It's not an "upturn" in recruiting unless/until you are bringing home the goods on a regular basis - not just a Poturalski here, or Gildon there, or Crookshank or Conmey (sp?). Bring in good players up and down your line-up every season, teach them how to become better players and play winning hockey, and give them a vocation where they can make a real living at least in the AHL, as opposed to chasing buses in The Coast or flying off to the Belgian Eurodivisie III or whatever scrub-level leagues are out there across the pond.
Umile/McCloskey and even Umile/Borek did quite a bit of that for a pretty long stretch. It's a shame Umile let up at the end, and probably started to believe his own press/smell his own farts. Getting old in a competitive business is not an easy thing, as I'm learning to this day, but it's doable if you're really into it, and aren't in a hurry to start spending most of your days fishing, golfing, traveling to warm places, etc. Those things are all VERY tempting though, and we're all just humans in the end. IMO Umile was very good - not great - and for a very long time ...
