Quoting: ItsBlowTime
I wish I could believe this, but if you're not a Canucks fan you don't understand. Every GM/President that Frencesco Aquillini hires is a puppet. He will only hire guys that say "we can turn this around in 2-3 years". Well it's been 10. NO matter who has the title, FA is the one pulling the strings.
We go through it everytime a Molson buys back the Habs.
Molson is forced to sell to Gillette and we draft Halak, Plekanec, Streit, Price, The Kostitsyn's ,Ememlin,Desharnais, Higgins, Mcdonugh , Subban,Pacioretty and MTL's last league leading Power Play System .
Molson is forced to sell to Bronfmans and draft Lafleur, Robinson, Gainey , Shutt, Tremblay, Risenbrough, Mondou,Wilson , Lee, Langway , Napier, Roberts, Fetisov , Acton , Nilan and Hunter were left with a 5 time stanley cup championship core .
Molson the in the 1970s rode the Bronfmans team as long as they could but got lucky with Roy being drafted and began immediate changes to build a team for him to lead .
After many key changes with a lot of Rookies with the right mix of Veterans they won a Cup as Underdogs in the Decade of Gretzky and Oilers battle of Alberta with Calgary.
Molson in 2009 wasted a good chunk of our prospect pool to acquire Gomez only for Molsons replacement for Gainey to make a bunch of costly changes to bring in his guys.
Then proceeds to trade and strip MTL's last Point Per Game playoff performer of his jersey mid game in a move that eventually cost him his job as management at any level outside a stint in Draft Dept (fired now). Making all those big changes for nothing then re-adjusting during the 2012 lockout to build around Plekky , Desharnais, Pacioretty , Subban , Markov and Price with Emelin ,Eller, Chucky and Gally as NHL level youth pieces to build on for Marc Bergavin the new GM .
Molson scrapped Gainey's build for Gauthiers which was scapped less then 2 years later for Bergavin's
MB now had 2 GM's worth of contracts to deal with from Moen to Gionta it wasnt easy for a New GM at any level to take on such burdens while learning a new job.
So believe me when i say MTL fans have empathy truly.
But what you've got to hope for is a GM like Hughes who found a way to balance things.
I mean who thought Dadanov would get Gurianov ? Or MTL would get a 1st to take Monahan who might have played himself into an extension in MTL.
I mean he moved Petry's contract for a profit as we now got the younger better defensman on the better contract and teams are calling as he doesnt fit into our rebuild timeline wise.
IF you're GM isnt a hustler who has a guy like Gorton completely overhauling the system like Linden tried to , then you're teams boned.
But remember anytime you think your GM is to hands on , MTL is the only NHL team that has its owner in a Management Role and only the 2nd time in MTL History it happened.
After his 3rd GM and so many missed playoffs Molson Breweries was putting on pressure during the pandemic until MTL won the playin series earning a playoff spot after they were technically eliminated. It bought Molson some time hence the true effort this time and he's fading into the background unlike previous years.