Quote:
Originally Posted by Strange Brew
I absolutely agree that elite talent is what wins. Full stop.
But going from wanting to be all in on deadline day to blowing it up 2 months later?
If Stone is all it would take to turn is from pretenders to contenders then let’s get another Stone.
This team may never turn out to be championship level but I’m not ready to blow it up yet. The regular season was a major step forward and I’m willing to see if that was in fact legitimate.
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Top 5 wingers don't come around every day.
There was an option at the deadline to negate the lack of development of bennett with a trade for a winger every bit as good if not better than Gaudreau.
IMO, yes, if you can get a player like that, by all means, go all in on Winning now. Trade Valimaki for the best top 6 in the league and play out the remaining years of Gaudreau and Monahan's deals knowing you've added a player that excels in the specific areas those guys lack. If there's an option to grab Kucherov or Marner or Pastrnak for a 1st rounder and a prospect, sure, pull the trigger, but I don't think those deals are out there. But one of them was at the deadline.
It was a team building home run.
'Blowing it up' has such a ludicrous connotation to it. Teams add and subtract players, good players, all the time. If you can grab Seguin or Kopitar or Getzlaf or Matthews, by all means, pull the trigger, but again, I don't think those deals are out there.
So if those deals aren't out there, take a steady pragmatic approach to accumulating assets in the next 2-3 years as guys slowly play out their existing contracts and then shoot for the moon again.
IMO this season comes down to Giordano. If he's not a Norris trophy point per game player, this lineup is not a 2nd place club, and hey, maybe he once against defies all historical trends and has a repeat performance next year, but I don't think it's something you can count on.
This was the year for this team IMO and now you get back to the nitty gritty of building a contender over the long term.