[GranteedEV]

Botterill was considered the driving force for the 2016 Penguins' championship, in which they reconstructed an aging roster with a faster, younger roster through a mix of internal propotions for guys like Sheary, Dumoulin, Rust, and Kuhnhackl, plus trades that brought in guys like Phil Kessel, Trevor Daley and Justin Schultz. He wasn't the GM of that team, so it's probably unfair to say he built that roster - Rutherford did - but pretty much everything I've come across definitely seems to suggest that he had a great amount of input into the wheeling and dealing that built that team to its final playoff form, which was a team characterized by speed in spades.

In Buffalo as GM he was dealt a pretty mixed hand. Although he inherited a few good pieces (Jack Eichel, Sam Reinhart, ROR, Oloffsson) he also inherited an ownership group that was perhaps too involved, low revenues, and some players within the organization who were essentially busts (Alex Nylander and Rasmus Ristolainen, although the latter wasn't publically considered one).

In the draft, he picked Rasmus Dahlin, Casey Middlestadt, Dylan Cozens, and Jack Quinn in the first round but maybe didn't have much success in later rounds. But how much of a team's late round success is on the actual amateur scouting department (and its budget/staff?).

What I find interesting however are the following details:

- His hiring and firing of Phil Housley as head coach for a two year span were pretty par for the course, but there's definitely some reason to think Housley might be a good coach, and might have even turned it around the next year. Even a guy like Jared Bednar didn't quite figure it out until his third year or so, and he had better roster in his second year. Perhaps more than anything, goalie Robin Lehner's mental health struggles may have been costly for Housley.

- His hiring of Ralph Kreuger ended up a disaster as Dahlin, Middlestadt, Skinner, and others essentially performed so poorly under this coach that they were labelled busts. Something a coaching change has almost immediately disproven. This coach probably cost Botterill his job singlehandedly.

- although some unexpected pretty major health issues derailed things a few years, Kyle Okposo seems to have been a pretty decent UFA signing for Buffalo. That was the same offseason Edmonton signed Lucic and Treliving signed Brouwer, for some comparison. Okposo was younger, with more upside and more offensively skilled than the other guys. Even this year he's been a decent depth player, unlike Lucic.

- His trade of Ryan O'Rielly ended up getting negative reviews, but in retrospect, it's almost unfathomable that he managed to convert ROR into a total superstar like Tage Thompson. I think this is really one of those cases where the old adage, that you can't judge a trade for five years, really shines. To have that kind of ability to find a diamond in the rough via a forced trade... that's what Brad Treliving lacks. Treliving trades Matthew Tkachuk for two older players.

Since Buffalo, he's been AGM with Seattle. They're a 100 pt team in just their second year. Luck? Maybe. I bet Botterill would trade all that luck for the same things to have gone right in 2017-18 instead, before he let Housley go and hired Krueger

Not sure what the Flames' organizational direction is, but I would like to see Jason Botterill be given the keys.