The only way the franchise could justify flipping Forsberg, Ekholm or Josi would be to thank Poile for his service and to send him off before digging into a ground up rebuild…
It is at least a year or two (but taking off the fan glasses probably several more) past the time when Poile needs to move on up in management (team president?) to get him out of the day to day operations or for him to retire. We would not be where we are without Poile, but we also might have a championship with a different personnel manager making different choices. He has been a force in the NHL for a longtime and his longevity is incredible. But, it is time someone else decided how this team should shape out.
Hynes should also be on the way out. I feel like his system is killing any talent that we bring in. As Clay said, we're very average. We've been on a steady decline since 2017 but even during that year, everything just lined up for us. There were cracks and issues that become much worse in the following years.
I still really like Forsberg and think he could've been a really great player if he were on the Avs for instance. But our talent can't escape our system of play. I think the Tolvanen fiasco is further proof of this.