[Rick M.]

Originally Posted by Enoch Root

Precisely my point on acquiring a young C via trade - the draft is the primary source of players, but it is not the only source, and relying entirely on it will almost certainly end in failure.

You need to draft well, of course. And you need to develop well. But you also need to make some good trades, find a key UFA here or there, and most of all, you have to hit some late-inning homers with key players from late in the draft, or undrafted, or whatever.

You need to do ALL of these things to build a winner, because it is an extremely competitive league - especially with a salary cap (and there is no single recipe for doing it).

And even with all that, you also need luck. You can do everything right, and fill your roster with good players. But they still have to have a season where most of them have good years at the same time, and where they go on a run at the right time (May/June). And you need your goalie to play well.

Saying "you can only build a cup winner by drafting top 5" is beyond naive.

One other requirement of a championship run is avoiding injury to your star players.