So funny - do we need to list what Gorton did? Like stealing Lindgren and a 1st for Nash, or getting Zib for Brass, or stealing Trouba, or stealing Fox, or drafting Lundkvist, or trading up and drafting Miller, or dealing Skjei for a 1st, then trading up for Schneider? On and on. Ridiculous. Again, not perfect, no GM is, but he made a lot of good moves here and really set us up for success with a few more good moves by Drury.
The McDonagh trade was actually excellent for us. Lundkvist projects as Fox version 2. If they signed McDonagh, they don't sign Panarin. McDonagh was not a player you rebuild with. Hajek was excellent last year. He's a tremendous skater with good size. If you put him with a real defense partner, he would be outstanding. He had a great year. Sadly, our dumb fuck fan base has no clue how to evaluate defenseman they watch. Easily the worse fan base in the NHL at that. People bitch about that trade because they haven't watched Lundkvist play yet. If they get to see that they won't. Or if he's used to get a big time center, they won't say that. Gorton drafted too many Euro's. He was among the worst in the league at giving out NTC and NMC's when he didn't have to. He was a pussy pulling the trigger on deals. Especially for toughness. JD should have just said OK Dolan, fire him, go with Drury and I'll stay but he was a stubborn jackass.
The Rangers couldn't afford McDonough so he was wisely traded for something significant. Gorton had to clear a lot of dead wood when he took over from a guy who may be the most overrated GM in sports history. A guy who did nothing but sign the highest priced free agents or dealt for players years past their prime in exchange for youth and draft picks. I could not be happier to hear that Drury has a North American scout helping with the draft, should address the grit issues immediately.
They definately need to start looking at drafting more Canadien players. Laf and Schneider were good starts.
