Team: 2023-24 Tampa Bay Lightning

Initial Creation Date: Jun. 28, 2023

Published: Jun. 28, 2023

Salary Cap Mode: Basic

This may be a hot take but JBB should be fired, not only that but I believe he may be the worst GM in the league. In my opinion he has overpayed/ undersold in almost every trade he has done in the moment the trade was done(besides the JT miller, nick paul, and eyssimont trades). I am going to go over every move of JBB that I did not like since becoming the Lightnings GM.

1) Trading Connor Ingram- Ingram was a former 3rd round pick that was developing nicely in the AHL coming off of a 0.914%svg at 20 years old and 0.922%svg at 21 years old and was then shortly traded in the offseason for a 2021 7th. Ingram is now proving that he is a capable backup at the NHL level and could possibly even have a higher ceiling as he just posted a 0.907%svg in Arizona last season and having that incredible shutout against the lightning.
2) Coleman trade- While the Coleman trade did end up working out, it has to be said that JBB extremely overpaid for Coleman. The lightning traded Vancouvers 2021 1st and Nolan Foote (selected 27th OA just months prior) for Blake Coleman. While we did get Coleman for 2 years at $1,800,000, I can guarentee you that no other team would have been in the running that would have been paying anything close to what was essentially 2 1st round picks for Blake Coleman.
3) Goodrow trade- Much like the Coleman trade, it did end up working out in the end but at the time of the trade paying a 2020 1st for Goodrow and a 3rd was a massive overpay even considering that Goodrow was locked up to $925,000 for 2 seasons. I can guarentee you that no other GM gave an offer for Goodrow that was even close to that. Unnecessary overspending seems to be a common pattern throughout Brisebois trades.
4) Savard trade- I wont complain about this trade too much as it wasn't a massive overpay but I still would not have done the trade personally. I think there was better options available for a cheaper price.
5) Chrona trade- I am not sure if there is something I am missing with this one but Chrona is a young promising goaltender that put up a 0.920%svg at the age of 19 with the university of Denver and also put up a 0.907%svg the following season and was traded for Fredrik Claesson who was an older fringe NHLer who played a total of 11 games with the lightning and is now playing in the KHL at the age of 30.
6) Hagel trade- Paying a 2023 1st and 2024 1st AND raddysh and Katchouk was a massive overpay for hagel at the time of the trade and would still be considered an overpay even now after the breakout year that hagel has had. 2 1st round picks would have been enough to get a bonafide elite player or a highly touted prospect on an ELC, hagel was neither of those at the time of the trade, he was a promising up and coming player that was playing on a line with Patrick Kane. There is 0% chance that anyone came close to offering 2 1sts for hagel and JBB throwing on raddysh and katchouk just proved to me that he is either getting bluffed by these GMs so hard or that he just does not care about prospects and what he has to give up to get the player he wants. Raddysh had one bad season with the lighting but all other signs pointed towards him being a promising NHLer (sorta like Koepke), and I bet you that he was added in without Davidson even asking for him.
7) Jeannot trade- Im not even going to comment on this one, unless jeannot turns into Tom Wilson, this was a disaster
8)Cole Guttman- There has to be something that I am missing on this one. Why was Guttman not offered a ELC? He was an extremely promising prospect at the University of Denver putting up over a ppg in his last season and now he looks like a promsing project for the Blackhawks. Why?
9)Carter Verhaeghe- This one I am on the fence about because he showed all the signs of an NHL talent in Syracuse but did not play well in his first season on tampa and had a pretty big sample size. This one might be on Cooper but still I think he would have deserved at least one more season of testing out to make sure that he was a bust kinda like how they need to give ABB one more shot to make sure that he is a bust.
10) Colton trade- This trade made no sense, they are not going to sign a player capable of playing in the top 6 for $3.5AAV (brown and pacioretty are wishful thinking with some risk) and if Killorn resigns for that it was still a terrible trade because colton is way younger and has more potential to grow where as killorn is going to start seeing some decline soon. They should have been able to give colton 3.5 and if he was asking for more then let it go to arbitration, seriously how did this happen. Also I would have accepted a pick in the range of 25-32 but 37 is just not enough for what colton provides and what he could become. I dont care what colton resigns at because no matter what they should have been able to make it work in tampa.
11)Amir Miftakhov- Why was his contract terminated? He has put up promising numbers besides one bad season in syracuse, what did the lightning gain from terminating the contract and do they still have his signing rights? Did he not want to play in North America?
12) Samuel Walker- Another case of a promising College player that was putting up close to a point per game numbers and we did not offer him a ELC. Maybe he did not want to play in tampa? Well anyway he had a great year in the AHL and had some ice time in the NHL with Minnesota last season.
13) McDonagh trade- I get that we had to get rid of McDonagh but why did we have to take Philppe myers going back the other way who was 1.4 mil in cap and had no potential. JBB is so dumb for giving him an extension, we had to bury him in the minors and now we are going to have to pay to get rid of him.

Let me know if I am missing anything but all around just terrible moves pretty much since he was hired.