Thorny

Savoie is a RW if not at C, which would be fine as Benson is a LW even more so than a RW pet peeve of mine sure but like, the correct config is right there lol

Agree. Even a deadline deal is no guarantee

With respect that would paint Adams in a terrible light. If he was in full awareness of the fact that we’d be better with Kulich and with VO gone, yet choosing to let the team suffer knowingly purely to ensure he breaks out well on a VO deal? Come on now

Not sure I’d include Ullmark in that. I think that falls more towards my issues with Adams in the strategic sense, in that an overpay by the prism of the moment is something I’d have deemed very necessary. But he did want to keep him and tried negotiating with him, so I’d hazard to say his evaluation of him as a player was probably pretty on the mark. He just wasn’t willing to lose a battle to win a war, when his reasonably accurate evaluation and corresponding cash was shown to nonetheless not be enough to get it done

I give him a pass for missing this year. I’m against your theory in the other thread he gets a 6th year should next year also miss. he’s also quickly approaching the point where he’ll be past being able to get proclaimed “right”. If we miss this year and make next, I hazard to say taking 5 years to make the playoffs is more along the lines of “not actively, absurdly wrong.” It shouldn’t take 5 years to make it, fact is

Adams is a good evaluator of talent, too. I’d be happy for him to make some decisions on that front especially when he’d have the evaluation high-ground in swaps with other teams as he has a front row seat to our prospects and we’d be dealing for NHL guys who everyone knows the ins and outs of

Agree. What’s the worst that can happen? We…simply continue to not win? Seems like more of the same. We aren’t risking anything. On the other hand, we rule out winning to a near certainty if we refuse to do much of anything. Being afraid we might lose something in the vague future is actively preventing us from finding winning now

Thanks for clarifying (this part isn’t snark. I think that serves as illumination for what’s coming) Fair enough. So, missing the playoffs for his first half-decade straight in office represents mulligan number 1. If he can’t make it after a full decade, I think we’d have to think of canning him

Ya, I don’t think it really jives with KA’s evaluation. I see it on twitter a lot that “how can this team be committed to winning if Kulich is in the AHL?” and while I think there are aspects that point to winning now not being priority 1, I don’t think this is one. I don’t think KA willingly plays guys who he think would make us better in a lower league: he just legitimately likely doesn’t believe them to be our best option right now. He’s not artificially causing the parts we have to amount to less standings points, willingly. I think he fields the best roster based on what we have. His approach is just exceptionally patient, both in timeline to find success and desire to fortify the roster, and he doesn’t lose on value in a vacuum when making deals. But I do think he maximizes what he has, once we have it, he just doesn’t maximize what we get

So Adams gets a reprieve for a miss this year AND next? Or “2 fails” as in he can fail this year but a hypothetical fail number 2, next year, has him out?

Also for the record, the Mittelstadt and Thompson panned out, so pay no attention to the multitude of guys who did not, screw it, im holding on to every single young player I have (sorry Josh Bloom) is probably exactly how KA is thinking Those guys proved the exception, now every single player is going to get that chance, regardless of our record in the interim Failing to win now is a much more tolerable offence than a player leaving here and going on to do good things someone else. Losing, that we can stomach

Mittelstadt also had a significantly higher pedigree and Thompson has special god given physical gifts Like being 6’6

Not for failing on that expectation once. But you know how the old saying goes “fool me once, shame on..shame on..you..? Point is, we can’t get fooled again.” If we miss next year on that expectation again, we’d be fools to let him get a 6th season imo

Ok I guess he’s not very impressive then / thread

some food for thought for those who expect KA feels any pressure to act - - - Candidly, as I always try to be, personal disenfranchisement with the fanbase as well as…the franchise certainly makes it more difficult to follow along

Quinn Hughes has THIRTY points already

Eagles are overrated

Kulich and Rosen were both ranked 21 in consolidation and 18 by McKenzie? Kinda wild. How do you get the average rankings?

Recency bias imo, those guys were touted a lot in their younger days

So, trying to figure out what to do with the guy who hasn’t managed to lock down a consistent role. Seems about right

Agree. I come into these discussions a lot with my initial instinct being “look his production is literally replacement level maybe we should replace him” but then when the discussion turns to who and we hear the endless parade of usual suspect rookies, because that’s the sole mode KA fitted the team with of supplementing the roster, it’s just like…why bother lol If we are just going to get even younger by replacing him, I’d rather have Krebs

He ain’t going to Rochester, people way, way too many beyond blue and gold vids of him firing up the locker room. He’s a core player under the Adams regime no doubt there’s an internal evaluation of him that’s higher that we’d mark it and the only way Krebs isn’t on the roster is if someone eclipses that value in a deal, straight up

I know you didn’t. To me you described slightly below average that’s why I used that term haha

Kulich isn’t the improvement droid we are looking for but sure, try it

I agree with you but he isn’t going to do that. There’s what we would do, and the timeline for success we believe to be fair, and then the other side of the equation is KA’s plan and the timeline he has been granted from on high I’ll evaluate based on my criteria ie We need to make the playoffs this season and within that context I agree, the time to be proactive is now But I’m beginning to think KA’s plan is exceptionally rigid in that the now won’t ever be prioritized before the long term. I think the job is his as long as we wants it and maintains the budgetary constraints Pegula wants. The attendance has been the attendance and it hasn’t made any difference in the urgency we’ve seen so I believe the proof is in the pudding