Led Zappa
Tomorrow Today
It's rhetorical essentially, you are correct, but what I'm saying is if they could fix it, they needed to do so last season, or this season at the latest. After that the return will likely be so low as to be inconsequential and we will end up with essentially no Patty/JT (at least not the elite Patty and JT anymore) and no assets in return for that loss.
Our only saving grace right now is that the team sucked so bad we got the 9th overall pick, which in fact may be that small miracle we needed (we'll have to see), because I fully expected us to just miss the playoffs again, get the 15th pick at best, and do so again next season (if we still did not trade them at that point). Which would absolutely put us in the position of continuing to be just good enough to not improve. We need this 9th pick to produce an elite player, period. We also need to acquire at least one more elite player somehow (someone overachieving, another draft pick, a trade, whatever).
Best case scenario I see is Hertl develops into an elite #1c (that's a pretty big reach, but not totally impossible). Pavelski gives an elite winger for the next 3-5 years hopefully, and Goldobin pans out as a very good 1st ling winger (probably does not have elite potential). We draft Werenski, or by some miracle Provorov, and they quickly develop a la OEL and fill that top pairing D spot we so badly need filled. I have no idea what we do for a goalie. So best case our team looks like (with JT and Patty having walked):
Pavelski - Hertl - Goldobin
Nieto - Couture - Wingels
Karlsson - Tierney - Chartier
Provorov - Braun
Vlasic - Burns
Mueller - ?
That's a pretty big gamble. Those guys could easily turn out to be more Michalek's (good, but not great) and Setoguchi's (underperformers). We could draft Crouse instead of Werenski and he could peak at Wingels level. If that happens we've got a perennial lottery team. The Sharks need to hedge those bets by getting a few elite level prospects to ensure (as much as possible) those roles are filled, not hope the best.
We're gonna have to get lucky here at some point. We need a couple 1rst or 2nds to become way more than their draft locations would indicate. Last couple were Vlasic and Pavs. If we could get the same kind of overachieving from a couple 1rst rounders we'd be set. We're due aren't we