I don't think it's outlandish to say Treliving should be criticized for his seemingly continuous blunders when it comes to unrestricted free agency.
Look at his track record:
- Raymond (bad)
- Brouwer (bad)
- Hiller (mixed)
- Engelland (good)
- Frolik (good)
- Versteeg (good)
- Ryan (so far bad)
- Neal (so far bad)
Versteeg, Frolik and Engelland were good but Brouwer and Raymond looked like potential buyout candidates the day they were signed and Ryan and Neal have struggled to fit in here so far.
Versteeg had one good season, and Engelland is long gone.
I personally think Neal will come around but things haven't looked good so far and Ryan doesn't look like much other than an expensive 4th liner who is good at PKing - not a great way to spend valuable cap dollars.
5 years and 3 years for 2x $3+ million contracts isn't pretty given what they have provided so far. With the looming Tkachuk extension it already looks like we need to offload some salary.
It will be players like Frolik and Stone that will likely be sacrificed and in regards to Stone that may not be a big deal but Frolik has been one of our best forwards outside of the top guys.
Treliving does wonderful work with RFA signings, trading and, for the most part, drafting but his work in UFA is pretty bad if you ask me.
It's early, in regards to Neal and Ryan, but it can't be a great feeling seeing your 2 fresh UFA signing struggling to fit in yet again.
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