Quote:
Originally Posted by Jiri Hrdina
Just a stunning failed re-build.
I thought they were on track with a starting netminder (Demko), strong centers (Petey, Horvat, Miller) and a blueline led by Hughes.
It's just all fallen apart.
It doesn't get talked about enough, but for me the mistakes started when they dealt Horvat and it's been compounding since.
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I guess the thinking at the time was they already had Pettersson and Miller who both at the time were thought of as better centers. Horvat is kind of a Kadri-like center that scores goals but isn't a puck distributor. I kind of don't have an issue with letting him go. They did get Hronek in return from the Wings for the 1st in the Horvat trade which is fair. It's everything after that where things went bad. I also don't think Tocchet was the right coach for a team at that time was pretty offensively skilled as they weren't a 2-1 type of team then. They are now and it's largely why they missed the playoffs.