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Originally Posted by Birdman  IMO, Lou made a mistake by not "Reloading". By letting a lot of his core players leave via FA instead of dealing them for something (Gomez, Neids, Rafalski).
I understand the reasoning by locking up Elias long term, but he's not the guy I would have paired with Brodeur to build this team around. Yes, Neids and Rafalski may not have wanted to stay, but Lou had to have known that long before they hit FA. |
It's easy to say that now, especially looking at it in hindsight, knowing they havn't been able to keep anyone but Elias once their players have become free agents.
The problem is, if you think your team has a chance to go deep in the playoffs or potentially win another Stanley Cup, what kind of message is Lou going to be sending to his team when they're locked into a playoff spot and have hopes of competing for the Cup by trading away guys like Niedermayer, Rafalski, Gomez before the playoffs start? As long as they have Brodeur playing at a top level, they're going to think they have a chance to go deep in the playoffs every year.
For example, should Buffalo have traded Briere and Drury at the deadline last year even though they were on their way to winning the President's Trophy? They had a legitimate shot at the Cup last year there's no way they would have made it as far as they did if they had moved them at the deadline because they were going to become UFAs. Sometimes you've got to bite the bullet and realize you might not get anything for the players in July, but they're too important to what the team is doing at the time to move them.