I'm slowly starting to not like Botts now, too. I used to be super high on him and would support him every step of the way. At best now, he's an average, meh GM. The promise of letting things develop and being patient is just about out. Almost 3 years now and all that's been shown is.. nothing. Out of Botterill's major developing players that should be playing a huge role right now, Mittelstadt and Thompson, they've got nothing to show. I know Tage is injured but... yikes. And there's really nothing in the pipeline aside from Cozens, maybe Pekar, going into next year that makes me confident he'll develop anyone into a significant role with the team.

If he doesn't completely gut the team this offseason, I will be calling for him to be fired. Eichel, Olofsson, Skinner, Cozens, Johansson, Reinhart, Asplund, (Maybe Thompson), Dahlin, Jokiharju, Montour, and Pilut (Maybe Risto) should be the only players from this season going into the next. Everyone else can be upgraded in some way to better fit the style of the team. 6-7 forwards to fit that need. 1-2 defenseman to fit that need. $36-ish million in cap space. This current roster cannot compete consistently.