It's all about establishing a program and not breaking away from it... Teams that turn to trade deadline to add a piece with the thought process "PUT THEM OVER THE HUMP" aren't that good to begin with. Trade deadline should be about improving certain structure weakness of the team that's been going on all season long not upgrading the talent level of the core of the team fishing for another big fish That's how they end up depleting there future vary quickly... It's happen too many times that the team that lands the "BIG FISH" at deadline finds that the "BIG FISH" struggles to fit in with the other "BIG FISH" that have been together for some time swimming in the same pond.
Off season is where you make your moves in upgrading the overall talent of the core of the team if it fits under the team program. That's where contenders are build not on trade deadline as far as I'm concern.
Having said that for SJ and STL. There GM was getting beat in the post season do to settling with James Reimer types when the opposition was running Quick and Crawford in goal... Getting it right with goaltending is the first step in winning the cup and that's where both SJ & STL GM failed there respective teams.
Nothing sinks a contending team faster than poor goaltending. It's the heart of every team. TBL, Tor, BOS, PITTS are all where they are because of there goaltending and a team like STL is falling apart do to it's goaltending even though they're a very good team. Biggest difference for EDM last year to this year is in goal. Talbot was there team MVP not McD last year. It's starts in goal you can't develop a team without goaltending which is why Lou went out and traded the assets for Anderson. The success of that trade is more important than the drafting of Mathews 1st overall becoming a superstar.
Luck does play it's part but good teams in the end create there own luck by being keen with the goaltending position. Being on point with that position is the key success from a failing GM to a successful one.
You and I think a lot alike.
I wouldn't say that teams adding a piece at the TDL aren't necessarily that good (TB is good) but on the whole, I believe rentals are overrated and if the Leafs were told that they couldn't sign a single rental for the next 10 years, that probably wouldn't hurt us at all.
I also wouldn't necessarily say that the Andersen trade was more important than drafting Matthews as I think franchise centres are harder to find than goalies. That said, it is close, it is easier to win without a franchise centre than without a solid #1 goalie and I would also put the hiring of Babcock right up there in terms of importance, as he's the guy who's pulling it all together and erasing the horrible past.
I remember posting in the off-season that while everyone is justifiably thrilled about Matthews winning the Calder and talking about all our other awesome rookies etc., the single thing I was most thrilled about last season was that Andersen showed himself to be a capable #1 goalie. If that didn't happen, we'd be back to square one in terms of goaltending and until we found someone, we wouldn't be going anywhere. Beyond helping us win games, having him was huge for the development of our young players as time and time again, their mistakes didn't end up in the net shaking their confidence. It's hard to quantify the value of that but I'm sure it was huge. People talk about "building around" players and in our case, that player is Matthews. I've always thought the term was nonsense, teams aren't built "around" anyone, they're just built but there's no question that Andersen is our rock, he's the foundation that everything else sits on top of and the fact that he is so solid makes everything else possible.
It's possible to win the cup without top notch goaltending but it's rare for a team to do so and the standings as of today show that good goaltending is one thing the top teams have in common. I've always said that it's almost impossible to overstate how important it is to have good goaltending. Well we have it and if we're a contender, then Andersen is the main reason why.
And here's a shout out to McBackup. Not sure why people were ever saying we need to find a better backup, he's been great for us ever since his arrival.