Team Overview - Present and Future

[StefanW]

It worked for LA, Chicago, Pitts, Washington, Colorado, and Tampa.

True. The thing is that most of the teams on this list also made key trades when they were on the upswing. Colorado is the only exception, but they started the positive trend this season.

Edmonton, by contrast, had a lot of valuable pieces that (arguably) filled essentially the same role, but did not make a trade to bring a Brown, a Neal, or a Bishop into the fold.

My opinion is that tanking is not enough, because the one great guy you pick up will almost never be enough to push a team over the top. Great asset management and being able to bring in key pieces is needed as well.

 

[Burrowsaurus]

Forgot that was changed. Run along, nothing to see here...



Solid point, and just to add, the reasons why the rebuilds in Pittsburgh, Chicago and St-Louis worked was because there were external circumstances which led them to being bad. Their turnaround coincided with the stabilization of the franchises. Getting the high profile players like a Kane, Crosby, Toews or Malkin just accelerates the process at going from a bottom team to a contending team, but having a solid management group is the key to success eventually, even if you don't get those high profile players (like St-Louis).

Also to add about trading Spezza, is that because of his NTC we will never get fair value for him, even if he returns to 2011-2012 form. Given our history with what happened when Murray tried to trade Redden to SJ, and because of the Heatley fiasco, the only way any other GM will seriously entertain discussions to acquire Spezza, would be to have assurances that he's in fact willing to go to that destination. Given how difficult it is to acquire a star player to begin with (especially in a situation like Ottawa's), the leverage is squarely in the hands of other teams ensuring we'll never get fair value.

Penguins are an exception here. nothing about asset management. The drafting of Crosby and Malking single hadedly made that team a contender. As well as drafting Jordan staal (who they took before toews. imagine Crosby malking toews) This team lucked out hard. The rest of their team are just all role players. Call that good managing, I see it as just luck. Hawks drafted toews and kane. But they also built a 4 amazing lines. and an unbelievably d-corps

 

[Kellogs]

It worked for LA, Chicago, Pitts, Washington, Colorado, and Tampa.

And failed miserably for Columbus, Florida, Edmonton, Atlanta, Phoenix, New York (Islanders), and you can include Ottawa in that group. Tampa, LA, Chicago, Pittsburgh all experienced significant front office or ownership changes which is the main reason why they became successful again.

Colorado also experienced some significant changes outside of the players they've selected through the draft, but it's way too early to tell whether they've turned things around. Washington just got lucky with Ovechkin, considering they didn't even finish last in the league that year.

Penguins are an exception here. nothing about asset management. The drafting of Crosby and Malking single hadedly made that team a contender. As well as drafting Jordan staal (who they took before toews. imagine Crosby malking toews) This team lucked out hard. The rest of their team are just all role players. Call that good managing, I see it as just luck. Hawks drafted toews and kane. But they also built a 4 amazing lines. and an unbelievably d-corps

Pittsburgh turned things around quickly because of Malkin and Crosby for sure, however they would have turned things around regardless...it just would have taken a lot longer (like the LA Kings or the St-Louis Blues). The reason they sucked to begin with wasn't because they made bad picks or developed players poorly. They had numerous high quality players they were forced to sell off because of financial troubles. If those financial issues never existed, then they would never have been a lottery team in a position to draft Ovechkin, Malkin, Crosby, Toews etc.

Their turnaround coincided with the introduction of the salary cap which made the salary discrepancy between them and the top teams ~$15m as opposed to ~$35m+, stabilization within the ownership group, and a new arena deal which would allow them to generate more revenue. They haven't drafted exceptionally well, but they've managed to repeatedly flip bad draft choices or expendable players for quality players and fill holes in their lineup with good free agent signings. Even when Crosby was out for a prolonged period of time, or when both Malkin and Crosby were out due to injuries, they still managed to be one of the better teams in the league despite having only "role players".

 

[trentmccleary]

This is 19 of the 32 1st overall picks from 1980-2012:

Nash Lecavalier Kane
Clark RNH Yakupov
Lawton Wickenheiser Nolan
Daigle Stefan Murphy



Philips Berard
Hamrlik E.Johnson
Jovanovski

Fleury Dipietro

The defensemen and goalies are underwhelming. The 12 forwards have combined for five 80+ point seasons in their careers. Spezza has posted four 80+ point seasons and is halfway through his career.

 

[Benjamin]

This is 19 of the 32 1st overall picks from 1980-2012:

Nash Lecavalier Kane
Clark RNH Yakupov
Lawton Wickenheiser Nolan
Daigle Stefan Murphy



Philips Berard
Hamrlik E.Johnson
Jovanovski

Fleury Dipietro

The defensemen and goalies are underwhelming. The 12 forwards have combined for five 80+ point seasons in their careers. Spezza has posted four 80+ point seasons and is halfway through his career.

Now do the top 3 picks from 2000-2014 when scouting and player development is a lot better. There's a very good chance of getting a great player.

 

[ReginKarlssonLehner]

Trent, the scouting then compared to now is completely different. Not to mention the huge increase of level of competition and better player assessment.

Last of past 10 years first overall:

MacKinnon
Yakupov
Hopkins
Hall
Tavares
Stamkos
Kane
Johnson
Crosby
Oveckin

Crosby, Ovechkin, Tavares, Stamkos, Kane are arguably the top 4 best players in NHL today.

Hall is one of the best wingers. Hopkins is 2 way first line center as 20 year old.

Johnson is number 1 on Colorado team who's 4th in the west.

MacKinnon is on route to winning the Calder scoring 30 goals and 60 points as 18 year old.

Yakupov is the only question mark on that team playing as a scapegoat winger who scored 17 goals in 48 games last year.

Lest I mention next year's draft boasts a possible generational talent in McDavid and close competing talents in Eichel and Barzal.

EDIT: **** you Benny.