As a fan, is it worth it to always "go for it" the way Lou's Islanders do?

[CanadianHockey]

The basement sucks. Teams don't consistently leave the basement and ascend to compete as Cup favourites when they implode. I'd rather watch an entertaining team that's an outside shot than a bust cycle hoping for a boom a half decade from now

 

[KovalchukFistPump]

The basement sucks. Teams don't consistently leave the basement and ascend to compete as Cup favourites when they implode. I'd rather watch an entertaining team that's an outside shot than a bust cycle hoping for a boom a half decade from now

Sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t. It also helps if you’re in a more attractive market where you can get players to join in on the upswing part without drastically overpaying them.

 

[JianYang]

I haven't seen the Habs commit to any sort of long rebuild plan until the last couple of years, and my engagement from a day to day standpoint has definitely plummeted.

You become numb to the losing, and so the emotions are all checked out. Is it worth it? Only if it results in years of consistent contention down the road.

But I see it as an inevitable trade off. You can delay falling back down on the compeitive cycle, but eventually, the cycle will pull every team down no matter how hard you try to avoid it.

 

[The Gr8 Dane]

I haven't seen the Habs commit to any sort of long rebuild plan until the last couple of years, and my engagement from a day to day standpoint has definitely plummeted.

You become numb to the losing, and so the emotions are all checked out. Is it worth it? Only if it results in years of consistent contention down the road.

But I see it as an inevitable trade off. You can delay falling back down on the compeitive cycle, but eventually, the cycle will pull every team down no matter how hard you try to avoid it.

Sorry but I much prefer watching a rebuilding team with young pieces than watching us trot out David Deharnais as our 1 C or tomas plekanec or phil Danault as our 1 C while the entire fanbase talks about *competing* , we were never close , like not even close , only habs fans would ever think we had a team good enough to win anything.

At least there is a plan in place now , going into every year hoping our goalie single handedly wins us a cup is depressing and a god awful visual product to watch.

Our so called *competitive cycle* was the exact same thing the kings and islanders are doing right now , they don't have a chance in hell of winning anything, they simply don't have enough good players , and their fans know it too.

 

[Martin Skoula]

If they had a 1C I’d say keep going for it but they just have too many holes up front and the D and G isn’t as elite as they like to pretend, at least not enough to make up for that F group.

 

[KevinRedkey]

I'd personally rather my team be on a rollercoaster of high highs and low lows, than be mediocre all the time.

 

[ecemleafs]

since 2019 theyve had 1 first round draft pick. they picked simon holmstrom. if i have used 5 1st round picks, id want a lot better than holmstrom, palmieri, pageau, horvat, and romanov. trading picks shouldnt necessarily mean ur in purgatory or morgaging the future if u make good trades.

edit: in this time theyve also traded 3 2nd round picks and a 3rd to get rid of Ladd and Bailey. They also gave up another 2nd in Raty in the Horvat trade. Just a terrible use of assets to create a very mediocre lineup.

 

[Kevin27NYI]

since 2019 theyve had 1 first round draft pick. they picked simon holmstrom. if i have used 5 1st round picks, id want a lot better than holmstrom, palmieri, pageau, horvat, and romanov. trading picks shouldnt necessarily mean ur in purgatory or morgaging the future if u make good trades.

Realistically, you’re likely to do significantly worse than that

 

[Jyrki]

There's little point in trying to squeeze every last drop every season in the major leagues like you would in other leagues around the world. There's no relegation and there are playoffs, so the goal should be to build a team that's good enough to place well enough in the regular season then go deep in the elimination stages. The prospect of cheering for a "midtable" team that's not going to win a Bo7 if they do sneak into the postseason is just not exciting.

 

[Ncit3]

As a Denver Broncos fan, that has watched his team, since 2015, try and use the scraps we had to build a "contender" and ultimately fail or not even make the playoffs every year. It's more frustrating than anything. If you just keep failing over and over again, blow that shit up, make an effort to build competitiveness instead of sustaining mediocrity.

 

[MikeyMike01]

The only thing rebuilds guarantee is losing

 

[GAGLine]

From the very beginning, it was obvious that Lou wanted to win ASAP. He created a very vet-heavy team. He also failed to add high-end talent, which he might have been able to do had he chosen to build more through the draft.

I won't say a team can't win a cup that way, but it's not sustainable. It leaves you with a very short window to succeed.

 

[KevinRedkey]

since 2019 theyve had 1 first round draft pick. they picked simon holmstrom. if i have used 5 1st round picks, id want a lot better than holmstrom, palmieri, pageau, horvat, and romanov. trading picks shouldnt necessarily mean ur in purgatory or morgaging the future if u make good trades.

edit: in this time theyve also traded 3 2nd round picks and a 3rd to get rid of Ladd and Bailey. They also gave up another 2nd in Raty in the Horvat trade. Just a terrible use of assets to create a very mediocre lineup.

FWIW

The Horvat pick (2023 - 17th) was used to select Axel Sandin-Pellika
The Romanov pick (2022 - 13th) was used to select Frank Nazar
The Palmieri pick (2021 - 29th) was used to select Chase Stillman
The Pageau pick (2020 - 28th) was used to select Ridly Greig

Not to say that's who NYI would have necessarily selected (had they kept the picks), but it gives a bit more context to what they realistically could have instead of what they do.

 

[IWantSakicAsMyGM]

The biggest issue with "going for it" every year is that the guys who are generally available in any given year are going to be too expensive with too little term. The key in the cap era is to get guys who can outperform their cap hit, which you aren't likely to find in UFA or on the trade market.

 

[justHypnos]

FWIW

The Horvat pick (2023 - 17th) was used to select Axel Sandin-Pellika
The Romanov pick (2022 - 13th) was used to select Frank Nazar
The Palmieri pick (2021 - 29th) was used to select Chase Stillman
The Pageau pick (2020 - 28th) was used to select Ridly Greig

Not to say that's who NYI would have necessarily selected (had they kept the picks), but it gives a bit more context to what they realistically could have instead of what they do.

Yeah and for reference the guys in the OP Tedenby, Josefson, and Matteau were 24, 20, and 29 overall picks. I don't see how what they're doing is anything similar to putting their hopes on low 1sts to be better than guys like Pageau or Horvat. Would make more sense if they weren't re-signing those guys.

When the Habs were consistently making the playoffs, they kept their 1sts a lot and drafted Scherbak, Beaulieu, Poehling, McCarron, Juulsen with their 20s picks. Would've been much better suited trading them for good players like the Islanders.

Drafting a Pastrnak or Kuznetsov with a late 1st happens like, once or twice a decade and you probably won't be the team that lucks out. It's just gambling

 

[Peltz]

Talented cost controlled young players is a necessary ingredient under the cap of the modern NHL if you want a Stanley cup. The only way you get enough of those to compete for cup is to sell some assets for picks and prospects at some point.

You can't just draft your way into that sort of position with your allotted picks because most of those won't work out. At some point, you gotta horde picks or young player prospects and let them grow together.

And you can do that without drafting a first overall superstar, but at some point, you need a 90 point scorer on your team.

 

[Green]

hell no, Islanders are a dead team, this is what happens if you have an 81 year old GM and owners who are more interested in the short term dollars than the bigger picture, Islanders are going to be the worst organization in hockey over the next 10 years, you can count on it

 

[Goose]

There's so much parity in the NHL that if you get into the playoffs you have a shot. I'd rather take multiple runs at the playoffs with lesser groups than roll the dice on a few attempts with a Top 5 team in the league.

I don't feel that way about the NBA though.