Quote:
Originally Posted by Jiri Hrdina
I would say Sutter's core weakness was he was somewhat narrow minded - you see it in how he drafted, and the types of players he traded and acquired.
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I don't think Sutter's drafting can be evaluated holistically.
- when he first became GM, it was a free agency league. drafting skilled players wasn't the norm and even if you did draft a skilled player they were likely to walk elsewhere for better pay in those days
- after the salary gap, all the GMs in the league were still navigating exactly what this meant, and from a drafting perspective he inherited an awful drafting team
- his first few drafts were a disaster, he'd be the first to tell you he didn't know what to seek organizationally. The draft was just viewed as a way to add some bodies to a team hoping to contend. He was wrong on a philosophical level but he owned up to it
- after we lost to the Red Wings in 07 to the skill and talent of the Red Wings (Datsyuk, Zetterberg, Lidstrom, Holmstrom) he made it an organizational directive to improve drafting and emphasize things like skill and hockey sense rather than grit etc. 2007 was the Backlund draft. 2008 was the Brodie draft. 2010 he brought in Ferland.
Drafting is way better these days, but Sutter took the first step. He had some mistakes but it's not as if he was the same GM in 2005 that he was in 2009 from a drafting perspective.