Quoting: Db1899
I don’t think Dubas sucks, he’s just extremely overrated. He’s an average GM at best. Great at drafting, but he’s made a ton of questionable moves over the last 4 seasons that old hockey men would get killed for.
Trading Kadri for Barrie and Kerfoot
Choosing to expose Jared Mccann
Trading a 1st for Nick Foligno
Trading Marchment for Malgin
Move down in the draft to get rid of Mrazek and then giving up assets for Matt Murray
I don’t think the Kadri trade can be judged too harshly. Trading a 2C that you’ve been playing on your 3rd line for a 1RD and a solid middle-six 2-way C/LW is a good trade, nobody expected Barrie to instantly go from 60pt top pair guy to 3rd pair PP specialist. Also on just the trade alone, 25+Mrazek for 38 is a good deal. I don’t like that he used the cap space on Murray (top 3 Dubas L for sure) and I’m not a fan of Minten, but that trade evaluated in isolation is a W. Also Marchment for Malgin was a nothing swap of 16th forwards, can hardly blame Dubas there, sometimes guys just bloom late elsewhere (like Verhaeghe too, he bounced around several systems).
I definitely agree that keeping Holl over McCann is indefensible and I won’t hear anything about “Holl was more valuable at the time” because he wasn’t, he was clearly overrated and carried by Muzzin whereas McCann was very good and primed for a breakout, which happened even on a bad Kraken team, and I’ve been saying all that since before it happened. 1st for Foligno rounds out top 3 bad moves.
And I would call his drafting average at best. Using half your picks on guys that will inevitably fight for exactly one roster spot (the top 6 small skill player role) is not a good strategy. He does have some good moves (Campbell trade, Bunting signing, etc.) so overall I agree he’s just an average GM. Underrated by people that want more grit, overrated by people that like 5’9” wingers that tear up the junior ranks.