Quote:
Originally Posted by ComixZone
They're only in year 3 of their rebuild though. They dealt Patrick Kane in February 2023.
Things look dire? They have insane amounts of salary cap, and just in the last 3 drafts:
7th Overall: Korchinski (D)
13th Overall: Nazar (C)
25th Overall: Rinzel (D)
39th Overall: Ludwinski (C)
57th Overall: Greene (C)
1st Overall: Bedard (C)
19th Overall: Moore (C)
35th Overall: Gajan (G)
44th Overall: Kantserov (W)
55th Overall: Misiak (C)
2nd Overall: Levshunov (D)
18th Overall: Boisvert (C)
27th Overall: Vanacker (W)
Things look dire? They friggin' should right now, but they won't for much longer. In a 3 year span, they've drafted what looks to be a #1 franchise centre, #1 defenceman, #2 defenceman + a bunch of other picks that likely result in top-6 forwards/top-4 defencemen.
If you think Chicago looks dire, or San Jose, then you are massively overestimating the improtance of being the 17th best team in the league.
I'd say after the 2025 draft, Chicago is going to get incredibly aggressive all over the place. Their asset base will be bursting, they've drafted the hardest to fill positions, and have enough salary cap space to do whatever they want.
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That's being a bit generous towards Chicago as their rebuild is much longer than 3 seasons at this point.
They drafted 8th overall in 2018 (Boqvist) and 3rd overall in 2019 (Dach) and that was clearly part of the "rebuild".
Traded away a bunch of assets including a 6th OV pick (Jiricek) and 12th OV (Sillinger) for Jones
Korchinski and Nazar don't look that special.
They haven't given Bedard the support required to actually develop into a super star.
And even Levshunov is having an okay season in the AHL...maybe should have spent another year in the NCAA.
They haven't finished above 20th in the league since 17-18, and they've drafted high but I think you can question if they've drafted well, and they also made some bad moves to trade assets that were high picks away. So you can call it "Year 3" but really it's "Year 8" for Chicago.
Edit: For San Jose this is "Year 6"...they finished 29th OV in 19-20. Calgary would realistically be in "Year 2".