I'm not surprised he got the boot.
He isn't the worst GM of all time or anything, but he is just bad.

But to be fair, nobody wants to stay and play there either so what can you do?

FWIW, the "no one wants to stay" narrative has been fueled less by disdain for the organization, and more for wanting to avoid burying the team with really bad contracts. I actually think he didn't get enough credit for avoiding those landmines. Gudbranson is also overpaid, but he is strangely bouncing back.

He did a lot to build the team up to what it was during the Torts run, including the fantastic tri-fecta of absolute fleecings of CHI.

Drafts are, idk...kind of a crap shoot. Unless we are talking about a GM going full mutiny on their draft-board/scouting department, hindisight is always 20/20. Lest we forget the Dubois draft and subsequent dragging he got. The expansion draft hurt, but I'd be curious for someone to point out to me where in 2017 any draftniks foresaw Karlsson going from a 25-point 3C/4C to scoring 43 goals on a team absolutely everyone agreed was going to make it to the Finals, led by top-line center Vadim Shipachyov. Maybe we find out one day that Jason Robertson was Jarmo's #1 choice the subsequent draft, but it just as easily and reasonably could have been Klim Koston. We still ended up with Tex, which aint nothing of a consolation prize.

He inherited a bad team in 2013 that quickly overperformed, and put a damper on any true rebuild hopes. He was aggressive to improve that team, and it quickly fell on its face before Torts came in and turned things around for a few years.

I'll give you credit on the Bjorkstrand trade. I still feel there could have been a way to make it work.

He wasn't bad. Wasn't great either, but it was time.

Yeah that is what I meant. Because if he was good he probably stay. But what I meant was he wasn't awful, but a tough market to succeed in.

we never would have selected otter in that 2017 draft. we still had bob firmly under control, had korpi in the system, and had just drafted elvis a couple seasons prior. would never have taken a goalie in the first round. keeping #24 that season would have got us probably Morgan Frost, because we were hunting center prospects at the time. big whoop.

if you undo the bjorkstrand trade, you either lose johnny gaudreau or you lose adam fantilli. the price for cap dumps that year was high and it would have cost us the 2024 first to dump nyquist or voracek.

gudbranson maybe has a year too much term but we have plenty of cap space now so it doesn't even matter. his cap hit is not why we were dumping for gaudreau. he's a fine player and a good leader and the contract is fine.

I thought everyone in hockey had moved on from this and "no one wants to play for torts." I guess people will keep believing what they want though.

I mean, I get it. Team has sucked more often than not, so it's the easy narrative to latch onto.

Frankly, the beginning of the end of Jarmo's regime happened quite a bit earlier, IMO. The Babcock hire was what put things over the top.

My god, this is an all-time great post and recap of Jarmo's tenure. With links!

Thank you for this. I'm bookmarking it.

I had a lot of feelings that needed out.