I have taken some time to reflect upon my thoughts on the team losing its GM. Yesterday was disappointing but not unexpected. The number of years and the inconsistency of the team over those years suggests that perhaps a different vision may be required. I believed that Brad was a good GM through his tenure here and learned from his mistakes over the years. However, I have warmed to the thought that there will be a different GM.
I do believe that there were some different visions for the team moving forward between the coach and the GM. There is too much smoke for something there to not exist. My disappointment is that I have more concerns with Darryl's vision than Brad's. At least with Brad, I could understand the thought process and see on paper the team that he was building. He just could never find the coach to consistently fulfill the execution of that vision.
With Darryl, I just have too many questions about how this year proceeded - the strange line combinations, the powerplay, the insistence on playing Lucic, not playing Pelletier when he seemed better than some other players, not playing some younger players when the team seemed sluggish, etc. When he has a mind to addressing these concerns, I can see Darryl's point of view. He just so rarely directly engages with the media on issues that fans are looking at with the team.
However, it seems to me that this is a great opportunity for a new GM to give a new vision to the team. The number of deals that expire next season and the season afterwards means that this team could very well be in the midst of a complete shake-up in less than a calendar year.
If the team tries to run it back and either scenario happens (they make it and lose their players in the off-season or they are terrible and sell at the deadline), we may be sitting here looking at significant outflow of players. A rebuild/retool appears to be coming up regardless of the path they take. I'm okay with that.
I would prefer that the team hire a GM to be active and make smart decisions on the upcoming expiring contracts, including trading Lindholm and Backlund if they aren't going to sign extensions this summer. I don't see a scenario where two pillars of the team enter the season without extensions, particularly if you want to compete this year.
Lastly, I want to respond to some posters saying that GM Conroy is a bad idea because he's not a tough negotiator. In my view, the marketplace like the NHL requires principled negotiators but not jerks. I think that a quality a GM requires is a near-universal appeal such that everyone in the room likes you because you are only ever dealing with 31 other franchises plus a limited pool players and their agents. To get deals done in this market place, it would be a very significant plus for the GM to be extremely likeable. I have no other information on whether Conroy is smart enough for the job, but he certainly has the experience and qualifications that he should in my view be a significant if not the leading candidate.
My only concern that arises after typing this out is that Sutter is the one who is in full control. I hope that is not the case. Sutter is a good coach (at least he can be, not sure what happened this year) but I think he's best as a person to execute the vision, not lay it out.
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