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Helene Elliott = annoying and clueless

Snippet of her dopey “open letter” to Kings‘ ownership:

Speaking of leaving, has it occurred to you Lombardi might be letting his emotions influence personnel decisions?

Michael Cammalleri invoked his salary arbitration rights last year and Lombardi soon traded him for a draft pick. Cammalleri is having an excellent season with the Calgary Flames. They made the playoffs. Just so you know.

There’s also Patrick O’Sullivan, who was a restricted free agent and missed the start of training camp while Lombardi and his agent negotiated a new contract. Lombardi traded O’Sullivan in March.

It could be a coincidence. It could be a pattern. A bad one. Or maybe you think there’s nothing wrong with dumping employees who don’t toe the line. We’d like to know.

via Owner Phil Anschutz should take Kings’ fate personally – Los Angeles Times.

O’Sullivan missed all of camp, not the “start” of camp. He never recovered from the missed time. He underperformed. He played on the perimeter. Now he’s gone, replaced by a solid two-way forward who is not afraid of driving to the net. Cammalleri, who is also not a defensive bonus of any kind, also got moved in lieu of paying him $6MM/yr (which is what he wanted via arbitration) or losing him for nothing, which is what’s about to happen to Calgary. A much more plausible explanation than Lombardi “letting his emotions influence personnel decisions” would be a combination of (1) wanting to build a team of gritty, defensively-responsible, two-way players and (2) keeping an eye on cap issues. And while we’re on the topic of “just so you know,” I wonder if Helene Elliott is aware that due to Cammalleri’s contract among other cap-related missteps, Calgary isn’t even able to dress a full roster now without going over the cap. I’m sure they’re happy to have Cammalleri’s offense, but can you imagine what people would be saying if Lombardi couldn’t dress a full bench due to cap constraints?

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