So, for years after Jimmy, the boys were pretty shit at drafting… we’d have a few hits… but far more misses. At the same time, they’d try to patch things up by signing overpriced names.
Sometime in the 2010s, they simultaneously got far better at drafting, and extremely suspicious of other team’s players. This got them from being perennial ‘water-treaders’ to quite a few years of ‘one of the most talented rosters’.
In the last couple of years, they’ve demonstrated that they are ‘thawing’ on acquiring other team’s players. I think the peak is obviously the Gilly and Cooks moves this offseason.
I think they’re still ‘early stage‘/relatively inexperienced with being skilled at mid-season moves and/or judging trade value.
Growing up as a hockey fan (where in-season trades have been around since before I was born, and the - very late in the season - trade deadline is an event almost on par with the draft), I’d love to see them become as skilled at trading as they are at drafting. There are lots of opportunities to find value, which is something that I think they should be able to do.
Right now, a handful of teams seem to have a nose for it (KC, LAR, SF, PHI, though still nowhere near a half-way competent hockey team)… but if the boys got good here, they’d still be among the early movers, and if they kept going, there’s definitely room to beat the top teams.
So, for years after Jimmy, the boys were pretty shit at drafting… we’d have a few hits… but far more misses. At the same time, they’d try to patch things up by signing overpriced names.
Sometime in the 2010s, they simultaneously got far better at drafting, and extremely suspicious of other team’s players. This got them from being perennial ‘water-treaders’ to quite a few years of ‘one of the most talented rosters’.
In the last couple of years, they’ve demonstrated that they are ‘thawing’ on acquiring other team’s players. I think the peak is obviously the Gilly and Cooks moves this offseason.
I think they’re still ‘early stage‘/relatively inexperienced with being skilled at mid-season moves and/or judging trade value.
Growing up as a hockey fan (where in-season trades have been around since before I was born, and the - very late in the season - trade deadline is an event almost on par with the draft), I’d love to see them become as skilled at trading as they are at drafting. There are lots of opportunities to find value, which is something that I think they should be able to do.
Right now, a handful of teams seem to have a nose for it (KC, LAR, SF, PHI, though still nowhere near a half-way competent hockey team)… but if the boys got good here, they’d still be among the early movers, and if they kept going, there’s definitely room to beat the top teams.