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Francis out as GM.....link

While there is a lot of uncertainty, this is one of the things that needed to happen. Lets hope its only the beginning
 
The Rask contract had to be one of the worst signings this franchise ever made.
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It ended up that way, but that contract was exactly what players with similar stats and age were getting in the timeframe. He was coming off a 48 point season at that time that deal was signed. The stats, his progression up to that point and his age all pointed to that contract being exactly what the going market rate was. That wasn't a bad signing at that time, the problem was that player from the season before that contract has completely disappeared. Trochek also signed for 6 years ($4.75 million per year) that same off season after his first 'big' season and has gotten better each of the first 2 seasons of his new deal. Rask has gotten much worse each of the 2 seasons of his new deal.

Not sure I can blame Ronnie for failing to forsee that Rask really was not very good OR would severely regress. That contract was fair and logical at the point in time it was made. Its turned into a bad deal because Rask seriously regressed, not because that contract was out of bounds for his production at that time.
 
cmaleski2 said:
It ended up that way, but that contract was exactly what players with similar stats and age were getting in the timeframe. He was coming off a 48 point season at that time that deal was signed. The stats, his progression up to that point and his age all pointed to that contract being exactly what the going market rate was. That wasn't a bad signing at that time, the problem was that player from the season before that contract has completely disappeared. Trochek also signed for 6 years ($4.75 million per year) that same off season after his first 'big' season and has gotten better each of the first 2 seasons of his new deal. Rask has gotten much worse each of the 2 seasons of his new deal.

Not sure I can blame Ronnie for failing to forsee that Rask really was not very good OR would severely regress. That contract was fair and logical at the point in time it was made. Its turned into a bad deal because Rask seriously regressed, not because that contract was out of bound for his production at that time.
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I agree, the contract seemed fair based on the player and production at that juncture, what everyone should be pissed about is where is that player today and where the hell is any resemblance of the game he played at that time...he's become softer than soft, his offensive production has gone AWOL and most nights he is damn near invisible out there. For a big man he has to, at the very least, use his body to be physical and throw some checks and get a bit dirty in front to score some goals.
 
CanadaCanes said:
I agree, the contract seemed fair based on the player and production at that juncture, what everyone should be pissed about is where is that player today and where the hell is any resemblance of the game he played at that time...he's become softer than soft, his offensive production has gone AWOL and most nights he is damn near invisible out there. For a big man he has to, at the very least, use his body to be physical and throw some checks and get a bit dirty in front to score some goals.
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Agreed all around. Sometimes I wonder if he has some sort of undiagnosed physical/neurological malady that has sapped him of all his strength. But at the time, he was trending up and looked to project to a solid 2C in my opinion.
 
Didn't he have shoulder surgery (or is my memory going) a few years back? (Was it in his contract year). I almost wonder if he came back and played soft for fear of hurting the shoulder and the regression just spiraled from there. No excuse. I still remember when we drafted Rask the word was he had 1st round skills but questionable desire. Did the injury re-ignite that issue?
 
Surprised nobody has mentioned that another Dallas team, the Cowboys, has an owner Jerry Jones who is also the GM. He's won 3 Super Bowls but he's also had a lot of down years. Maybe it's the water down there making owners want to be the GM. :)
 
Maybe these Texas guys just can't stomach sitting around watching their team flounder and go absolutely nowhere. Because that's what's happening here, year after year.
 
Who knows where this leads but if the plan was at least to be intriguing enough to get fans thinking about tickets then they've got my attention. Ron by all accounts was a great guy but as is many times the case, it's a number of things that tend to add up over time that necessitate a change:

- Darling deal: the biggest matzah ball hanging out there and it is a doozy but it's the large cherry on the top of the sundae that was already built and ready to collapse. Seems many folks are essentially pinning the entire thing on him. WRONG!!!!
- Rask deal: I get the complexity of him all the sudden playing like crap but none the less, another move that looks bad now (especially the term, 6 years, IMHO) and he's been continued to play like that for 2 years with only a minimal kick in the pants
- Player development: as others have noted on this board, we won't know if he was successful in rebuilding the checkers until some of those folks make it up here to evaluate. Still waiting on that to happen. Yes, Aho and Necas (TBD) are put out there as shining examples but in four years, you SHOULD have more to show than that. Look at the PENS as a good example of an AHL pipeline
- The crapfest of the "dual captainship" this year. I'm sure BP had input as well but that was just poor management 101

Love the talking heads from north of the border laying the line of "RF rebuilding the farm system", blah, blah, blah and "it's a mistake". They don't know jack crap about this market and it shows. As JB says, time will tell if all this amounts to anything but I think it's a least a step in the right direction and it sure as heck will make this summer interesting for the first time in a long time.
 
