Speculation: Could we see a massacre this offesason with teams blowing it up trying to chase the Vegas method?

[Randy Randerson]

love that this is a "method" now. McPhee was wide open for business in taking picks to not take certain players, you think he's so brilliant that he managed to do that while really getting the guys that he wanted and creating a team that would get to the cup finals out from under the other 30 NHL GM's, while simultaneously flying under the radar as to not have a GM job long before this?

McPhee must jingle when he walks from all of the horseshoes, and he knows it. This is a great story, it was absolutely not the spot that this franchise thought it would be in, and if a team wanted to replicate a model would it be wise to do so when the odds of even making the playoffs are 3 in 25 (number of teams to make the playoffs in their inauguralseasn/number of expansion teams in NHL history)?

 

[McFlash97]

What Vegas is doing is because they have a bunch of extremely motivated hockey players on a mission. Castoffs, bad decisions, and dumb GM's are the reason Vegas is about to write its final chapter in this years run. NHL employs some extremely dumb low IQ overpaid GMs and 3rd/4th line grinders on most teams and that is not about to change in 1 year. Vegas winning is an eye opener to how the NHL is managed in general.

There are people on HFBoards that can manage a team better then most NHL GMs.

 

[Joe Hallenback]

Remember when Mcphee was an idiot for trading Forsberg for Erat?

 

[Starat327]

Remember when Mcphee was an idiot for trading Forsberg for Erat?

He still is.

 

[JLo217]

Vegas is living on Fleury playing amazing. That’s really about it. So yeah I’m sure like always most teams will try to get solid goaltending.

Help from the NHL however can be bought with 600m so I doubt that happens.

 

[JLo217]

I might be a homer but to me what Sakic has done in the last year and a half to turn the Avs around is 100x more impressive than Vegas buying a team and getting free picks at a wide array of players. What Sakic did is a far better achievement from a management perspective.

 

[sxvnert]

Doing what Vegas did will be next to impossible

Not really. Back in 05/06 & 06/07, Sabres iced multiple 2nd lines and made it to the conference finals both seasons. Point being its been done before.
The theory was this set up would ice a great team but without the top end talent you couldn't win it all. We'll see what happens.
This set up should be the model for budget teams to remain competitive with the rest of the league.

 

[Stephen]

Not sure the Vegas playbook can be emulated unless a team is actually going to get rid of all 20 NHL roster players at once...

 

[haveandare]

I'd be surprised if any GMs strictly follow last year's best teams model to the extent you're proposing. Also, Vegas' method isn't easy to recreate. Teams have been looking to get players on the verge of huge breakout seasons since the dawn of time, it's not like nobody thought that'd be good until just now.

If anything, their success might make some coaches think twice about pigeon-holing their bottom 6 guys. For example, if a coach tends to lean on vets and his vets aren't getting it done, he might be more open to really juggling lines and giving some younger bottoms 6 players big minutes for a few games to see what they can do with them.

 

[Deen]

McPhee deserves some credit. He picked a speedy team and it worked out for him. That's the way the NHL is now.

 

[Djp]

He still is.

I thoughr it was him AND A 1ST.

 

[Djp]

McPhee deserves some credit. He picked a speedy team and it worked out for him. That's the way the NHL is now.

Speed alone doesnt do it. He also had breakour or career seasons.

 

[Starat327]

I thoughr it was him AND A 1ST.

Erat and Lattaa, i believe. And even if there was a first included, it'd still be a bad trade and thats even if you ignore hindsight.

 

[TomasHertlsRooster]

Nobody should try to copy any team that loses in the SCF. Until Vegas wins, copying them is a terrible idea.

Since 2009, we’ve seen that you pretty much need back to back top-5 draft picks to build a sustainable winner. The only team to win without that was Boston in 2011 who relied on one what was literally the greatest goaltending performance of all time.

If Tampa Bay wins tonight and then wins the Cup against Vegas, it will be an even more powerful endorsement of the theory that you need to be one of the 5 worst teams for multiple seasons in order to win a Stanley Cup. Superstars like Hedman and Stamkos are far better than any player on Vegas; even with the career years that the Vegas players are having. If Tampa beats Vegas, it will pretty much go to show that even if you have the perfect Cinderella team with the perfect system, you will lose to the team who tanked and drafted at least one true superstar with their back to back top-5 draft picks.

This isn’t even meant to be a “Vegas sucks, just a lucky team” post. I understand that they’re legitimately good and legitimately better than anybody could have expected, but there’s a big difference between that and a true Stanley Cup Contender. Nobody should be modeling their team after the 2010 Flyers, 2012 Devils, 2014 Rangers, because those teams were not true Stanley Cup teams, and their butt spanking in the finals, followed by their immediate fall from contention, proved that.

