The current core has also never been so bad collectively...how do you explain that? literally all players are having the worst year of their careers, save for the younger/newer players like Kassian, Santorelli, and Richardson
Kassian is a younger player who is developing, so his improvement this season make sense regardless who the coach is
Torts may have contributed to the improved performance of Santorelli and Richardson to some degree, but one can also argue that both of them were just under performed/under used the last couple seasons, and they were playing hard this season to prove their worthiness; hence the better than expectation performance from both of them
bottom line is, torts's has go.