But, I’ve been in
enough fantasy hockey pools to know how bad GMs behave.
Matthias had five
points in the two games before he was traded. I noticed that while scanning the
Panthers’ box score for Huberdeau points. I was intrigued too. Should I pick
this guy up for my Yahoo league? I looked at his ‘Hockeydb’ page and realized
this was an anomaly. He has never scored 30 points in a professional hockey
season. He doesn’t have 20 points yet this season. He isn’t a consistent scoring
threat. But even professional GMs are susceptible to fantastic possibilities
based on common narratives and small sample sizes.
Matthias was a second
round pick by Detroit. They have a wonderful draft record. Everyone knows about
their late round European picks Zetterberg and Datsyuk that became superstars. Matthias
can score in bunches when given the opportunity, apparently. I can imagine a GM
building the narrative and convincing himself he has uncovered something
special. The truth is that most draft picks break upon the shores of
professional hockey, scattered as it is with the athletic bodies of one thousand
other top picks. Matthias navigated that journey from prospect to regular
player. That makes him special. But it doesn’t mean he’s exceptional anymore. Tom
Sestito was a special player in the OHL. He’s not exactly an NHL superstar.
Everyone in the NHL is capable of bursts of productivity if given the
chance—John Scott notwithstanding. That’s why GMs look at past performance. It
matters to most, but not Mike Gillis. Why?
The simple, obvious
and unhelpful reason is because Mike Gillis is bad at his job.
More specifically,
Mike Gillis still behaves like someone who has never been a GM before. This is
his first GM job, but he is hardly a rookie. Every GM makes mistakes. The idea
is to make less than your competitors and not repeat the same type of mistake too
often. Certainly, you don’t want your GM to make the same miscalculation two
years in a row. Gillis has traded two legitimate number one goalies for one
actual NHL player—the aforementioned third line centre Shawn Matthias. He, once
again, tried to squeeze too much out of the trade market—this year for Ryan
Kesler. As with Luongo, Gillis asked for too much at the deadline. This was the
time to cash in. Kesler is a returning Olympian who still has inexplicable
value in the league. He is an often injured, second line centre who had a great
series against Nashville once. If he was durable, and had the right situation
he could be a great second line centre. He isn’t, and he is not getting younger
or less injury prone. This was the deadline to trade him.
I understand Gillis
may have been interfered with by ownership. I get that Luongo was unhappy with
a coaching decision and that weakened Gillis’s leverage. There are always
circumstances. That’s why winning is about gaining an extra percentage or two
more than your competitors (shout-out to Jonah Keri). Most distinctions in life are fine and grey.
They become gross, black and white differences in our retellings. This is why a
team needs many assets. Saviours are rare. Most messianic hockey hopefuls are revealed
as false idols. Even the best player on a terrible team can’t win. It takes an
organization full of ready, and almost ready, team mates. The Canucks don’t
have this. Mike Gillis doesn’t get this. He still picks players like they are
trying to win single games. Perhaps Zack Kassian would help the twins from
getting pushed around by the Bruins. But Cody Hodgson will help you score more
points, win more games and gives you better odds over a larger sample size. If
anyone is going to help us win one, or two games when it counts it’s a goalie.
And Gillis seems content on shipping them out until we are left with prospects,
and career backups.
Be sure not to play
too well Eddie. Gillis is sure he can get another couple mediocre prospects or
mid round picks for you.
Well I think I agree, but if it's at 450 F for an hour won't it burn? #bridges
ReplyDeleteIf I ever build one, I'll let you know.
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