No, it's not a death sentence and Johansson is young enough to wait out a rebuild. The problem is that it doesn't look like the franchise knows which path to take to become a contender again. IMO, they are closer to the full tank route rather than the rebuild on the fly route. If Johansson helps win a few close games, that's actually a negative - they should go for very high draft picks for a number of years in a row.
The other problem is that the Devils can't attract players to sign there so they can't fill identified holes easily, which is another reason they should rely on drafting ****loads of high end players. BUT, the pressure to compete, especially with 5 years without PO revenue and PO fan retention makes this patient approach very difficult.
And finally, they are in one hell of a division.
What exactly do you think we are doing rebuild wise?
We just drafted first overall. Two years ago we drafted 6th. We drafted 4th and traded him for Hall (a first overall).. this ain't no rebuild on the fly. This is very clearly a full fledged rebuild and it's been going on for a few years now, albeit slow at first under Lou.
And the theory that the Devils can't attract players is just bogus and pretty unsupported. Players go to good teams, and when the Devils were consistent contenders.. they had no issues in FA at all. Heck, they signed the biggest FA in NHL history, even if it turned out poorly for them.
Trust me, Devils fans know what rebuilding on the fly is. We did it for like ten years under Lou before it finally came crashing down. This is a full fledged rebuild. Our forwards are set. We need to work on our defense but we're far from needing to draft high for a number of years. We won't be competing this year and MoJo isn't going to hurt us in the draft, especially with the lottery the way it is.
Very few times is outright tanking the way to go and I would strongly advocate it's the wrong way to go for the Devils. They have enough young talent that they need to start building, not tearing down.
I'll give you the division but the timing may work in their favor. Their window isn't close to being open yet so who knows where the rest of the division will be at when it does. Heck, if anything.. the division being so hard helps them right now.