donlever wrote: ↑Mon Dec 23, 2024 2:06 pm
YEAH Dude.
You been Railed bro!!
Braille is pro long term rebuild for sure. Chef ain’t. In Chef’s studied, learned mind you are just creating a long term toxic losing culture with the long term tank as Braille suggests.
If you look at all the cup winners, most average out at 2-3 tank years, and “hopefully” getting lucky at the draft, drafting a couple generational players. If you can land two generational players during the tank years and then tweak the line up insulating the generational drafted players via trades, free agent signings and key late round picks you should do well.
The most successful recipe seems to be 2-3 tank years with the smart trades for veterans and key UFA signings and late round picks panning out.
The 2024 Cup winning Panthers are a perfect example of how it should be done, you will find a lot of cup winners who shared the same formula.
The Panthers have two high lottery picks from tank years in Ekblad and Barkov. They traded a third high lottery pick in Huberdeau plus (Weegar was drafted 206th overall) for a developed young player in Tkachuk. They added a another developed player in Reinhart for a late round pick (28th overall) and prospect Levi (picked 212th overall). Traded a 2rd pick and prospect Heinemen (picked 43rd overall) for veteran Bennett.
Verhaege came via trade 29 yrs old ( drafted 82nd overall)
Rodrigues came via trade 31 years old
Forsling claimed off waivers 28 yrs old
Kulikov drafted 14th overall 34 yrs old
OEL signed by Florida 33 yrs old
Bobrovsky free agent signing 36 yrs old
Cousins free agent signing 31 yrs old
Lomberg 30 years old free agent signing
Lundell drafted 12tb overall (not part of the full tank years when they drafted Barkov, Ekblad and Huberdeau)
Okposo - 36 yrs old - acquired by trade - 6th rd pick and Sjalin
Tarasenko - 33 years old acquired by trade - 4th and 3rd round picks
Montour - 30 years old acquired with a 3rd pick
Cup Winners - the Blues and Knights built their teams in a similar fashion to Florida. The Knights and Blues in fact did not have a lot of full tank, lottery pick players “they” drafted on their cup winning teams. In fact, the Knights success can be attributed to the generosity of the NHL expansion draft but hats off to the Knights brass for selecting the right players in the expansion draft, this shrewdness will be discussed for many years and go down as one of the great expansion draft coups of all time.
The Lightning like the Panthers experienced a similar short term tank and got lucky drafting Stamkos, Hedman from it. Kucherov and Point were drafted outside the 1st round. Vasilevski was drafted 19th overall. I would add that the Kings built there cup teams similar to the above mentioned
It seems to me that you truly only need a short term tank of 2-3 years and hopefully get lucky at the draft. Sign some key free agents and make a couple key trades along with landing a couple gems outside of the 1st round. Drafting high in the lottery only seems to play a part in it and that it is not all of it as Braille suggests
One thing is clear, it’s definitely a veterans tournament.