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Originally Posted by bluejays
Treliving definitely had pluses. But his legacy is always going to be the Gaudreau walk away, the subsequent Tkachuk deal, and the further long term signing Huberdeau. He was alright in building the team to that point but f, at the end he screwed the team over just to save face. Hated the Huberdeau signing the moment it happened as well as the Kadri fiasco. Hoping at some point the Kadri deal can right itself through a value deal once a year or two pass by and his contract becomes reasonable, but we're stuck with Huberdeau for eternity. And if you hear the "insiders" talk that's the contract that is holding up ownership from a full rebuild. I don't agree with ownerships logic if that's the situation but man, nothing was good from the start with what they were trying to do with signing vets to 8 year deals. Could've been much worse if they didn't get lucky from situations changing while those offers were out there.
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I don't think he screwed the team over just to save face, he was just a mediocre GM who fell in love with other team's players and didn't learn his lesson. The Troy Brouwer acquisition is probably what started everything. If he wasn't such a flop here, then James Neal never would've been targetted.
Without James Neal's horrendous contract and by extension Lucic's equally terrible contract on the books, Brad would've had more than enough to re-sign Tkachuk to a long term deal as well as Gaudreau's extension back in
2021. Obviously, both didn't happen and Treliving ultimately tripled down with Huberdeau's gargantuan deal.
If there's a lesson to be learned here, which I know provides very little solace, it's that you don't build through free agency especially if you have weak talent evaluation. The league is just too competitive, it's too risky, mistakes can happen and the butterfly effect of just 1 or 2 albatrosses can change absolutely everything.