Next perennial bottom feeder

[rumrokh]

It doesn't have to be anyone. The rebuilding cycle is natural and it's feasible for a team to stay bad only for a few years. Bad luck and/or bad management can combine to make a team bad for a long, long time, but if those teams climb out of the cellar (or get better management), it's entirely possible there are no teams that stay bad for an extended period of time.

As it is, the best bets to stay bad are 1. the teams that are already poorly managed, and 2. any teams that get bad and impulsively flip their previously-successful staff.

 

[Drew4u]

Really hard to predict, one good coach can carry teams who should be bottom feeders into the playoffs. Just look at the Islanders, one of the least talented teams in the league somehow made the playoffs.

 

[Kaners Bald Spot]

hopefully won't fluke into a lemieux or crosby

I swear to god if they're bad this year and get Lafreniere..........
The Hawks have only picked #1 once in team history, and have never picked higher than 3rd besides the Kane year. It's time.

 

[Bazeek]

Gonna have to say Minny

Inb4 the droves of Minny fans to tell us everything is ok and they’ll be fine

You could fit a small galaxy between "perennial bottom feeder" and "everything is okay and we'll be fine." Most Wild fans appear to live somewhere in that galaxy.

 

[shaner8989]

WIld
Sharks
Sens
Pens
Hawks
Kings

 

[Svencouver]

The wild are gonna be terrible for a while

 

[Ronnie Residue]

I’m not really sure why people are saying San Jose. They have a pretty young group of forwards and 2 of the best defencemen in the league locked up for term. Maybe in a few years but seems hf is reacting poorly to a 5 game sample size (as always).

People have been saying it for a solid ten years now lol
Don’t get me wrong, we’ll have our day as bottom feeders at some point. But we’re at worst still a bubble team for a bit.

 

[Smelling Salt]

Dallas. Aging core including both goalies, poor drafting.

 

[Kennedys]

Probably Pittsburgh starting in 2-3 years. Crosby/Malkin/Letang are getting old and their prospects pool is brutal

 

[elitepete]

Kind of a tough call. It really requires a team with good but not elite talent on the way out due to age starting out by establishing a trend of really poor front office decisions (such as from a GM who's poor but getting lots of slack, or a meddling owner, or whatever). Then one has to couple that with several drafts going really poorly, and a few Inexplicable Trades that go even worse.

The closest we've gotten to seeing that latter show up recently was Minnesota, but they quickly amputated so the patient may have been saved. Montreal might have been a candidate, except the Domi trade actually worked. Pittsburgh under Rutherford have had some dubious-looking moments in the market lately, but they've got too many elite guys for things to go south. Dallas just picked up Heiskanen, so they may still have hope. Half the PHWA have already printed their eulogies for Columbus, but the Jackets are doing too well in the draft and still have too many good young players despite high-profile departures. Similar considerations exist for Winnipeg. And so on.

My best guess, if I had a gun to my head and had to pick one team? Detroit. I just think the rebuild will take a long time, even with Stevie Y present. But I would not be at all shocked if they end up making that pick look dumb in short order. There's just too many variables. It takes a strange sort of talented incompetence to be that hopeless.

Vancouver looked like they were about to go that way until they got EP. Now it looks like they will be a borderline playoff team but never a contender for the next decade unless they can their moronic GM quickly.

 

[SillyRabbit]

The Canucks half-assed their rebuild under Benning and have failed to build a strong enough core of young talented players to compliment guys like Pettersson and Boeser.

I wouldn’t classify them as a bottom feeder but I anticipate several years of mediocrity, ranging from 7th-12th in the West for many years.

 

[themelkman]

Ottawa and Columbus

 

[elitepete]

The answer is Blackhawks and Kings ainec. Maybe the Stars, Devils, and Wild.

 

[elitepete]

The Canucks half-assed their rebuild under Benning and have failed to build a strong enough core of young talented players to compliment guys like Pettersson and Boeser.

I wouldn’t classify them as a bottom feeder but I anticipate several years of mediocrity, ranging from 7th-12th in the West for many years.

