I think we can’t fully know how overall decisions were made and who is fully responsible for that,on the other hand I have some thoughts regarding following:
1) The decision to let some useful players go, for instance Chimera,Green,Johansson was only matter if some hungry,hot prospects players were purchased.As we can see this season, the team performance became worse compare to last couple seasons.
2) In Addition, underperformance of Backstrom,Oshie,Holtby caused a team many points and it seems like right now they far from fix it.
3) Third,I didn’t get why caps didn’t improve their squad during this trading window,in fact for a couple of seasons they only purchase liabilities and it tells me,that management team doesn’t understand what they are doing and how the team like Caps suppose to work on market.
4) Lastly, i do know khl market at least Caps can try to get Kovalchuk this summer who gonna be free agent.Moreover, there’s a 20 year old guy Kiril Kaprizov who is gonna be next Kovalchuk or half of Ovi,I know he is already drafted by Minnesota ,however there’s always a chance to obtain better players.
While yes. we can’t fully know, but there’s enough data to hypothesize.
But for your first point, it’s not as much as the players perse, it’s the style that was used to replace them. Cherie, Fehr, and Ward where big, physical 200 ft players that shut down lines, battle on the boards, and still commanded offensive respect. However we’ve replaced them with softer offensive based players that have next to none of 2way physical strengths the previous did. That was a direct descison on the ownership and management side.
Second, there’s little, if any, that can be done. A new coach isn’t suddenly going to rejuvenate their attitude this year. At worst it would lead a faux playoff run and playoff failure
Third, this an example of Dickless & BetaMale ineptitude. They have been beaten in each trade deal, and signings. Even if they where to admit their failure and move Kuzy, Oshie, Bura, Carlson etc., even a good GM would have a hard time getting the better end of the deal with those contracts. But, I doubt trading these assets was even considered. So it’s actually better that we made no trades until we get a GM that has the will and schrewdness to come out ahead.
And fourth, Kovolchuck would be something they would try to do and anything over the league monument would be utterly idiotic, so he could very well be here next year
The core is the organizational philosophy, they’re still playing NHL 16 on Xbox, while everyone else is planing for 2019 in the real world