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Originally Posted by Dx54
How has that worked out for a historically mediocre, small market Canadian team?
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Edmonton, Montreal and Toronto are probably the most recent examples.
Edmonton seems to perpetually mess things up even with star players. How many #1 overall picks did they need until they finally landed McDavid? Remember Yakupov? Heck, they even messed up the development of Taylor Hall who ended up going to New Jersey and putting up MVP numbers.
Montreal doesn't seem to know what they're doing. One year, they're riding Carey Price to the SC Finals and other years they're near the bottom of the league.
Toronto you could argue started their rebuild properly, but in how many years will Auston Mathews leave them once he realizes he'll never win with Toronto? How many overpaid players did they end up with just to transform themselves into a team that can't even get out of the 1st round of the playoffs?
If the larger Canadian markets can't seem to do a rebuild properly, do you think a smaller market Canadian team like Calgary, Vancouver or Ottawa could have more success?
There's a huge element of luck behind rebuilds. Sometimes it really comes down to timing, hitting the right draft years and having players hit their stride and perform at their best when they cost the least to the salary cap. Sometimes it takes patience and dealing with multiple ups and downs, something I imagine many Oilers fans can attest to. How many years of suffering did it take until they finally made it to the Western Conference finals?