Quote:
Originally Posted by stemit14
This is a pretty accurate way of looking at a competitive window… you need waves of youth coming in that can supplement the core players of the team. It’s too bad Gaudreau and Tkachuk left right when this wave of solid young players were about to come in and contribute.
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Yup. People tend to think it's "one wave" but really you need to continually build.
Some teams get lucky and win in the first wave (Chicago / Pittsburgh) but lately it's the second wave where most teams have had success. Pittsburgh back to back cups were the second wave, Washington won its cup in the second wave, Tampa's cups were second wave, and Colorado won the cup by building continuously over time.
All those teams won the cup ~10 years after they made their first high picks.