What I would have done Pt 2

I think you made the team worse honestly.

Francis knew that there would be a LOT of high end talent hitting the market. He made some of those controversial selections where there were better players available, so he could have cap room for 1. Resigning RFA’s and 2. Signing UFA’s off the market. If Francis had done this he would have very little cap room, which could have effected maybe a Grubauer or Shwartz signing. Francis was also going with players he knew were extremely hard workers for a couple of picks. The goal for Francis was never to immediately spend to the cap. That is what Vegas did and look where they are now. They are in cap hell, but they are still one of the best teams in the league. Francis had permission to spend to the cap, but he didn’t do that so he would be able to sign the big fish in the market. I guarantee you that Seattle will be a competitive contender, it just probably won’t be this season. Fans don’t have the inside information that GMs have, and they don’t have the pressure to make a team good. What would you rather have? A team that is good now but will have to rebuild sooner, or a team that is not as good now, but will be extremely good a couple years down the road and won’t have to rebuild until a lot later? Francis is playing the long game, but he is playing to ultimately win. Have some faith in him. In Ron we trust.

I don’t disagree with most of your points cause I think you’re right to a large extent. I just think some of their picks were considerable asset mismanagement. I think having the cap and expecting playing the long game is smart, but even with that in mind, you still need to pick good players over guys like Bayreuther, Quenneville and MacDermid. I’m not suggesting this should have been their opening night roster, but they could have taken a lot of the guys still here like Domi, McCann, Jarnkrok etc. and traded them for assets. Same thing with the defensemen. Except now instead of having like 7 LHD, they would have a pretty even balance (without the terrible Oleksiak contract). I don’t think Francis did a terrible job, but if the goal isn’t to compete this year anyway, why wouldn’t you select and trade away valuable assets then take on cap dumps for a year instead of squandering the opportunity to do so for no apparent reason? I’m just not sure I get what he’s doing right now. Plus most of the players I took have short term as well so Seattle wouldn’t be locked into any really bad contracts.

Macdermid has already been flipped. If I’m being honest, I don’t agree with all of the picks that were made. There were definitely better and more valuable players available from certain teams. You mentioned Domi. Yes I think Domi should have been selected, and then after that Francis could decide whether or not to flip him for picks. Francis is one of the smartest players ever to play the game, and that hs translated over into his time being a GM. The Canes would not be where they are right now, and would not have made that amazing run to the CF in 2019, if it weren’t for how Francis had built that team. You just have to have faith in what he is doing.