Joined: Sep. 2018
Posts: 2,339
Likes: 2,087
Lots to unpack here:
"Fans are emotional with short memories, but Jarmo has been a good GM. He was the first and only GM to build a winning and competitive team in Columbus, which I believe is always going to be an extremely hard thing to do in a city that doesn't have a great hockey culture and is not the most desirable place to play."
He's the first GM in team history to build a respectable team, I'd hardly call 1 playoff series win a winning team, and a career 409-360-97 with a 0.528 points percentage is...technically competitive? 7 winning seasons in 12 isn't stellar, but it's not bad. He's certainly been the best GM in team history, but that doesn't mean he's the right GM for the team now. He arguably bought hard when the team wasn't fully ready in 2019, and his moves since can be directly attributed to some of the team's biggest flaws (Provorov, Peeke, Elvis contract, Severson contract, Gudbranson, even back to the Wild Bill expansion draft loss, etc.).
"When he tore the team down to rebuild, he built up a top-3 prospect pool in the league within three years. I'm not sure what else you want from a GM. The losing has been tough, but he's done exactly what he should. It sucks that he and JD got fooled by Babcock, but going for a proven, experienced coach was still the right idea. Next year should be their last chance. If they aren't playing around .500 with a shot at the playoffs, then you fire Jarmo mid-season and bring in a new guy."
Any GM in the league can build a top-3 prospect pool in the league when you just make the picks that fall into your lap and have 5 top-15 picks and 3 top-6 picks in 3 years. I'll give him credit for scouting, drafting, and getting quality back in trades where he's the seller. He gets no credit from me on his poor management of young players, RFA contract negotiations, evaluation of NHL talent, UFA signings, trades where he's buying on NHL players, or critically hiring coaching staff.
Jarmo and JD are responsible for the only playoff-winning team in history, and are also directly responsible for being one of if not the worst run franchise in the sport right now. If this many significant players are having both performance issues and management complaints, it's on management.
There were a half-dozen better coaching hires this offseason, and 3 years ago when they hired Larsen, and years earlier when they hired Torts. They're set on getting guys with a very specific coaching style that just has mediocre results at best and catastrophic results at worst. He and JD have created a culture of failure, mediocrity, and dysfunction, and we have to strip it down now before it continues to fester. If we'd seen any progress this year, maybe you argue they deserve a shot next year. But we haven't, it's the same arguments this year as last year, it's time for them to go.
Completely aside from all on-ice issues, it's time for a massive culture change. IMO, fire Jarmo, fire JD, trade Boone, and go from there. PV I don't mind keeping through next season as a "prove you weren't the issue" deal, but something is rotten to the core here.