A poor assortment of castoffs just beat everyone soundly. It completely undercuts the stakes of everything we argue and talk about in the sport. Let's just all tune out until next season and roll the dice and see what happens because this whole thing is, it turns out, completely random bullcrap.
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The main thing it makes a mockery of is the abilities of some other GMs. If Tallon wasn't dumb enough to give up Marchessault and Smith in order to be able to protect both of Pysyk and Petrovic, Vegas probably wouldn't have even made the playoffs. Not to mention Armstrong gave up his 4th leading scorer in Perron to protect Ryan Reaves, though I suppose in his defense he was able to pawn Reaves off for a good return.
Unlike most other sports, the pool of talent that NHL GMs are drawn from consists almost exclusively of ex-players. So it's not all that surprising when some of them are absolutely terrible at their jobs and ripe to be taken advantage of and the expansion process really brought everything to the fore. GMs and coaches have so many preconceptions and biases about their own players that they often can't see what's right in front of them.
Throw in excellent coaching, good team chemistry, a tragedy that pulled the team together, and the likely refreshing atmosphere of joining a team where there's no ingrained leadership group or cliques among the players and you have the makings of a great team. Though judging by some of McPhee's moves since (1st, 2nd, and 3rd for Tatar for instance) he'll probably make a mess of the team soon enough.