HurryCanes said:
- Darling deal: the biggest matzah ball hanging out there and it is a doozy but it's the large cherry on the top of the sundae that was already built and ready to collapse. Seems many folks are essentially pinning the entire thing on him. WRONG!!!!
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I'm a little confused. Is it a matzoh ball or a cherry?
 
Re: Rask

I think we are short-selling Rask's trade value. Rask is a serviceable NHL player that many teams would take, particularly as a component of a larger trade.

His numbers are actually not bad this season. Only his shots are way down, which could easily be simple deployment being different this wacky season. He's +2, blocks, hits, minutes, all numbers pretty familiar ones to him except assists are also a bit down. Again, that could be deployment.

That near 55% face off win percentage alone will make some teams salivate. We're spoiled with all the Brind'Amour masters program grads here.

Stats

He's just a bad match for what this team needs. But his contract was and is still fair, despite an apparent regression this season in particular. That will all be rationalized away by the acquiring party as being just silly us.

After all, we have plenty of Rask's that are frankly better than Rask. We need some other kind of player instead.

So I'm just marking him down for the great upheaval this off-season.
 
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Boardwork said:
What is everyone's take on the noise about Peters winning the power struggle
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I think that's nonsense, but never underestimate Peter's ability to speak super confidently about his abilities (he certainly impressed Ronnie when he was hired). Despite that, I think he'll be gone in the off-season. There's really no need to make a coaching change right now - it's too late to do much with this current lineup - and you want to give the new guy a fresh start.
 
For those that think Peters won something, facts don't lie and Dundon does not appear to be stupid. Name another coach in the NHL that has survived 4 straight seasons of missing the playoffs? The last 3 seasons don't show any measurable improvement or gains for this team. There is no way he can survive this season as the team is going to struggle to match the 86 or 87 points from the past two years.
 
There will several firings next month. Hang on......


Francis was the first GM/coach firing this season. Won't be the last. All indications are that the Blackhawks plan to clear house.
 
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ive been extremely reluctant to bash BP, but that 2nd period the other night really is it for me. Total lack of preparedness for what should have been the obvious. You play Minny pretty evenly in their barn period 1, you gotta know they're coming out harder for session 2. And if that conversation did occur in the visitors locker room, clearly no one listened.
 
brassbonanza said:
ive been extremely reluctant to bash BP, but that 2nd period the other night really is it for me. Total lack of preparedness for what should have been the obvious. You play Minny pretty evenly in their barn period 1, you gotta know they're coming out harder for session 2. And if that conversation did occur in the visitors locker room, clearly no one listened.
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Also, with the timeout--did he say anything? It looked like the players just sat on the bench, shellshocked, with no one talking. Maybe it was the camera angles, but I just thought of Lavi, gum in hand, going at it
 
Boardwork said:
Also, with the timeout--did he say anything? It looked like the players just sat on the bench, shellshocked, with no one talking. Maybe it was the camera angles, but I just thought of Lavi, gum in hand, going at it
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Not a fair comparison. Lavi was and still is king of the momentum swinging timeout.
 
So who exactly is involved in the new GM hunt? Is Tom Dundon just going to ask for resumes and do interviews and pick a guy? What hockey expert is going to be helping Dundon with this? Is Karmanos going to be involved? Waddell? FmrGMRF? Any of the pile of assistant GMs we employ?

I almost sense that there is already a plan here and the new GM(and his coach) are just waiting to be officially made available. Who exactly has Dundon's ear as a hockey expert at the moment if RF doesn't?
 
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