Anyway, the interesting thing is trying to parse Grier's comments to understand how he sees the rebuild currently. Statements:
- We were far worse than he intended. He takes responsibility. (It obviously didn't help that we lost our Captain/2C unexpectedly, and 1C Hertl was injured a fair bit also - 11-8-2 with three of four centers in the lineup. still probably would have ended last place, but was a big factor in how awful we were)
- He thinks with our cap flex, he can add in FA "or trades".
- Not looking to "shortcut the rebuild" by handing out term this offseason - won't throw more than 4 years at anyone.
- From past comments, looking to take "a step forward."
- Still talking about getting "a little bigger, a little faster, a little harder to play against" but no specific mention of improving the D.
- Wants Smith to play. I'm reading tea leaves here that he hopes to dangle Smith (and Celebrini if we win lotto and he wants to come to NHL right away) to FA's as "hey, come help us build here" ala Chicago last offseason.
So from all that, we could expect he's pounding the pavement in FA, but he's not going to overpay someone on term (maybe he will on amount). Maybe he goes at Roy, Myers, Skjei, Stamkos, others with high numbers and short terms, but seems somewhat long-shot that we get them.
On the trade front, I'm not sure what he thinks is possible, since we don't have a ton of assets. Taking him at his word that he doesn't want to shortcut the rebuild, that likely means that any core prospects are off the table as are draft picks. That leaves our current roster, which is not full of amazing assets. Granlund is probably the best roster asset we have at this point. Him and the cap space.
As someone else said somewhere else, his directness is refreshing and it seems to be what is also attracting FA's (Graf e.g.). Hopefully he can build a solid rep as a GM through this.