Yeah.. When in doubt before, you could always trust the Yzerplan. It has worked out fine in the past (for most times) but now he is really testing our faith.
I dont mind Volkov or Lipanov drafting. Volkov looks awesome and Lipanov is a homerun or miss kind of prospect. Worth taking a flyer on in the later rounds.
As all other i also feel that the Girardi signing is a a head scratcher. All signs point to him being done. For what he brings we could have signed Polak or some other 3rd pairing guy for lesser money. Clearly the organization has a plan for him, with their "own analytics", but its hard to see what the plan is and if Rags opted to take a massice cap-penalty for buying him out then clearly they didnt see it either.
Everyone in the fanbase seems to hate this move and the discussions is all the same. Thats why i stay away from these discussions, the expectations is so low that even if Girardi have a decent season the majority of fans will be plesantly suprised.
- Cloud
There is a big difference between paying a player like Girardi 5M versus 3M. If Girardi made 3M on the Rangers, he'd probably still be there.
The reason why so many hate the move is they're relying too much on the noise coming from the analytics and how many NHL "analysts" analyze a player from afar using analytics. The analytics are simply not that good.
Girardi, unless he is carried by his linemates, will not have great puck possession numbers. So if one is going to judge him by those standards, accept that he won't have a "good" year right now, and that pundits will continue to harp in him. In the big picture, that will be irrelevant.
There are different kinds of players in the NHL. Those that help you win and those that just help you not to lose. Girardi falls into the latter category. I guess some players can fall somewhere into the middle.
The best way to defend is simply not to spend time defending. Try to have the puck more than the other team does. Generating shots is the best way to have those good Corsi numbers. Girardi is not going to do that. He's a defender. So if we look at puck possession, the best team has the puck what, 55% of time? So they still have to defend 45% of the time (shot wise). NHL teams still have to spend a lot of time defending in their own end, and on the PK.
Most teams don't have a defense full of defenseman who can drive play and generate offense. Most have a blend of players. Coaches tend to trust experienced veteran players more than younger players with the heavy lifting and in the tougher defensive situations. Teams also know that it's not good to expose young defenseman to too much of that situation unless they're really good out of the gate.
Having a player like Girardi who can defend well, and can take on a lot of the tougher situations icetime role also frees up other players to be put into situations where they can better take advantage of their skills. For many seasons on Chicago, Hjamarlsson took a lot of the heavy lifting which freed up Duncan Keith to play in more offensive situations. So if that is indeed how Girardi is going to be used, then he is not going to have pretty numbers in a lot of the metrics.
I'll end with how this signing should be judged in the future. Not by Girardi's individual numbers but by how the team does. Yzerman is not looking to have a bunch of players with pretty numbers across the board, he's looking to win hockey games and if adding Girardi helps them do that by playing effectively in a role, then Yzerman and Girardi have done their job when it comes to this signing.
Apparently I guess some think that Yzerman doesn't have access to the internet and the analytics websites to clearly see that Girardi is done as a player.
TB fans should keep an open mind and see what happens, and how it works out before condemning this moved based on mediocre analytics.
Hell them alone make for a better defense than most,including my team! 
I get the jest of what your saying, but with the rest of the vets and the kids they'll be fine!,imho, maybe an add come trade deadline time,A heathly Tampa team is a scary good team!