[GranteedEV]

You need your stars (though Baertschi ended up falling behind much of that list), but ask the Kings and Hawks about guys who contributed to their championship squads. Guys like Pearson, Muzzin, Toffoli, King, Martinez, Saad, Hjalmarsson, Teravainen, Kruger, Shaw, Bickell, Leddy, Byfuglein, Bolland still made their significant contributions to those teams at high values. Meanwhile, the top-heavy Penguins, even with with Letang, Kessel, Malkin, Crosby and Fleury, don't really look like a contender... they've been getting worse every year and their rentals keep backfiring on them too.

Guys like Jankowski, Poirier, Klimchuk, Granlund, Kulak, Culkin, Wotherspoon, Arnold, Ferland, Gillies, Elson were already in our system in 2013 as you pointed out. We'll be able to maximize them as players or assets in the immediate future and we'll also be able to replace them if/when they get expensive, because we continue to stock the depth to do it - Mangiapane, Caroll, Smith, Hickey, Kylington, Andersson, Kanzig, etc. That is depth, not just "who is our usless 4th line wing" but "which 700k third line forward can step up and look pretty good playing on the 2nd line when need be".

You need to keep cycling guys like this to contribute if you want to stay competitive because those "stars" become expensive VERY quickly. You don't find these kind of guys in trades and free agency because their performance per dollar is sky-high. Otherwise your window is three years while McDavid's on his ELC and then you're hooped.

Also, It's not just guys that contribute, but assets used in trades. How did the Kings acquire Jeff Carter and Mike Richards? They traded away young players like Schenn, Simmonds, and Jack Johnson. They had to have these guys in the first place and identify them as non-core pieces. This might very well be the fate of some of our prospects and that's how you build "quality". You have to be able to afford to trade multiple roster players for one and the only way to fill the void is through your own system.