Over at the Hockey News this week Dom Luszczyszyn published his yearly front office confidence ranking, compiled by polling fans of the (now) 31 NHL teams to see who has their most faith in their team’s management.
And the least confidence.
After compiling more than 1,300 votes, Luszcyszyn found that fans have the least amount of confidence in the management team currently leading the Colorado Avalanche.
This, of course, probably should not be a shock given everything that has happened on the ice for the Avalanche under Joe Sakic’s watch. They have become the worst team in the league, don’t really seem to have much of a long-term plan, and currently only have three defensemen under an NHL contract for this upcoming season, while they might lose one of their top defenders (and the only piece they really have remaining from the now infamous Ryan O’Reilly trade) in Nikita Zadorov to the KHL if they can’t come to terms with him on a new contract. Then there is the fact nobody seems to know what is going to happen with forwards Matt Duchene and Gabriel Landeskog long-term.
Will Butcher, one of their top defense prospects, is also unlikely to sign with the team and is set to be an unrestricted free agent on Aug. 15.
So. Yeah. Not a lot of positive things happening there.
The Nashville Predators come in first in the survey, which sounds about right. The Predators were in the Stanley Cup Final this past season and have set themselves up for long-term success with some fantastic contracts to core players.
The Pittsburgh Penguins, coming off of their second straight Stanley Cup victory, are second.
You can read the entire survey here.
