Just when I thought I was going to take a break from firing Doug Wilson - because of the whole 500 words below this - the captain of the sinking ship does this:
SJ has permission to interview Randy Carlyle for coaching job
— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) April 24, 2015Did anyone in San Jose even watch the Toronto Maple Leafs?
Doug, you're fired.
******
The San Jose Sharks organization will remain on fire for the foreseeable future.
Hasso Plattner issued a letter to the fans via the Sharks website yesterday that publicises a vote of confidence for the inept management that allowed this season to happen. In the letter, Plattner lays out all of the reasons why he should have fired Doug Wilson before telling everyone that Doug did a good job.
A good job? Hasso, if someone could have gotten a hold of Joe Thornton he would have told you to stop lying.
“What was the missing piece? Was it drafting, trading, rental players, we tried them all. We clearly had a window of opportunity, but the NHL has a very balanced constitution which doesn’t allow for money to become the dominant factor. You can’t buy a team, you have to build it which is very fair. And after you traded picks for ready-to-play veterans, you sooner or later have to start rebuilding the team. We had hoped that we can do both, stay competitive and rebuild at the same time. It was close but the other teams in our conference were better, at least throughout the whole season and deservedly finished ahead of us. Remember where we were end of January in the standings? Now the question is should we have traded for reinforcements and block the young hopefuls from playing or should we have started the rebuilding process even a year or two earlier?…
That section should have been followed with “so we decided we needed to go in another direction.…
And this one, maybe Doug Wilson learned how to lie from Plattner himself:
“The rebuild is in full progress, the team is now amongst the youngest in the league and has a great future.…
I’m not buying what you’re selling, Hasso. The rebuild is not in full progress and the transition year was a sham that Doug Wilson used to avoid getting fired because he couldn’t do his job good enough. Being the youngest team in the league means nothing if you have very little high-end talent coming through. It just means your best players are getting old and you can’t replace them.
Wilson has some serious work to do at this years’ draft and in the offseason if he wants to give the Sharks a great future. He has to hit a home run with the first round pick this year – whether they stay in place or trade down/up. Wherever he picks, he can’t mess it up. He also has to address the blueline. I’ll give him a pass if he can’t improve the goaltending given this year’s crop of UFA’s and the difficulty in acquiring goaltenders.
You all know I think Wilson should have been fired, so I won’t beat a dead horse any more than I already have. I’ll leave you with this from the end of the letter:
“With some luck in the draft this summer and a new team behind the bench we will fully attack again and show some good sport. The goal will always be to reach the playoffs and win 16 games there in one season.…
Leave luck to shooting percentage, Hasso, not the draft. Find the talent, draft the talent. Don’t wait for luck. The ball is back in your court Doug, don't drop it.
What say you? For the last time – until next year – should the Sharks have fired Doug Wilson? Don’t beat around the bush with things like “expected him to stay…, make your deserving case in the comment section for Wilson. Perhaps you can sway me.