Quote:
Originally Posted by Beef Invictus
Signing Leighton to be anything more than a backup, and signing him for more than Boucher was downright moronic. Last season would have been difficult to watch if it meant we'd be seeing more of Leighton in net, so his injury did spare us that spectacle.
I don't get why people think we needed to automatically re-sign Leighton because he played in the Finals. He played like garbage in the Finals. The team didn't make it as far as they did because of him, they made it that far despite him. If they'd let him walk to pursue a better goalie, I wouldn't have thought twice about it. He was brought in off waivers to be a stopgap, not a permanent solution.
The length, amount, and timing of the Leighton signing was incredibly stupid. It isn't a hindsight thing either...many of us at the time predicted that absolutely no good could come of it.
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I understand that, and I agree with you. BUT, do you understand how bad it would look to casual fans/ players if we just dropped him? Even our goalie coach jeff Reese was high on Leighton at that point.
Its not NHL 11, you have to act in a decent fashion and take care of your own to some degree.
(Imagine you are a Leighton fan for a second...you believe Leighton thrives in our system. You see the SV %% the GAS and the shutouts, and say "hey, imagine what this guy could do with a full year in our system". You believe the risk is worth taking, because the payoff is so high...the cost is low.
He's a fan favorite, a player favorite, and a coach favorite, and he wants to stay in philly.)
From that point of view (and its not just fans with that view...its players and coaches too)
If you don't sign this guy its a crime.
As a GM you can't just throw a guy under the bus like that (for no reason) because it will effect the organization elsewhere.
Differences of opinion happen, and you have to respect them to some degree.
(Just sayin ...)