Iain MacIntyre

the betting regime really got into trouble is when they tried to accelerate what was going to be a gradual rebuild.

And, and that's ended up why Trevor Linden left the organization and, and Benning made his biggest mistakes in trying to accelerate that, you know, the, the free agent signings and a couple of the trades, but mostly in free agency.

I think you need to have a plan here where you,

there's alignment and there's a clear understanding that this is going to be a X year plan, whether it's three years, which might be optimistic, whether it's five years.

And the one thing that the rebuildists don't always point to is how long these take.

And if you look at Anaheim and San Jose, again, often the teams whose rebuild are trumpeted as a model for others to follow.

Well, San Jose's,

now missing the playoffs for the seventh straight year and Anaheim did miss it for seven straight years.

These things can take a while.

I think it's important to have an understanding of what it is you're actually trying to accomplish and win and not have this, not come into next season thinking, well, you know, if Demko's healthy and Besser has a little better year and if Braden Coots is ready to play and all those Minnesota guys all have another year, well, maybe we can take a big jump.

And maybe they will take a jump.

I hope they do.

I got to say the team is more fun when they're winning as many games as they're losing, at least.

And it would make it more fun for all of us to cover the team.

But I think you have to have a plan of what it is you're trying to achieve, what the goal is.

I would say beyond that, they have to make a decision on Pedersen.

I mean, he's still here and it's been 26 months.

The organization has had a couple of chances to move him if they so desired.

We can only guess that his value has not been any more enhanced by the season he had this year than the season he had last year.

I think at this point they're probably stuck with Pedersen, for lack of a better term.