for me, it's all about getting enough critical mass in the prospect cupboard, that you are able to leverage some of those assets to bring in pieces of the puzzle (top 4 dmen, top 6 proven forwards, starting goalie, etc) through the means of trading.
Maybe as early as after this draft, but more likely, after next draft, the flames management will likely be in the position to start using those assets to start the next milestone on the critical path of the rebuild.
The oilers/jackets/islanders seem to be of the mold of teams that were never able to achieve the second milestone, yet teams like the senators, leafs, may be guilty of mis-assessing the stage of the rebuild they were in when they tried to use their young asset chips to kick start the next phase (trading for players).
LA and the hawks seem to have been spot on in this regard.
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