Speculation: Hurricanes Tanking

GindyDraws

I will not disable my Adblock, HF
Mar 13, 2014
2,835
2,116
Indianapolis
I mean, let's face it. Another year where we barely miss the playoffs & ensuring we draft poorly, and the system will continue that way in front of fewer and fewer apathy glazed eyeballs at PNC Arena.

Clearly, the system isn't working. There's no due process. It's getting hope for change, then the soul crushing agony in January following up with a pointless surge to the very end.

The rest of the Metropolitan is either playoff ready (Flyers, Capitals, Penguins, Blue Jackets) or focusing on the far future (Islanders, Rangers). The Devils seem to be in our position but have a puncher's chance at the postseason.

I actually argued with a few of you guys last season for whining about how last season was a complete failure due to missing the playoffs & getting a bad draft pick. Well? This year is also a complete failure due to missing the playoffs and getting a bad draft pick.

We got (not really, but rather spitballing) good pieces in Aho & Darling, but the rest of the team is expendable, in my opinion. Besides, with attendance barely hovering above a 10,000 average & our lone national TV game getting preempted, I'd like for us to embrace the suck. Be so stinky, the 1976 Washington Capitals be like "DAMN!!!"

Sure, there will be pain & suffering, but right now, that's all we have. I know our new owner & GM will prefer to stay the course, but I'd rather have a horrible team than a mediocre team. My favorite MLB club, the Astros, did that, and look where they are now.
 
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Boom Boom Apathy

I am the Professor. Deal with it!
Sep 6, 2006
48,174
97,102
I mean, let's face it. Another year where we barely miss the playoffs & ensuring we draft poorly, and the system will continue that way in front of fewer and fewer apathy glazed eyeballs at PNC Arena.

Clearly, the system isn't working. There's no due process. It's getting hope for change, then the soul crushing agony in January following up with a pointless surge to the very end.

The rest of the Metropolitan is either playoff ready (Flyers, Capitals, Penguins, Blue Jackets) or focusing on the far future (Islanders, Rangers). The Devils seem to be in our position but have a puncher's chance at the postseason.

I actually argued with a few of you guys last season for whining about how last season was a complete failure due to missing the playoffs & getting a bad draft pick. Well? This year is also a complete failure due to missing the playoffs and getting a bad draft pick.

We got (not really, but rather spitballing) good pieces in Aho & Darling, but the rest of the team is expendable, in my opinion. Besides, with attendance barely hovering above a 10,000 average & our lone national TV game getting preempted, I'd like for us to embrace the suck. Be so stinky, the 1976 Washington Capitals be like "DAMN!!!"

Sure, there will be pain & suffering, but right now, that's all we have. I know our new owner & GM will prefer to stay the course, but I'd rather have a horrible team than a mediocre team. My favorite MLB club, the Astros, did that, and look where they are now.

Are you suggesting, that like the 76 Caps, the Canes miss the playoffs for another 6 more seasons. Why not, let's go for 15.
 

HisIceness

This is Hurricanes Hockey
Sep 16, 2010
40,119
70,071
Charlotte
This team will never tank and even if they do, they'll get leapfrogged by division rivals and Edmonton for the #1 pick.

It's a no-win situation that we've been living in for 9 years now. But now with the new ownership we're at a critical point here with the future of this team. We've got good young talent here (Aho, TT, Slavin, Pesce), some good young prospects in the system (Zykov, Foegele, Saarela, possibly Wallmark), and two proven players entering their prime in Skinner/Faulk.

Assuming this core stays in tact (with a prospect or two panning out), and some decent goaltending for once, we could be a consistent playoff team starting next season. However, we also have no idea who our next GM is going to be, or if we're rolling with a new coach, or if (God help us) the Ward/Darling tandem stays in tact.

Dundon is also still a question mark. He's expressed he wants to win, and wants the fans more involved and thats great. But his lack of Hockey knowledge could be an achilles heel, and he's not off to a great start in finding a replacement for Francis.

This is whats going to happen, either we become a consistent playoff team starting next season and have some nice stability, or we become the Sacramento Kings of the NHL and become a complete shitshow who trades top talent for pennies on the dollar, drafts poorly, and goes through coaches/GMs every year. You can pretty much kiss any remaining fans goodbye if this scenario comes true, and start saying hello to Houston.

I could very well be wrong here, but I don't think we're going to be the boring 80-something point team that everyone forgets about until they make some kind of late-season run only to be eliminated with 5 games left.

TL;DR :We're not tanking and will either be really good or really bad for the next 10 years.
 

Canes

Registered User
Oct 31, 2017
24,996
69,428
An Oblate Spheroid
Tanking would just add another 4-5 years to our rebuild (again) without the guarantee that we don't end up like the Oilers (top pick 10 picks galore and still suck and probably will continue to suck for awhile)

Might as well try to compete now. This isn't the NBA where 2-3 top picks can turn you into a powerhouse in 2-3 seasons.
 

Blueline Bomber

AI Generated Minnesota Wild
Sponsor
Oct 31, 2007
38,866
39,501
Tanking doesn't exist anymore. The changes to the lottery system helped quell a lot of the "rewards" for losing, and GMs are finally starting to realize that gathering a bunch of players and creating a culture of losing tends to be less than beneficial for the players you're gathering.
 

Canes

Registered User
Oct 31, 2017
24,996
69,428
An Oblate Spheroid
Tanking doesn't exist anymore. The changes to the lottery system helped quell a lot of the "rewards" for losing, and GMs are finally starting to realize that gathering a bunch of players and creating a culture of losing tends to be less than beneficial for the players you're gathering.
Tanking has never existed to the extent a lot of people thought it did, especially among players on bad teams who are playing for future jobs.

I definitely think it existed (and still does) among GMs of bad teams.
 

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