[InternationalVillager]

1. Trade Monahan, Gaudreau, Tkachuk, Backlund, Giordano
2. Retain salaries over next 2-3 years in order to get the deals done
3. Acquire draft picks over 2022 - 2024
4. Build around Lindholm, Hanifin, Markstrom and Pelletier, Zary.
5. Pray for lottery balls to hit it right over the next few years.
6. Don't stop rebuilding until you have elite pieces at key positions which can compete with the rest of the league.

There is no other way to build a team these days. It's pretty much true across all sports (to a certain degree). You have to be able to sacrifice the short-term. You won't even realize when 3-5 years have flown by.

Even tanking - if you really want to call it that - has to be done with extreme intelligence and with a clear plan otherwise you'll follow the way of organizations like Buffalo Sabres and Cleveland Browns (or up north).