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Originally Posted by Since1984
That is a completely different team, with completely different ownership and management.
What about teams like Chicago? the hope in NY for the Rangers? The Florida Panthers. All these teams have finished at or near dead last and have been able to build or are building good teams that are or will compete.
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In the eight years since Florida drafted Sasha Barkov they have won four playoff games. Between 2010–14 the Panthers selected third, third, second and first in the NHL entry draft, and are only now looking like they might have a team that could contend for a Stanley Cup. Their top-six scoring forwards from last year are 26, 26, 26 27, 28 and 34 years old.
Drafting at the top certainly helps, and drafting at the top multiple times helps more. But in their entire 27-year history the Florida Panthers have only once played playoff games in the second round (1996), and since then have won a total of eight games in the post-season. For as much as a team can plan for it, becoming a legitimate Stanley Cup contending team has a lot more to do with good fortune and happy turns of events than it does with shrewd strategy. The history of the NHL is littered with teams that have bottomed out and gone nowhere.