My long-form thoughts on the matter:
A little piece of me dies every time someone refers to the playoffs dismissively, as if nothing could matter less. I haven't come close to forgetting what it was like to be a 17 year old who lived and breathed everything Rangers who hadn't seen the Rangers in the playoffs since he was 10 and counted down a magic number on his wall every March and April that never got to zero.
Besides respecting the memories of a hurt little boy, making the playoffs, and even playing meaningful games down the stretch gives some benefit to a team with young players who haven't experienced much of that at the NHL level. It can be debated how much of the young talent on and going to be on the roster, outside of Buchnevich, Andersson, Chytil, could realistically be a part of a core that's making future playoff runs with the team, but it's still disingenuous to say there's no value there.
It's pretty clear to me, however, that the future value that can be gained from dropping in the standings trumps the benefit of experience and all that. The difference between gaining 3 spots in the standings and dropping 2 more than doubles the chance of getting Dahlin to 7.6 percent and a top 3 pick to 23.4 percent. If you can easily dismiss that difference in the chances of getting top-end talent in the organization, you and I are not going to find a lot of common ground.
Lastly, any discussion of "honor" or what makes you a "true fan" arising because someone else has different opinions than you on the best course going forward should make you re-evaluate your life.