Agreed. And the sad thing is that they could turn into a legit contender somewhat easily in like 2 years if they got rid of their GM right now.

 

[KingsHockey24]

San Jose and Minnesota.

 

[SillyRabbit]

Agreed. And the sad thing is that they could turn into a legit contender somewhat easily in like 2 years if they got rid of their GM right now.

Firing Benning would be a massively beneficial move for them but he’s already done a lot of damage that can’t be easily undone.

He traded off their 1st round pick for Miller and their cap is one of the worst in the league in terms of bottom 6 players and bottom pairing defencemen being overpaid.

 

[Leksand]

I think that if the owner of the Senators is as bad and as unwilling to spend as typically portrayed, they will be there a lot. It’s like the Dan Snyder’s Redskins on a tight budget. Hard to see what can go right.

On “bottom feeding” specifically - that really applies more to the Oilers in the last several years. One 1st pick after the other from being at the bottom, ie feeding from the bottom, and we’re still waiting and most of us hoping on behalf the most amazing talent that finally, finally, there’s a change. Which team that would be in the next ten years I don’t know. Who has an inbred boys culture from past success enabling awful GM decisions? I have no idea but interesting question. Red Wings could on the surface fit the bill but Yzerman’s reack record surely does not.

 

[Not So Mighty]

San Jose will be fine unfortunately. I'd say Minnesota looks pretty damn bleak.

 

[CartographerNo611]

Pittsburgh because their core is in their 30s, contrary to what a lot of Pens fans think. Your not getting healthy elite play from a bunch of 30 year olds past 33. So Pittsburgh has a year or 2 of making the playoffs and bouncing out early. All the while their prospect pool looks depleted. By 2030 we will be hearing rumblings of Houston or Kansas City Penguins. Book it. History repeats.

Boston- Chara, Marchand, Rask, Bergeron, Kreci, you guessed it all in their 30s or 40. Tick tock, tick tock. Couple more years before they are out trying to replace leadership and their elite centers. Also goaltending which, well there is going to be a mass exodus of elite goalies in the next 5 years most of the top guys are in their 30s already. Going to be a mad scramble to get those replaced.

Chicago- Defense is in shambles with one good undersized prospect in the pipeline. A couple of anchor contracts in Toews and Seabrook which will hurt the UFA route in replacement. No real standouts outside of Dach/Debrincat up front.

San Jose - Got 30 million locked up in rapidly aging D-core. Burns is 34, Vlasic is in his 30s, both have a lot of term left. Goaltending is a serious issue, their locked up starter looks like a glorified back up most nights. Forward prospects dont look promising. Rough times ahead, first few games of this season provided a glimpse into that future but they have a year or 2 of playoffs left in them.


Those are the 4 teams that really standout to me.

 

[Viqsi]

Vancouver looked like they were about to go that way until they got EP. Now it looks like they will be a borderline playoff team but never a contender for the next decade unless they can their moronic GM quickly.

I'd have counted Hughes alongside EP, and also having guys like Boeser and Horvat helps. Filling out depth doesn't have to be all that difficult; it's just a question of whether or not folks have faith in Benning to pull it off.

 

[Jtown]

wild

 

[Falco Lombardi]

I'd love for it to be San Jose personally, but I think Doug Wilson is too good a general manager to allow that to happen if things were to start to go south.

 

[Dahlin 2 Eichel]

Devils, Minnesota, or jets.

Leaning more toward the devils or jets.

 

[voxel]

How long do teams need to suck to be called a bottom feeder? Hawks were bad for many years - Barker, Skille, Toews, Kane. Same with Kings. We’re they ever bottom feeder by your definition?

 

[Nickmo82]

I swear to god if they're bad this year and get Lafreniere..........
The Hawks have only picked #1 once in team history, and have never picked higher than 3rd besides the Kane year. It's time.

With all due respect, it isn't time for anything in Chicago. You have won 3 cups in the last ten years. You aren't going to get too much pity from most other teams around the league.