Quote:
Originally Posted by ComixZone
The Leafs were very actively not rebuilding in 2004-2016.
They were actively sucking and being managed terribly. They friggin' traded away what would be 9th and 2nd overall picks in attempts to compete.
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Thing is this is a lot of the teams on that list.
LAK didn't really try to tank. They had signed guys like Roenick, Conroy, etc coming out of the lockout. Traded for Dan Cloutier. Hired Mark Crawford as head coach. They tried to win, sucked, and then really just the Doughty draft year was the year they did "tank"
TBL is similar. They made the playoffs for two seasons coming out of the lockout. They were sucking in 07-08 even though they still had Lecavalier, St. Louis, Richards, and Boyle. They realized they couldn't afford Richards anymore so traded him. But they sucked and got Stamkos.
Same thing in 08-09. They had cap issues so moved out Boyle for a 1st, but flipped that 1st for Andrej Meszaros (not a sign of rebuilding). They still had Lecavalier, St.Louis, and signed Vrbata, Recchi, and Kolzig in the offseason too. But they still sucked again and got Hedman.
None of it was planned, and they didn't tear it all down, they just sucked and were rewarded with Stamkos and Hedman.
Teams that did go scorched earth and truly "Tanked" have had more mixed results. Edmonton(V1), Arizona, Buffalo, Florida didn't work out.
Chicago is probably the most successful case but even that took a stretch of 9 out of 10 years with no playoffs, and they were a bit lucky that Erik Johnson, and Jordan Staal were selected before Toews in his draft year.
Flip Toews and Johnson in that draft and do the Blackhawks even win one cup?
Lots of luck involved in re-building through the draft too. Edmonton got a "Re-do" on their tank by sucking into McDavid. But where are the Oilers right now if Arizona wins the lottery instead of them and they pick 3rd overall?