Quote:
Originally Posted by GreenLantern2814
The correlation is stars/elite players win you championships. Usually, you find them at the top of the draft.
If you’re not willing to suffer a rebuild, when a player like Eichel comes available, pay what it costs to get him, even if it’s considered an overpayment. If it cost you Tkachuk, Mangiapane and two 1sts, pay it, because you’re not getting that player any other way. Then you might have been able to sell Gaudreau on Eichel, he and Lindholm + Andersson as a core.
It doesn’t mean they’re everything, but it’s very hard to win without top-5 picks performing at a high level.
Erik Johnson is relevant because he represents a time when the Blues bottomed out.
Same with Seguin/Kessel.
Everyone had a sustained low point, nobody got to avoid it.
Calgary actually had more success of the back of this last rebuild than they’d had in 30 years - two division titles, a regular season conference championship, made it out of the first round twice in the eight years Gaudreau was here. It isn’t the 04 run, but it’s collectively more in less time than they ever managed with Iggy and Kipper.
Edmonton is proof it isn’t everything, but that’s a bigger black mark on Edmonton as an organization than it is the idea that having the two best players in the world isn’t the best recipe for success.
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Boston never really bottomed out since drafting Thornton. The pulled a quick retool after the missed season, and the Thornton trade didn't even turn into anything significant for them.
Their 2 year rough patch got them Kessel 5OA and Zach Hammill 8OA. Kessel turned into Seguin and Hamilton, though only Seguin played on their cup winning team and he wasn't particularly significant.
Pretty amazing actually that Boston traded Joe Thornton, Tyler Seguin, and Dougie Hamilton for essentially nil returns (pretty sure Andrew Ference was the best piece they ended up with out of all of it), but still had ~15 years of contention including a Cup, 2 more Finals appearances, and the greatest regular season ever since the loser point.
And they did it all with their key guys:
45th
63rd
71st
50th
UFA (Chara)
UFA (Tim Thomas)
But you know what was probably most important? 2OA Seguin playing half the playoff games at 10:35 TOI.
and also trading with Florida to get a former 3OA pick who actually was really important...but 3OAs from Florida don't count.