Chimaera
same ol' Caps
The Red Wings strength was their depth. Yes they had Yzerman, Fedorov, Shanahan and Lidstrom as superstars. But it was guys like Doug Brown, Kozlov, Draper, McCarty, Larry Murphy who were the reason they won. And those are the type of players who teams will lose becuase of the cap. There will always be teams willing to overpay for those types of players, much like what happened when Lapointe was signed by Boston.
And what's wrong with that?
If a team is willing to overpay a role player, or a depth guy, they are going to be less competitive.
You could argue their depth got them places, but at some point you still have to have good players at the top end to carry the team. Yes, it would have significantly hurt the team losing players of that caliber... but in the past they would've just gone out and replaced the guy by throwing money at it. Now the onus is on the team to find cheap, affordable, younger players who can do the same. It is based now on a matter of GM skill and front office talent (not to mention luck and player development by coaches) as opposed to just how many dollars you could throw at the problem. What's wrong with that?