Is Anyone Else Starting To Question Holmgren?

I’m saying if he does what I’m guessing that I’ll be pissed.

Yeah I’m not ready to question him just yet. I am a little baffled by a few things, but I’ve come to terms with almost everything he’s done so far this off season. I like the players on our roster now, I just am not happy with some of the contracts. I think we could have gotten Coburn for a little less, same with Shelley. Meszaros is a great pick up, but I think he is a little much, but we didn’t give him that contract so not our fault. The only signing I question is Leighton. It is a good market to sign a goalie. We could have gotten a better option for the price. Even if we waited and Leighton was still around he would have been about 500K less, so we would have more cap space now. I am not going to question the Zherdev contract until I find out the amount and terms. If it’s more than 2 or 3M per season then I’ll flip. I’d rather have Gagne who is a great two way player and I feel is going to have a great redemption season this year if he starts it with the Orange and Black.

My problem is with the management of the cap. Unfortunately where we are now (even before Zherdev) we are going to have to ship a big contract out. All fingers point towards Carter or Gagne, Gagne being the more likely candidate from all the talks and him waiving his NTC. Depending on who we get back and how much the Zherdev contract is, we will either improve the team nicely and fill all the holes we need. Or Zherdev will be overpriced and we would have shipped Gagne away and be right against the cap still and not be able to improve goaltending, and that will make me upset. This is speculation though, and after everything is done, all trades are finalized, and all signings are done and the season begins, we can then determine if we are going to question Homer or see all the moves he made improved this team.

IMO I think after everything is done we will have a better team. Homer has had good off seasons so far. His first off season he completely retooled the team and we made a run to the ECF’s. I loved all of the moves he made (including the deadline deals with Forsberg and getting Biron), and all of them turned out to really benefit us. The next season, even without a lot of cap space he filled some spots and we were decent. Last season again not a lot of cap space, but we got Pronger, Lappy, Betts, Emery (who would have had a great season if he didn’t get injured), and Boosh. His off season record I feel has been pretty good so I won’t call for his head until after everything is said and done and our worst fears our realized.

Although I’ve openly expressed my, erm, distaste at Homer’s moves this off-season, I’m going to hold off from making my final judgement until he’s done.

Disclaimer: All bets are off if/when Gagne is traded.

I agree with many above. I share the frustration of those who, like myself, aren’t able to divine what Homer’s master plan seems to be, but I’m also willing to see how his maneuvering finishes before criticizing (or praising) it.

I do think Plan A going into the postseason was to sign Nabokov or someone like him. When those goaltenders and/or their agents were too greedy in their discussions with Homer, he immediately went with Plan B, which was to upgrade and solidify the defense and re-sign Leighton. Despite the pessimism of many here, Leights with an improved defense is, IMHO, quite a workable option.

I’m much more mystified what he is doing with our forwards than with his moves with those behind the forwards. I don’t see the structure of an overall plan – I see what seems like throwing darts at a dartboard. Still, I’m willing to wait until he’s finished before passing ultimate judgement. Of course, the real proof of his moves will appear, or not, when the regular season begins.

Me thinks that this is far from over.

But, as a lot of people here have gotten at, I’m still willing to call him a genius depending on what happens as we progress. You can’t get away from the timing of Leigths contract, it was a bad move to make before the market was revealed. The Shelley signing, to me, isn’t going to win this team a championship, and I feel the team would be just as effective signing any other forth liner for half the price (remind me again who was Chicago’s big bad fighter last year?). But, even with those two decisions, Holgrem still has a chance to make this team great. Depending on the $ amount of Zherdev, and what happens with the Gagne move, I could be saying, wow Homer, you had an awesome offseason.

I liked the O’Donnell signing, and the Meszaros trade, sure there were less expensive options out there, but I’m not as opposed to it as most (especially b/c I think he can have a huge impact on the second PP unit).

So, like I said, he could be the man after all is said and done (though I stick by always calling him out on the two mistakes I felt he made so far), we just all have to wait and see. One thing is for sure, he has made this interesting.

“Is Anyone Else Starting To Question Holmgren?” Since the day he was named GM. A perfect example of a company guy who was the last man standing at the end of another unsuccessful regime.
As for Gagne it is time to move on if you can.

He did what he had to do to bring us back to relevance. Personally, I’d rather make the playoffs every year than be the worst team in the league for several seasons in order to stockpile high draft picks (ala Pittsburgh, Chicago and Washington). Under his tenure we’ve made the ECF twice, and came within two games of winning a Stanley Cup. Most of his moves have worked out so far (no one could have seen that Emery injury coming) and he’s managed to improve the team every offseason despite being right up against the cap. I say have faith in him until we start routinely missing the playoffs.