Back to being full-on scared on PC’s asset management skills/philosophy. My disgust over the Hall trade has been somewhat mitigated this summer given:

– the Caggiula add,
– the Benning add,
– how he handled the Gryba situation (with much admired patience),
– how he handled the draft (not ceding to Columbus machinations)

and that we really, really, needed a RHD and I am a big fan of Larsson.

Dumping Yak like this is not a win for us. St. Louis will put Yak with offensive minded players and he will succeed, perhaps even to mid-star level status – this could happen even this year.

The only plus in the Russell signing is that it is for one year only and he could have decent value at the trade deadline if we don’t make the play-offs.

Klefbom-Larsson
Sekera-Fayne
Davidson-Gryba
Nurse/Reinhart – Benning

is a fine starting 6 with 3 fills – not great but certainly better than anything this team has seen in ages.

I do not see how Russell will improve this group – he is certainly worse than any of the 3 lefties and being a lefty on the right side it is entirely arguable that it would be a saw-off for him to be that much better than Fayne or Gryba.

Latching Yak onto MacDavid and/or Draisaitl for the year was the right play to make to maximize the asset that was Yak.

St. Louis will do this and they will get far more out of Yak than we ever will.

Oilers lost some of their future last night (trading Yak to fill a hole or keeping because he fills that hole and they want to keep him). Not good.

With Versteeg and Russell it is obvious that PC is burning chips to make the play-offs THIS year no matter what.

Also bad asset management long term. This team was on track to make the playoffs next year (imo) regardless of this year.

What else will PC firesale to fit a short-term agenda. Scares the hell out of me to tell you the truth.