On "He Who Shall No Longer be Mentioned"

Today, Puck Daddy has a post about the top ten GMs of the past decade. No, "He Who Shall No Longer be Mentioned" is not truly part of the list, but Wysh gives us this comment while discussing his number 10 pick:

"This could have easily been David Poile of the Nashville Predators or Doug Risebrough of the Minnesota Wild, managing small payrolls and keeping their expansion franchises competitive for most of the decade."

If by "keeping them competitive" you mean that "He Who Shall No Longer be Mentioned" traded away draft picks like they were toilet paper and left the prospect cupboard completely bare, allowing for absolutely no future improvement.

Or maybe it means alienating the only true star the franchise has ever seen. 

Or perhaps it is the misuse of the few prospects they did have, such as Colton Gilles and James Sheppard. Gilles' free agent clock is now ticking as he played too many games and Sheppard can't go down to the AHL without waivers, making it impossible to give him the minutes and responsibility he needs to progress, and likely costing him his career in Minnesota at some point in the near future.

Or perhaps "keeping them competitive" means managing the team into infinite mediocrity by bringing in mediocre free agents and forcing a great (although sour puss) coach to work a defensive system that could have put a tweaker to sleep.

Or perhaps it was the trade for Crazy Chris Simon for a sixth round pick at the deadline, so Simon could play in what, six games?

Sure, they made the playoffs. Sure, they even won a division title. Know what they didn't do? Get better. Ever. They got lucky run to go to the conference finals, and after that, nothing. "Keeping them competitive" makes me think of how retail stores say their prices are "competitive," which of course, means they are exactly the same as everyone else. Fans don't want "competitive." They want winners.

"He Who Shall No Longer be Mentioned" is not a winner. No team he has ever been the GM of has gotten better in his time there. Ask the Flames. The Wild are hamstrung for the foreseeable future while Chuck Fletcher first has to undo the damage caused by "He Who Shall No Longer be Mentioned" before he can then make the team better.

I likely should not take too much offense to the one obscure line in an otherwise very good post from Wysh, but anytime "He Who Shall No Longer be Mentioned" is given any kind of credit for anything, it makes my stomach turn.

-Buddha