So the good and the Bad.
G.G. bad - absolutely bad.
2 years of G.G. - unfathomable.
Niel and Brouwer. both were pretty much applauded at the time so what do you do?
the Hamonic trade. turned out bad but I do have one Caveat with this. I personally think this was done on the behest of ownership pushing to repeat the playoffs. I know nothing factual this is my own take.
Or team management honestly believed they had the pieces. ( talk about Bennett later) and the rise of a superstar in J.G. Either way this was an epic fail. The team was minimally a year away from looking at deals like that if not 2. BAD.
Lazar BAD giving away a 2nd round pick, see above.
The Good. Teams top players signed to very good contracts.
Change in the scouting system and evaluation. This is no small matter and we are just starting to see the results I believe, and this also comes into play later.
He is in on everything. Stone, Khadri, Bishop.
The could have beens.
This is where I find the greatest frustration.
Kadri. Would have completely changed the look of this roster I believe. done, nixed by the player, went to a rival.
Bishop deal would probably have gone a long way to solidifying our goaltending, but its goaltending so for all we know he could have come crapped out and been a huge problem and we would be in the same mess regardless.
So lets play pretend what if Hamonic had come in and had really been that steady second pair rock we were hoping for? Again for me completely changes the look of the team on paper. what if Bishop had worked out and he had given us steady to very good goaltending? again completely changes the look of the team.
So at the end of the day what can you blame on him?
I don't believe the J.G. situation is all on Tree but is having huge ramifications on the team. We have a star player that is not invested. period. I don't buy the Johnny has lost a step, or teams have figured him out crowd. He hasnt been invested since the all star break a year and a half ago and having your star player awol is not going to win you a cup.
If Tree can parlay J.G. and some other assets and get back a legitimate top six center with youth on contract or into the draft to pick one a lot of his problems go away. This is to add to Monahan and Bennett, and Backlund.
To my mind the biggest problem with the team is center depth and I think management knows it hence the Kadri trade. The biggest reason we are in this mess is Bennetts timeline and or possible failure to become a reliable top 6 center who we had hoped we drafted. Again if Bennett had become even a good not great top 6 with grit this is suddenly an ugly team at center sporting Monahan a sniper and Backlund a defensive specialist after down the middle.
No one is trading us a better center than Monahan. So again how much blame can you lay on Tree? Guys better than him you get in the top ten of a draft and no one gives them away so not sure what he could do here besides complete rebuild.
In the end I think you keep. I think he has learned his lesson on free agents.
I like what he has done with prospects.
I think a lot of his plays are pushes for the playoffs coming from owners so thats going to happen whoever you put in but again it comes with a Caveat.
What he does with J.G. Will probably be his vindication or grave marker. It will absolutly be a defining moment for this franchise. Iggy 2.0
|