This post (and your entire argument strategy) can be summarized as one giant strawman argument. Instead of addressing what people are actually arguing, you misrepresent and oversimplify the hell out of what everyone argues to make it seem like everyone who advocates for a rebuild wants us to suck for a decade and want 0 good players on our roster.
Literally every single fan here would love to follow in the footsteps of Boston/Dallas and build a contender without completely bottoming out. Literally every fan would love to use our excess capital to trade for elite talent if the next Eichel/actually elite player comes available (I would argue a guy like Debrincat is exactly the wrong guy to target, but that’s a different argument). Every fan also wants to weaponize our cap space, it’s just a matter of how to do that in a way that sets us up for long-term success, not just the short term. And not one fan thinks that one draft pick will change this organization.
What everyone is saying, though, is that you can’t just say ‘be like Boston/Dallas and find Pastrnak/McAvoy/Heiskanen/Robertson’. Of course if it was that easy to draft elite talent outside the top-5, everyone would do it. We obviously should still strive to find those elite guys, and obviously try to do that every year, but it’s not just something we can guarantee, the same way tanking like Buffalo/Arizona doesn’t guarantee success. That’s why, just like in business, we need to sell our current assets (like Conroy did) for future assets and invest in R&D. Doesn’t mean trade everybody with value, but it does mean prioritizing youth and not overpaying more vets that take roster spots from our young players and keep us mediocre.
And of course we’d love to trade for the next elite young player, but if it were that easy to address our areas of need (particularly 1C and 1D), every rebuilding team would have just done that already. We are in a completely different spot than Vancouver for example. They have the 1C and 1D, they just needed support around them. Look at LA overpaying for Dubois or NJ paying a premium for Meier, those types of moves are risky, ESPECIALLY when a team gives these players a long-term contract before they play a game in their uniform.
So that is why most fans don’t want another ~30 year old C who will be asking for a long term contract. It’s literally the last thing we need, and I absolutely love Stephenson. We should be looking for young buy-low players that can contribute in 3-5 years when all our draft capital has (ideally) been spent on quality young players. Like others have said, we need to find the next Stephenson instead of paying a premium for one who will be looking for a big raise.
So stop changing the argument and making it seem like every fan other than you wants to suck just for the sake of it. We all want to explore every avenue to find valuable pieces. It just comes down to the reality that we’re now a non-playoff team for two years with no real elite forward or d prospects. And our best shot of this talent is the top of the draft.
