You're right, they were totally trying to win with last year's fielded AHL caliber team!
Worst record by an NHL team past year 2000! They were truly trying, I mean looking at last season's record, they were only slightly above the worst team during the lockout year!!
Don't get me wrong, I agree with tanking to get good prospects as you're rebuilding. That being said, it is an immoral approach with absolutely no competitive integrity. At least accept the numbers.
Here is the saddest thing about this... That was actually the best team we could ice...
We tried signing some vets when Holland was around, and they have fallen off a cliff.
All our good vets retired years ago and we got nothing for them (Datsyuk, Zetterberg).
We have been drafting 25th+ or no picks for about 20 years so we were light on talent.
Our young kids (Larkin - 15th, Mantha-20th, Bertuzzi-2nd round)... these are not even high picks.
Bottom line is we suck man.
Our "Tanking" involved 3 years ago moving Nyquist and Tatar who were our best 2 players.
If we drafted an Eichel, maybe we could complain that our team sucks, and we cant draft a star around him....
IF we drafted an Eichel.
My point is this. We literally iced the best team we could. Maxed out our cap with bad contracts years ago, and still need our kids to step up. And when we try to play our kids early, they suck too.
You are suggesting we had options. That we could have actually iced a better team.
Maybe its a troll post... Or maybe you just have no idea... That IS our best team.
If you can suggest a way to improve it... we are all ears. Because the draft lottery system NO LONGER helps the worst team in the league... Simply look at where we have been drafting while finishing Bottom 5 the last few years.
The reason we don't sign Krug or Hall is this.... Whats the point... the team is too bad to justify spending the money on them to fish pucks out of our net. You sign UFA's to complement a core, not create one.