How many times before 2016 were we 3 points out of the playoffs? It also wasn't like they were trending the right way or being right in the thick of it, they were getting worse and worse with zero signs of improvement.
The point is that GMs simply don't commit to rebuilding in earnest while the team is making the playoffs and still has a core of players that have been on deep runs and even won cups.
If we had a core that had never gone deep in the playoffs (ala Washington) or never won the ultimate prize (ala NYR) you may pull the trigger on rebuilding a little faster if things are going south. But if you truly analyze each season for what it actually was, you see there's not really much room for a GM to step up and say "hey, you know what... I'm gonna pull the plug here".
It's really f'in easy to look back and say "boy I wish the rebuild had started 5 years ago so it would be almost over now". In reality you're always going to feel like that, it's easier to imagine that the bad years could have been behind you already. But what typically happens is that a team falls down the standings on it's own, and THEN the GM analyzes the roster and either says "hm, this was just a bad year, let's try it again next year" or "yeah, this team is done. time to rebuild". We didn't fall down the standings until last year. Asking for a legit rebuild to start at an earlier point is pretty much asking for an unprecedented event in sports.
Right. So in 2011 or 2012, you wouldn't have traded Datsyuk or Zetterberg or Kronwall.
But you still had to have the f***ing common sense to know that you need to introduce CHEAP YOUTH to the lineup if you want have enough cap space to add the kind of piece Datsyuk or Zetterberg and Kronwall needed to get back to contender status.
But that's not what Holland did.
He kept young cheap players in the AHL while signing guys like Samuelsson and Bertuzzi and Modano and Salei etc etc etc etc.
Perhaps he was appeasing a head coach.
I don't know.
But while Chicago tore down and rebuilt and won using unproven, young talent, we were pretending it was 2002 and you could just sign other teams' old and busted franchise players.
By the time 2014-15 came the window was closed and every one knew it.
Holland was going through the motions, pretending he was a going for it, pretending like he was trading for quality assets, but he was still wasting real assets.
You can argue all day about whether Jarnkrok and Backman and Janmark and a first and a second and a third or whatever had any real value.
But right now, would you trade Hronek, Saarijarvi and Petruzelli for Justin Williams, Jason Spezza or Dan Hamhuis?
Why not?
The same reason applies today as it should have at the time.
Those old guys were going to make no difference. And you can tell, because they didn't. Legwand and Cole averaged 1/2 point per game and didn't produce a point in the playoffs.
Quincey was an overpaid, underperforming defenseman who finally had his REAL value realized when he left Holland's warm bosom.
Older, underperforming veterans are what kill franchises in the salary cap world.
No wonder all the veterans who want a free ride come to Detroit!"
