A coach can only do so much with a team that has middling talent. They lost Panarin and Bobrovsky for nothing; They traded for Duchene and lost him for nothing. Their #1 center quit on the team and they traded him for the mopping Finn whose head is more into video games than it is hockey. Cam Atkinson, with 4 more years at 5'9" and soon to be 32 years old, has seen his production drop from his prime. The Anderson-Domi traded backfired bigtime on them. Seth Jones 14 months away from being a UFA, Werenski 14 months from being an RFA and word is out that the second he's able to, he's going to Detroit.
Add to that, Columbus's prospect pipeline is nothing to write home about. They have a bunch of nice prospects, but there isn't a future superstar in there.
Columbus is going to have to make some big, big decisions this summer, and I think Torts kinda knows that the writing's on the wall and the next few years are going to be real difficult.