I feel like he deserved better than this. A president's trophy, one cup, and damn near another. Tough crowd I guess....
They were trending downwards:
- lost in finals
- lost in 2nd round
- didn't make POs
One of the reasons their stays in the POs became shorter & shorter is that injuries & age-regression were not adequately replenished on the roster by talent & youth.
Too many poor drafts forced the ChiaPet to panic by re-signing his vets to overly-generous contracts, and to trade away high-pick draft capital for fringe vets who
rarely made a difference and were all sooner or later released or traded-away themselves. The last solid trade for a vet was the one for Mark Recchi, IIRC.
The result has become an older core only a couple of whom (Bergeron, Rask, et.al.) are earning their salaries, while others are untradable, and 25% of the roster
doesn't belong on a Cup contender in any capacity.
The ChiaPet might not have made all of those poor draft picks himself, but he hired the ones who made all of the others. Pasternak looks like he might become a
top-9, possibly top-6, RW capable of partly replenishing the transitional & shooting skills of Seguin, the trading of whom was a franchise-altering decision.
But the drafting of Subban was inexcusable unless he is moved for a top-6 RW or top-4 Dman to replace Seidenberg/Chara…which the ChiaPet should've done
with that pick anyway.
Think of it like this: Bob Kraft fired Booby Grier after 3 seasons ended with results nearly identical to those of the Bs' last 3 seasons. Let's hope that Charlie & Cam
can hit the jackpot with their next hire in somewhat similar fashion to how Kraft hit it with his next one.
