The Blues are the absolute exception to the rule during the salary cap era and the Bruins already had lucked into Bergeron and Marchand while drafting Pastrnak in the late first round.
The Bruins narrowly missed the playoffs twice in a row and made it the third year with 95 pts. At the time they were often said to be stuck in the middle.
They pulled out of it largely thanks to drafting Pastrnak 25th OA and McAvoy 14th OA, which may be luck but it supports my point nonetheless.
The Blues are not a good example cause, like I've said, they're the exception to the rule and following their model is hoping to also be that one exception every 15 years to win it without drafting very high.
The Bruins were able to draft their two main guys during a time when scouting was nowhere near were it is today and when you still could find guys in the 7th round(or undrafted) that wouldn't be available there this time around.
I was not aware that it changed that much.
No one told the Stars either, they've recently drafted Hintz 49th, Oettinger 26th, Robertson 39th, Wyatt Johnston 23rd, and Stankoven 47th. That's two top-liners, two soon-to-be top-liners, and a good starting goalie.
The Wild and Flames(especially during the last 10 - 15 years) are the definition of being mid.
The Flames had one great regular season(where everything went their way in terms of injuries and production) and then got bounced in the playoffs again. They've made it to the 2nd round of the playoffs once(if I remember correctly) during the last decade.
The Wild didn't just get mid by losing their depth, they've been that for most of their existence.
I think you understood my point about Kaprizov but I'm not sure.
The Wild got their top ten player without bottoming out. Good top liners in Boldy and Erikssen Ek as well.
You say it doesn't count because they're still mid. But the way bottoming out helps teams is by giving them access to elite talent, and the Wild found it regardless.
I know there's no guarantee of success with drafting very high multiple times but that's mostly because you have teams like the Yotes, Sabres or Sens who's ownership doesn't allow them to be successful thanks to the way they handle those franchises.
Though, the Pens, Blackhawks, Kings, Lightning and Avs are the examples of how to have success during the salary cap era and all of them drafted very high muiltiple times and build their teams that way.
The case for drafting at the top certainly looked a lot better when the Pens, Hawks, Kings, Caps, and Lightning were dominant. But the top picks that helped build those teams were made
prior to 2010.
After that we had a period where the Avs, Oilers, and Leafs scooped up the best talents in the league, and only the Avs have reached great playoff success.
More strikingly, only one 1st OA pick from the last
seven drafts is going to be playing playoff hockey this year, and he is getting hard carried by an undrafted player (Panarin).
