The one thing I keep hearing lately is, "What has Muckler done?" Then said complainer will reference the Tyler Arnason trade, and that's about it.
I don't remember seeing this before, so I thought I would try and compile a fairly complete list of Muckler's signings/trades since his arrival in June '02. There are some insignificant movements that I didn't include (mostly irrelevant UFAs), but the important (and not-so-important) ones are here, and I've tried to include the eventual draft picks chosen, but if the information wasn't immediately available, I let it go. Let me know if I've missed anything (relevant), or if there are any errors.
June '02: Traded Shawn McEachern to Atlanta for Brian Pothier and a 4th round pick (2004)
July(?)'02: Did not resign Juha Ylonen
September '02: Traded Sami Salo to Vancouver for Peter Schaefer
October '02: Traded Jani Hurme to Florida for Billy Thompson and Greg Watson
January '03: Traded Joel Kwiatkowski to Washington for a 9th round pick (2003)
February '03: Traded Jakub Klepis to Buffalo for Vaclav Varada and a fifth-round pick (2003 -- Tim Cook)
March '03: Traded Tim Gleason and future considerations to Los Angeles for Bryan Smolinski
March '03: Traded future considerations to Buffalo for Rob Ray
March '03: Traded Simon Lajeunesse to Florida for Joey Tetarenko
July '03: Did not resign Joey Tetarenko (UFA)
July '03: Did not resign Magnus Arvedson
September '03: Traded 9th round pick for Serge Payer
February '04: Traded Brooks Laich and second-round pick to Washington for Peter Bondra (WAS traded pick to Colorado -- Avs selected Chris Durand)
February '04: Traded Petr Schastlivy to Anaheim for Todd Simpson
March '04: Traded Shane Hnidy to Nashville for fourth-round pick (2004)
March '04: Traded Karel Rachunek and Alexandre Giroux to New York Rangers for Greg de Vries
April '04: Fires head coach Jacques Martin, assistant coach Don Jackson and goaltending coach Phil Myre
June '04: Hires head coach Bryan Murray
June '04: Traded Patrick Lalime for fourth-round pick (2005 - Ilya Zubov)
June '04: Traded Radek Bonk to L.A. Kings for third-round pick (2004 - Shawn Weller)
July '04: Did not resign Serge Payer (UFA)
Summer '05: Did not resign Todd Simpson (UFA)
Summer '05: Did not resign Josh Langfeld (UFA)
Summer '05: Did not resign Curtis Leschyshyn (UFA)
Summer '05: Did not resign Martin Prusek (no qualifying offer made)
July '05: Traded Todd White to Minnesota for fourth-round pick previously acquired from Colorado (2005 - Cody Bass)
July '05: Signed Dominik Hasek
August '05: Traded Marian Hossa and Greg de Vries to Atlanta for Dany Heatley
August '05: Signed Tomas Malec
March '06: Traded Brandon Bochenski and a second-round draft pick (2006 - Igor Makarov) to Chicago for Tyler Arnason
March '06: Signed Brad Norton
July '06: Traded Martin Havlat and Bryan Smolinski for Tom Priessing, Josh Hennessy, Michal Barinka and a second-round pick (2008) via Chicago and San Jose.
July '06: Signed Martin Gerber
July '06: Signed Joe Corvo
July '06: Did not resign Zdeno Chara (UFA)
July '06: Did not resign Brian Pothier (UFA)
July '06: Did not resign Vaclav Varada (UFA)
July '06: Did not resign Dominik Hasek (UFA)
July '06: Did not resign Billy Thompson (UFA)
July '06: Did not resign Tyler Arnason (UFA)
July '06: Did not resign Jan Platil (UFA)
July '06: Did not resign Joe Cullen (UFA)
July '06: Did not resign Filip Novak (UFA)
July '06: Did not resign Brennan Evans (UFA)
July '06: Did not resign Greg Watson (UFA)
July '06: Did not resign Steve Martins (UFA)
July '06: Did not resign Glen Metropolit (UFA)
August '06: Signed Serge Payer (UFA)
Ottawa's First Round Draft Picks:
2002: Jakub Klepis
2003: Patrick Eaves
2004: Andrej Meszaros
2005: Brian Lee
2006: Nick Foligno
Posts
The non-moves that stand out in my mind are Muckler's failure to correctly assess Senator goaltending.
In 2004, he had a chance to upgrade over Lalime (the big rumour was Kolzig?) but eventually decided to stick with Lalime, and then Nieuwendyk ended his season.
This last season, he failed to recognize Hasek wouldn't return in time for the playoffs, and so, all he did at the trade deadline was acquire a waiver-quality goalie.
And now - Gerber is basically stinking it up. I make fun a little bit about how Ottawa writers complain about how he costs so much, when they could have signed Legace or somebody for less and kept Chara...and it's still on the early side for a judgement on Gerber, but the fact is, he hasn't been lights-out at all. So Muckler's record of talent evaluation for goalies hasn't been good. But that's the same for a lot of guys *cough-Clarke-cough*
In my mind, the non-activity in 2004 (everybody saw Lalime was prone to the bad goal) and this year (did anybody really believe Hasek would be back except Muckler?) is inexcuseable.
Muckler was handed a Cup contender stacked with talent, and hasn't done anything with it.
Wardo
7:00 a.m.
It kills me to say this, but I agree with Wardo.
Anonymous
8:47 a.m.
You should add his coaching change which may have been one of his worst moves.
Don
12:37 p.m.
Let me clarify that quickly - firing Martin wasn't the mistake.
Hiring Murray was. Having your GM and your coach both receive pension cheques isn't a good idea.
Don
12:38 p.m.
I think signing Kaigorodov and naming him the 2nd line center before training camp has to be mentioned on this list.
Anonymous
1:21 p.m.