Comparing Treliving’s 7 years to the previous isn’t exactly applies and oranges. No prime Iggy, Reg, Kipper (two of whom Sutter was given as a starting point). Sutter inherited a vet team, with Gelinas, Conroy, Lydman, Yelle, Lowry, Clark, and then went out and targeted older, experienced players in their primes, clearly looking for short term success. Guys like Nolan, Amonte, Langkow, etc. He didn’t really try to build via draft at all - Phaneuf, Backlund, Brodie are his only draftees of note. He was building a team for immediate success. Right after the lockout Sutter had gone out and gotten Amonte, Huselius, Langkow, Hamrlik, McCarty, Marchment. A year later he gets Tanguay, Primeau, Stuart. Clearly trying to get really short term success and not build with younger players.
Treliving obviously had a different mandate - he inherited 2 young core guys and drafted a whole lot more guys to stick to the team, and his earlier big trade acquisitions were mostly young guys in the same age bracket as the draftees - Lindholm, Hanifin, Hamilton.
And Treliving’s overall winning record includes the 3/4 Hartley years that are among the worst records seen by the team, but right at the beginning of a complete rebuild, which Sutter never did. Take out those years and his winning percentage is pretty good.
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