4. Summer Spending
What in the hell was Brad Treliving thinking last year, or at least, who was advising him?
Signing Tyler Bertuzzi for a one-year deal was smart. The rest? Not so much.
Max Domi is a one-dimensional player who loses his minutes unless extremely sheltered. John Klingberg was 30 and in a massive decline even before the injury. Hockey players - with the exception, appearently, of ex-Leafs - don't get better after the age of 30.
Klingberg will go down as one of the worst signings in the history of the team.
As will the signing of Ryan Reaves, which remains an absolute embarrassment. Signing Reaves to a one-year deal for the league minimum would have been pretty indefensible, but giving him more money than the minimum, and three-years is just criminal. David Clarkson's agent probably couldn't believe it when it happened.
Making David Kampf the highest paid fourth liner in the NHL was a choice, and not a good one. But despite all of that, the decision to not improve the blue-line at all, and to come into the season with Samsonov and Woll as the starters were much worse.
Treliving's summer was bad, his season was worse. The current team seems to succeed in spite of their GM, not because of him.