You can criticize Lou for some of his moves but you are not taking the situations into account.

Toews Trade- One of Leddy or Toews was getting traded, reportedly Trotz said he wanted Leddy and Lou trades Toews.

Tarasenko- Coming over major surgery and did not play a season for 2 years. If Lou made that trade and Tarasenko gets hurt then you are criticizing him for making the trade.

Eberle- He needed to go, he was not worth his cap anymore. Palmeri was not the right replacement but Eberle still needed to go.

And if you are going to critizie him, you should also mention what he has done well.

- Signing Pulock and Pelech to long term contracts that are probably undervalue
- Getting Pageau
- Signing Casey to a below market contract (rumored that Seattle offered $4M per year)
- Got Trotz to come over
- Moved Boychuk and Leo's contract for nothing
- Got Sorokin to come over

Toews; toews was literally elite then. Some of the best advanced stats in the league. Leddy wasnt good. and the toews return was terrible + he was cheaper, entering his prime and on a longer deal

Tarasenko: Sure I could see that but it was mostly just him trying to pry his way out of St Louis.

Eberle: Eh i guess but for nothing? seattle was not the time. AND, he shouldve waited to sign Palms

JG: He is not worth the 5x6 deal. he hasnt scored much and yea hes good for faceoffs and PK, he needs to step it up.

P and P: I agree. Thank god tho

Trotz yup

Boychuk yea and Leo shouldve never come. he was terrible
Sorokin yea


Im not saying he is like the devil but he has to prioritize the best players and not the oldest.

Lou is a moron for listening to Trotz and Trotz should have been fired on the spot for even suggesting to keep Leddy over Toews.

Eberle did not need to go, notice how when Eberle and Barzal were on the ice, most of the time was spent in the offensive zone. They had great chemistry.

Lou's best moves were the Pelech and Pulock contracts, getting Cizikas signed for 6 years is not something he should be praised for, at best it was an ok deal.

The Toews one is interesting because I remember reading some things right here on CF that Toews played poorly in the bubble and NYI had Dobson plus they had to re-sign Pelech, Pulock and Barzal so no biggie on losing Toews. Now, that may have been just a few people's opinion but I don't remember it being looked upon as being all that bad for NYI until Toews blew up last year. And, BTW, Raty and a 2nd are not enough for Toews; his value is off the charts right now.

Completely wrong on him going for nothing. Armstrong had a very high ask and Philadelphia and NYI weren't interested in it. So blues kept him which was a smart move on their part, a dumb move on Islanders part because they needed his offensive power.

no one's saying that's enough, but those are the picks we traded for him. he wasn't as good here as he is now obviously but the reason the trade looks worse in hindsight to me is that they took a position of organizational strength and gutted it. it's a huge failure in my eyes to lose him to keep leddy only to trade leddy the next offseason and be left with chara. it really wasn't that bad a trade last year at least when the team was still playing well and they still had leddy, who wasn't anywhere near as good but was still decent offensively and brought something to the table. but to trade toews, and then trade leddy and then be missing a puckmoving LD who they now have to spend assets to acquire is ridiculous. just no foresight. you're creating your own problems. they should have found the cap space to keep toews because he's younger and making less money and could have still been on the team, especially since everyone knew from the beginning of last season that leddy was either getting traded or lost in expansion.

Toews didn't play well against Tampa, he was only a liability in that series. I'd say half the isles fanbase wanted Toews traded, but a quick look at his underlying numbers showed he was an elite defenseman on the isles. The isles could afford to lose Toews, Pelech and Pulock are both in the same tier of defenseman, the thing is there was no reason to trade him. Having Toews would have solidified the isles as the best D core in the league.

The funny thing about Toews is he was just as good on the isles , there really isn't much of a difference in his play, he just plays with elite talent which boosts his point totals.

Toews was just as good on the isles as he Is now. He was an elite two way defenseman on the isles, the pucks just weren't going in as much as they are on the Avs. Playing with Makar, MacKinnon , Rantanen etc.. helps. This season he hasn't even been great at driving offense despite being a PPG player, he's still elite defensively though.

Yeah, I don't remember anyone credible saying Tarasenko was available for almost nothing. The experts on this site sure did, I'm pretty sure someone was saying the Blues would need to pay to unload him because why not. lol

I agree with your argument for the most part but the idea that Eberle was washed is simply not true. He was an excellent compliment for Barzal (whose struggles this year, in part, I think, be tied back to letting him go) and his numbers in Seattle this year confirm that. He was a top-6 forward making top-6 money, never understood people's issue with that...

So many fans undervalue players who make plays to maintain possession in the offensive zone. Eberle is one of the best in the league at it. Lee-Barzal-Eberle was a top 5 line in the league at one point.

For the 1000th time: The Blues. Were never. Going to take Bailey. In a Tarasenko trade. NEVER. Army would have walloped that offer to Big Mac Land.






Oh, it was waaaay more than some ONE. There were numerous geniuses screeching that nutball take.

Yeah no kidding its not enough. Thats what we ended up getting back for toews.

I seem to recall people using Dubas paying to unload Marleau as an example, except they're forgetting Dubas did not have the money to extend all of his RFAs and try to fix his defense without shedding Marleau's cap while the Blues were never in that position. I forget if that's when the Blues let Pietrangelo walk and that was the argument? The whole thing was pretty dumb.

Eberle is a mediocre top 6 player, the Isles have a perfect replacement in Wahlstrom. You let Eberle walk because Wahkstrom should be playing with Barzal and costs $5M less.

It would have been very dumb for the isles to pay a lot (1st + Mayfield) for Tarasenko. The isles will likely
Have a top 10 pick in the draft this year and Tarasenko wouldn’t have changed that

Tarasenko would have changed a lot actually, but yes the defense wouldn't have changed. Only thing you really can't get is those clutch moment goals and Tarasenko doesn't really need to be that in St.Louis anymore but very much could in New York but agree to disagree.

It was towards the end of the offseason (after NYI signed Palmieri + Parise) where the rumored ask was Mayfield and a 1st. If that trade would have went down, the isles defense would have been worse and then Trotz would have done something incredibly stupid like make Wahlstrom the 13 F. There isn’t a significant difference in value between Wahlstrom and Tarasenko, plus Trotz wouldn’t play Tarasenko in the top 6 for half the year because he would need to get adjusted. The isles would still be in the same position they are in the standings.

Nah, it was regarding Tarasenko.

Or, better yet, you keep both of them and let Palmieri walk. The only reason they needed cap space was because they prioritized Palmieri over Eberle for some reason, despite Eberle having been the significantly better player and team fit over the last 3 seasons.

wahlstrom has legit played maybe 30 total seconds of 5v5 with Barzal all year. I would 100% agree but trotz doesnt play them together so Barzy is stuck with terrible players like Bailey and Palmiieri