They aren't close and mortgaging any of the future to do so would be incredibly short sighted unless it's for a player that is going to be here for a while that a team has to move because of expansion.
Tampa, Florida, Boston and Toronto (regular season) are in a completely different tier. Montreal is obviously better too. It's got the most high end teams of any division in hockey.
This is a long process to get to being a contender. The sens finished last in the worst division in the league. Look at teams like Carolina, Tampa etc they didn't rush it the sens just gotta let their players develop. The team is also horrible at pro scouting.
I think its quite clear now that the Metro Division and the Central were much better than the North and West. Not only are their 5 teams that are clearly better there are 5 in the Metro as well. The Rangers are going to be really good next year. Gonna be a blood bath in that division. I actually think only 3 Atlantic teams make the playoffs next year.
If the Sens were in the west they would have a chance the East is way too stacked.
How is Florida a lock for top 2 let alone the playoffs? They haven’t even signed Barkov yet and their coach might not survive the offseason scandal.
They are absolutely stacked and pushed Tampa to the limit without their number 1 d man and garbage goaltending outside of Knight. Who they will have all of next year. Florida 5 years ago is where Ottawa is now.
No.
Progression isn't linear, and we have a lot of young kids whoa re due for a sophomore slump or third year blip. And our top line is subpar for the playoff team.
We still need the kids to develop...not all of them will. We need a few more prospects to turn into NHLers. The prospects look good, but they aren't NHLers until they have a good 50+ games under thier belts and we see what they can do in the league. And, we still need to patch whatever holes emerge after that.
Patience. We need patience.
Very accurate post. It took until the second page for a post like this (outside of SOA). I think expectations for the fan base are way too high.
A rebuild isn't a fast process. Especially if you don't have a Crosby, Ovechkin or a McDavid type. Then you factor in how good the East is.
Out of the top 12 teams in the NHL only two are from the west. The discrepancy is absolutely nuts right now.
