Quote:
Originally Posted by GhostCookie
I couldn't agree more. Even with Gio, I don't think it was a bad choice, rather that they painted themselves into a corner with it. If the plan was tank and stock up, getting a pick and a potential prospect would be better than getting a TDL asset that underperformed last season, and would need to be good up to the TDL to be a sellable asset. If the plan was to be competitive, they left better talent unselected. Heck, they left better prospect talent unselected. I think you nailed it with the goalies, and I think that further backs up the theory that whether they were planning on competing or tanking, they obviously failed at execution.
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This. 1000x.
Ron Francis was 50% pregnant. Not all in on one direction, and left most scratching their heads.
If they wanted to go young, there were better prospects, or tradable assets (like Gio) available. That’s not to speak of the possible trade scenarios that were out there.
If they wanted to go competitive and entertaining, players like Eberle, Gio and McCann made sense, but why not Terasenko, Ryan Johanson, etc.
If they wanted to give their fans players to get attached to, their most marketable player (IMO) and Captain is Gio, a player likely? to be traded, and unlikely? to be around more than a year.
Francis had a rep in Carolina as a guy incapable of negotiating the big deal. He sat and waited on his prospects to develop. They were good prospects, but waiting too long meant that his successors enjoyed the fruit of his labor. I feel like he has sold Seattle ownership on the long game, but the problem I see is his main failure to procure any additional draft capital in the expansion draft. It’s hard to believe, without knowing, there were no opportunities to get any 2-4 round picks out of this whole process if the long game was his plan all along.