The way I see it, is we’ve been going in the wrong direction for the past few years, and are now finally taking steps back to get back on the right track.
If the team as a whole is not competitive it’s a waste to have someone in their prime play here. So in that sense it’s the right call to transform that skill in to future success.
I get that rebuilding is tough and it’s not fun to watch games if we don’t win. But for me personally the bubble team years were the worst. Just to miss the playoffs or exit in the first round, while not being improve the team is brutal. If I can’t have success right away, I rather have potential and a bright future instead of just being average with no progress.
Pretty much; Lou's tenure ended in large part because he was always trying to patch things up rather than engage in a rebuild, which was feasible while Marty was still strong but not so much once he faded, and Shero had a hard time getting a rebuild going in earnest due to the lack of resources the Devils had to deal that might've netted him some extra first rounders or prospects. He did seem to kind of attempt a background rebuild (e.g. last year's draft having so many picks in it) but would also try and keep the team competitive through a lot of his trades, and while I never knocked the deals he made given how much sense it made to get guys like Hall, Palmieri, and Vatanen for the relatively low costs they came at, it didn't change that the organization still lacked young depth to draw from, despite getting lucky on the Nico and Hughes lotteries.
Someone made a great post earlier about how the best teams in the East all seem to have strong homegrown cores that they then augmented with smart deals and signings (e.g. adding Kessel a few years back to the Crosby/Malkin/Letang core), and while the Devils put together some decent talent it felt like we were trying to build a core out of those trades instead of having them supplement a preexisting, internal one. That's just not as much of a formula for long term success, so I'm glad to see the organization deciding it needs to really get serious about it. On the bright side, Shero's trades did leave us guys who could net those high level draft picks in trades, so it's definitely helping that part along.
