Quote:
Originally Posted by Sainters7
Interesting to note the jersey/year, and think how quickly some of those teams turned around because of it (Nords 3 straight = Avalanche domination the next decade, Sens 3 in 4 years = one of the best teams of the next decade, Caps/Pens/Hawks mid-00's, etc etc).
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The thing about the Senators run of 3 of 4 is that 2 of those 3 weren't prominent figures when they were a good team. Berard was basically flipped for Redden, which was pretty astute, and Daigle was one of the more famous flops. Phillips was a good foot soldier for them but I wouldn't consider him a front-and-centre figure like Alfredsson, Hossa, et al.
It goes to show, you need to find talent in other places to succeed, which the Senators did over and over. Drafting high helps, but it's no guarantee. Even the Blackhawks... sure they drafted Kane #1 and Toews was a high pick, but they win nothing without Keith exceeding his pedigree or Seabrook developing into a top-10 d-man or flipping the Flyers a bag of pucks for Sharp.
This is why the Oilers have not found their way out of the basement yet... they have to find talent from other places. It could be argued they've started to - Eberle was a mid-rounder and may be the best of their young core, Schultz has been a decent find and Dubnyk is coming around. Nice to see they've mishandled Ryan Whitney pretty badly though!