Not really they were distinctly behind the rangers, bruins, in the east and behind the Ducks, Hawks, Kings in the west. They had a bottom tier goalie when the playoffs rolled around, nobodies like dupuis who wouldn’t crack the top 6 of any other team let alone play on the top line like he did in Pit, a coach who is possibly the worst HC to win a cup in the modern era and made that entire team mentally unstable and thrown off easily. Pit had no chance in any of the previous finals with Bylsma and playoff fleury.
Holy revisionist history just cut the crap just because Pit was not a real contender during the years other teams were winning doesn’t mean the league was weaker since they were just participation award winners. How on earth do you go about these mental gymnastics every post you make? The league didn’t magically get better from top to bottom in a mere 3 years there will always be about 7 teams that could go deep a few hopefuls and then a good 7 teams that need to get their act together. If Pit continues playing awful and a different team wins again will you go back to saying the league is worse and that 2016 and 17 was the peak of league competitiveness