Unfortunately we have an owner who couldn't give 3 craps about the sport. As stated above its all about the money and as long as the team is making it, that is all that matters. Fortunately they believe to make money, you have to put it back into the team, which ownership has been great at. Choosing the right people to run this team is the problem. It is time for Luc to go, his record is pathetic, there is no road this team has a chance to win a Stanley Cup and his latest move was bringing a GM in who was in retirement, PLEASE!!
Getting Panarin was not going to put us over the top by any means, yet we gave up our best prospect on a team that currently has to have one of the worst farm systems in the league, except for goaltending. Yes the Reign lead their division, but are there any players that can really crack an NHL lineup? I think NOT. I see people trying to say what a great deal it was and that Greentree wasn't really that good, trying to justify the deal, for which I call BS. Now we have a aging superstar going to take up 11-12 million a year hit on our salary cap who over the next 2 years and will be 35 years old next season. Not taking anything away from Panarin, who has looking good on the scoreboard, but its not equating in the win column.
The decision to stay with Hiller was ridiculous, it is obvious he is a coach who did not believe in young players and he almost single handedly put Clarke's career in the toilet and got him traded and I will be interested to see how Byfield starts playing without the Hiller handcuffs.
This team needs to find a way to get in young high talent players away from the draft, this may be taking shots on other teams rejects, many times a change of scenery or coaching can be the difference. I think we have some pretty good ex players manning our development department. Just curious would you have given up a 6th round pick for Lukas Reichel former 17th overall pick in 2020 and only 23 years old like the Boston Bruins did? When was the last 6th round pick we had make an impact? These type of players are out there, get the scouting and development departs together and go find a couple