Quote:
Originally Posted by CliffFletcher
Yes, some teams just sucked their way to lottery picks. But in the post-lockout/cap league, many teams have deliberately chosen to trade away veterans for picks and plunge down to the bottom of the standings.
Of the bottom 10 teams in the league at the moment, 5 are deliberately rebuilding: Ottawa, LA, Detroit, Vancouver, New Jersey (though it could be argued the Canucks stumbled into their rebuild). They won’t all succeed. But given the elite talents available in the next three drafts, there’s pretty good odds a couple of those teams will be elite in 4-6 years. Better odds than teams like Nashville, Philadelphia, Montreal, and Calgary.
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LA and the Canucks are rebuilding because their veteran teams from the previous decade aged and they could no longer carry a team. New Jersey has been trash pretty much since their run to the finals in 2012. The Wings are like the Canucks and Kings they were an old team that needed to be turned over.
Outside of Ottawa which team sold off their high end pieces for futures?
When has a team whose top 5 forwards are 23-27 and 2 of their top 4 D under 25 and a long term goalie locked up decided to go into veteran sell off mode to start over?