People are just flat out neglecting that 5 years is an eternity in sports. That takes players from their primes to past, for one thing. But also don't forget it's not mismanagement to have guys just flat out age/retire. Williams walked. Mitchell walked, then retired. Regehr retired. Greene retired. The Richards saga. The Voynov saga. You can't manage your way out of those things if the way you managed yourself in is trading high picks and prospects to stay competitive.
Now they're older, and guys with tons of mileage get hurt. Kopitar was a friggin ironman, played the previous season with a nagging injury. Look at how many games DOughty has played without missing more than a handful of games (knock on wood since he's getting older). Our explosive goalie is towards his mid-30s, what do you think's gonna happen when you load them all with year round hockey? Father time comes for everyone.
I know the popular narrative around here is some moneyball 'trade em too early' bullshit that armchair GMs can pull off in their sleep but when you've won twice in three years with a WCF in between (lost only to the OTHER woodchipper team in the period) you go for it and say so long, future. The road to the cup is littered with teams who just tried to slap together as many high picks as possible without a vision. I love how many posters seem to suggest GMs are just dumb at putting together dynasties yet are waiting for their first cup with the groups they have. Think about how hard it is to win even with a "Cup favorite" team, you need everything to break right on top of being good. Doing it twice or more in a short period of time? Celebrate that. It's not likely to happen to your team again for 50 years or more.