I know it's been resolved since but LOL Jason Botterill is a cap genius or so we were told when he was hired in Buffalo
While I'm piling on Jason Botterill, he let Brandon Hagel (and Colin Blackwell) walk for NOTHING. They wouldn't do much for the overall state of the Sabres now but I am still salty about it
i get that not every single player Seattle chose could have resulted in a side deal or something like that, but the guy they picked from Columbus literally didn't result in anything for them and has since been resigned by Columbus. you would have to think something could have been done with another selection from them (trade, keep, etc.) and i'm assuming the same thing happens (happened?) with Quenneville from Chicago
And for the Capitals they could have taken Vanecek or Dillon. They took Vanacek. The Caps traded Dillon to WPG for 2 2nd round picks. They used one of those 2nd round picks to trade Seattle for Vanacek back. Why didn't Seattle just take Dillon?! They could have had 2 2nd round picks but now they get one second round pick instead and lost a player. Just baffling how bad they did in that draft.
More and more, I think francis was no different than any of the other hockey bro gms. If you look at what the canes did since he left, there was really no big changes at all (this season maybe a question mark), they got better.
I’m shocked at how decent the team still looks even though they did absolutely nothing to help themselves for the future (not saying the present is great either)
There were a bunch of guys available that could help the team contribute now, didn’t have a ton of term, and easily could’ve been flipped for a decent returns down the line. Really bizarre stuff