Quoting: TanSor
Yeah I don't live in the cities anymore so I don't own season tickets, but I can see why season ticket holders would be upset. Fenton seems to not understand that players are assets, and you have to seek to maximize that asset in a trade. Even though I like what we saw from Fiala, that trade should have at least come with the Florida 3rd Nashville owns, or another player like Ryan Hartman. Fiala looks like he could be a great player, but we did not maximize Granlund's trade value. The Rask trade was just awful, I don't think Fenton scouted him at all which is plain dumb. You don't trade away players willy nilly without knowing what you might potentially be getting in return. The Coyle trade looks great for now. Zucker trade I probably would have been OK with as an initial reaction, but the more I think about it the more I'm glad we didn't do it. Apparently we tried to trade Zucker for Lindholm this offseason (per Russo) which in hindsight would have been a perfect move for us...
The drive (4 hrs 1-way), 87p previous season team, Vanek buyout, and Staal signing (I wasn't too keen on it at the time) was just too much for me to pay the $7k+ that I was for 2 season tix. I stuck it out through the next season, but was finding reasons not to make the trip.
I don't think Fenton did a lot of scouting of Rask, but did have to the Wild's pro scouts, looking at him. After that trade debacle how often did you see the Wild's pro scouts showing up on the "who is scouting who" reports? I do think he realized the Wild's scouts weren't good at their jobs and went with his own gut on the guys with NSH ties and Donato.
I do think Fenton is learning as he goes. Look at how people on these boards make their first few teams. They make a lot of hockey trade type of deals, not worrying about draft picks to even it out perfectly valuewise.
I'm guilty of it myself even now, and I've been here awhile. I try to get players/trades that are close in value and ignore the picks to even it out. I do it partially to avoid the it should be a 5th going the other way arguments and just get to the meat and potatoes of a trade to see what people think. After the the middle of the 2nd round I also don't care about random mystery box of a draft pick. I'm also not getting paid the money a NHL GM is to get it right.