We don't have visibility of what the locker room issues were, and who now has issues with who else. I think this needs to be addressed one way or another. Move out the most involved people (started with Hoffman, but I'm sure that is not the full issue), or bring in enough strong leaders to get people beyond this sort of issue. I mean, winning can heal a lot of wounds too, but I don't think that is going to happen in the short term.
This team is going to be short on talent and depth over the short term, then short on experience as young guys start moving into the line-up. So it becomes desperately important that the team is playing for each other, having pride in doing their best even when they are out-matched. If you bring young guys into a team with that atmosphere, pulling together for every small victory, all working hard for each other, it has a good chance to grow into something quite good.
You still need to draft and deal to get sufficient talent, a bunch of bums playing hard for each other will still be a bunch of bums. Bringing in fresh talent into a broken team isn't going to help much on its own, either. But building that all-for-one-and-one-for-all attitude and bringing in fresh talent though, even if the team is not good for some years it will build a solid foundation, and fans will back a team like that.
I do think that Melnyck selling, and new owners bringing in a veteran and respected hockey person as president or director of hockey operations, and them re-building the front office and coaching staff, would also be a big part of that solution. When people have faith in the leadership then personal issues are less apt to fester in the same way.