 

[CodeE]

Honestly, it's just one of those things:

Atlanta being up 28-3 with 2:12 left in the 3rd

Cubs winning the World Series

Donald Trump running for, and successfully becoming President

Leichester City winning the Premiere League with 5000-1 odds at the beginning of the year

Prince Harry just married the girl from Suits

Vegas winning the Cup in their first year as an expansion NHL franchise doesn't shock me quite as much as any of these things happening. We're almost certainly living in some kind of computer simulation and our overlords are getting a bit cocky with the storylines.

 

[DaveG]

Nope, but it would be funny if teams started scrambling to emulate the Vegas model after one season, and then find out in a decade later that this Vegas model was really a version of the Carolina 06 model.

Not saying Vegas won't make the playoffs for another decade or so, but teams won't really start emulating until they see sustained success.

In a way though the Carolina method took hold. They were the first team to adapt to the new rules that eliminated a lot of the obstruction at the time and as a result moved to a far more mobile defense. About the only guy that would be considered slow on that blueline was Commodore and compared to a lot of the other big physical dmen in the league at that time he was well above average as a skater.

 

[TGWL]

Rangers are rebuilding but if teams want to go down that route, please let us know first before you get rid of all those players. Maybe we can work out a deal?

 

[Ciao]

Every time a team wins the cup will there be posts about blowing up teams to follow that team?

Probably, but Vegas hasn't won and still has a long way to go.

 

[One Winged Angel]

There is no "method" to them. The expansion rules favored Vegas more than the previous teams and McPhee made all of the right moves and took advantage of the situation he was presented with. Then the players that are on the team played completely over their heads, possibly using the tragedy in Vegas as a galvanizing point, along with them having a ground to prove themselves on.

Every possible element and break has worked in their favor. Can they make the playoffs again next year? I think so, considering that they have young players (Miller, Theodore, etc.) that are all growing and I think will take steps forward.

 

[Howboutthempanthers]

Sure, but have to finish building their "Pittsburgh" team first.

 

[Canada4Gold]

I mean I guess so. Said team might be shocked when they realize they don't get to take an undervalued player from every team though, nor have any leverage into trying to better the process form themselves with trades.

You can go ahead and dump everything you have and start to look for undervalued guys to compose your entire team, but now instead of getting to take those players along with payment of other guys to not take the better valued guys you have to pay assets to get those player instead.

Seems like a model that only works when you get to take assets for free.

edit: and even then this is going better for Vegas than they ever imagined. I think if you tried this "model" again this year with another expansion draft it would fail, and TBH I'm not entirely convinced Vegas makes the playoffs again next year.

 

[MacOfNiagara]

you need to be one of the 5 worst teams for multiple seasons in order to win a Stanley Cup.

Im not sure if it's a solid theory, but as a Sabres fan I like what yourey selling.

 

[Ciao]

Congrats to VGK players and management. They've already done the impossible. It surely builds confidence, and let's just see what next year brings.

I think one lesson might be that there's not as much difference between a first- and third-line or -pairing forward or defenceman as one might think. Sure, there's only one McDavid, but after that -- well -- maybe the best players are some of the ones for whom opportunity knocks.

Is it better to have six capable defenceman than to overpay for one or two big names at the expense of depth.?

 

[TomasHertlsRooster]

Im not sure if it's a solid theory, but as a Sabres fan I like what yourey selling.

LAK had 3 back to back top-5 picks, they got Doughty, Hickey, and Schenn. Schenn was crucial for the Richards trade and Doughty was a franchise superstar.

CHI had 2 back to back top-5 picks, they got Toews and Kane. Toews ans Kane each have a Conn Smythe and Kane has a Hart Ross Lindsay.

PIT had 5 back to back top-5 picks, they got Ryan Whitney, MAF, Malkin, Crosby, and Jordan Staal. Whitney was essential for Kunitz who helped win all 3, MAF was essential for all 3 (Pens don’t make 16 playoffs and Murray isn’t as rested without MAF), Malkin/Crosby have all the Conn Smythes, Staal was essential for Dumolin

Those teams have 8 of the last 9 Stanley Cups, the only other team to win a Stanley Cup was the Boston Bruins who literally received the greatest goaltending performance of all time.

 

[snipes]

This is a one in a million what Vegas has done. It will never be matched again so just enjoy the ride and hopefully it ends with the Stanley Cup

Until the Seattle team buys their way into the league.