Chris18 wrote:
Did anyone on the planet think the Blues' pick would go from 1st to 31st??? Or even 21-31? No way. That turn around is just amazing. I'm not saying Botterill is doing a good job, but nobody could have foreseen that type of change in the pick.
Oh, I get it, there's no way anyone could have guessed the deal would end up being THIS lopsided (I mean, this has to be the worst trade in franchise history now) but even when it happened I was astonished how little Buffalo was asking for in return for an elite-level two-way center. There isn't a single, solitary player like Ryan O'Reilly in the league, maybe not ever before in hockey history. He's not only dominates play, has elite hockey/positional sense, and sports a mean one-timer and can play in all situations, he never, EVER takes penalties. In a re-draft he goes top five, maybe third overall before Duchene. And this was all before he earned Conn Smythe and Stanley Cup honors. It was still a horrible deal at the time, I don't give a shit what he said in an interview after the season. Botterill should have at the very least held out for one of St. Louis's better prospects. Kyrou or Thomas still wouldn't have been nearly enough (maybe Bokk would have made it at least palatable) but to settle for Tage goddamn Thompson, a guy who may not even be a worthwhile grinder at the NHL level, is inexcusable. And I'll say it again, he even did Armstrong the kindness of absorbing not one but TWO bad contracts in order to make the salaries work!!!! How the hell do you settle for a measly first-rounder and first-round bust for all that!?!?
No. No excuses, even if Pegula and Pegula were screaming in his face. And this is not the first time Botterill has botched things. Again, he ain't the main problem, but he's still a bad GM. Say what you will about Mike Harrington, but he argued in a recent column that the Pegulas need to save the Sabres from themselves and bring in a John Davidson-type to run the business end of things, because they're clearly not able to do so. They should just focus on what they do best--aiding corrupt universities who cover up the enablement of child molesters.