Quote:
Originally Posted by Flash Walken
And arguably what it took to beat them was the emergence of a second point per game centre to match them.
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This is 100% it - but it also shows why a scorched earth re-build isn't always required.
You need to be patient enough to draft well, and make smart trades to improve on a core. You can't just rebuild every 5 years because you lost a playoff series.
For Washington it was adding to the core with strong late firsts, and 2nd round picks. They had the Backstrom/Ovi core and then added.
1) 2008 - NHL Draft - Carlson with the 27th Overall pick
2) 2009 - NHL Draft - Dmitri Orlov with the 55th Overall pick
3) 2010 - NHL Draft - Kuznetsov with the 26th overall pick
4) 2012 - NHL Draft - Wilson with the 16th overall pick
Then they made a really good trade getting TJ Oshie for Troy Brouwer and a 3rd.
Same thing with the Blues. They had Pietrangelo, Schwartz, and Tarasenko as the core with the earlier 1st round picks and then added to it with smart drafting.
1) 2012 - NHL Draft - Parayko with the 86th overall pick
2) 2014 - NHL Draft - Barbashev with the 33rd overall pick
3) 2015 - NHL Draft - Dunn with the 56th overall pick
4) 2016 - NHL Draft - Thompson with the 26th overall pick
5) 2017 - NHL Draft - Thomas with the 20th overall pick
Then they made a really good trade to get O'Reilly for Thompson, a 1st and a bunch of dead weight. Schenn trade was good too but two firsts is probably pretty fair value and not a steal.
Issue with the Flames was they wasted too much asset capital to bring in Hamonic, and I thought that from the second the deal happened. A 1st and 2 2nds was too much for him, especially because since 2015 I feel like Treliving and this scouting group have been drafting much better. That was on area where Treliving was impatient and it really hurt us.
Considering he didn't move a 1st last year, or this offseason, I'm hoping that he's starting to be more patient on that front now too.