First, I wouldn't blame management for trying to ice the best team possible, that's always been the direction of the owners. I'll blame Treliving for lots, but not for keeping Gaudreau this season. This season was also the year to go for it with Gaudreau, Tkachuk and Lindholm making so little compared to what they should be on the "free market". Plus they probably hoped that Monahan's surgery got him back to healthy, they were obviously surprised to find out that Monahan was hiding another hip injury for most of the season.
Second, GM have short shelf lives when they go into a rebuild. It takes very strong commitment from owners, which he would never get, so even if it wasn't the direction of owner to try and win this year, it was still in his best interest. It's why we do see massive UFA contracts because GM's assume by the end of Lucic's 7 year contract that the GM isn't on the team anyways when it becomes an albatross (just with Lucic and Neal the reaching of the albatross level was almost instantly).
The bigger problem I have would be the removal of draft picks, like the 1st this year, if they didn't have a concrete plan with Gaudreau and Tkachuk. But the biggest would be if Gaudreau leaves and they still try to ice a competitive team. Just don't. Take your licks and move on, two or three years of clearing house and rebuilding through the draft before going after sought after UFAs would be far better in the long-term.
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