They earn it, no doubt.
Kucherov : 2011 2nd round pick
Point: 2014 3rd round pick
Cirelli : 2015 3rd round pick
Palat : 2011 7th round pick
Killorn : 2007 3rd round pick
Paquette : 2012 4th round pick
Gourde : Never drafted
Johnson : Never drafted
Hedman : 2nd overall pick
Vasilevsky: 19th overall pick
And this is why I keep laughing when I see people praising Bergevin's drafting squad....and why I'm not a big fan of the idea that we need to suck for a couple of years and draft high like 4 time in order to build a winning team.
You forgot Sergachev drafted 9th overall and acquired using a player drafted 3rd overall. You also forgot Stamkos 1st overall. Yes he did not play but he's still part of the team that made the playoffs. He's still a player who can convince an UFA to sign for you and who can help relieve some pressure even when not playing. He's part of the team. They won despite him not playing gratz but if you remove him from the team you can expect in the long term a negative impact. McDo is also a 12th overall pick acquired using a 1st round pick and a prospect drafted in the 1st round.
Their top 5 dmen are
-Hedman 1st overall
-Segachev 9th overall acquired using a player drafted 3rd overall
-McDO 12th overall and acquired using a 1st round pick and a player draftec in the first round and another player drafted in the 2nd round.
-Cernak 2nd round pick (top 45th pick)
-Shattenkirk 14th overall signed UFA maybe he doesn't sign there without the stars players.
Beside nobody ever said you absoluitely have to suck and lose for 30 years to be good. People say you need top 10th overall player. 11th-15th might cut it depending of the year. The way you acquired those doesn't matter at all and nobody ever said once that it did matter. It's very clear we can't get those via the UFA market or via the usual we must make the playoffs trades (which excludes the Patch trade). I'll let you guess which option is remaining.