Lets stop pretending. Gorton saw what we saw. The team was not good enough to win. The core was not good enough to win.
He dipped his toe in the pool when he traded Stepan. He then proceeded to cannon-ball the following TDL.
Arguing when the 'rebuild' began is worthless. Assets are needed to be 'rebuilt' We started accumulating assets, at an above average pace, starting with the Stepan trade. Those assets are part of the 'new core'. Time only matters in development for these players.
The core is theoretically in place already.
Zibs, Kakko, Kravtstov, Buch, Lias, Chytil, Howden, Lemiuex. Kreider? Panarin? Strome? That's the top9 filled already.
The defense will take longer, as they always do. We should get a better understanding by the start of next season... Skjei, ADA, Hajek, Rykov, Lindgren, Lundkvist and Miller is a nice pool. Adding a Trouba/Risto would help things... along with firing Ruff.. ( Dallas being a great example )