Just about everything you said can play into a 5 year rebuild.
1: There's this thing called the salary cap floor and it's quite high. 58.8 million. You can't just build your roster with 500K, 21 and 39 year olds. You need to spend a little money on good players.
Not only that, you have to throw some money out there simply to ice a team that might be capable of selling tickets. 3.35 million per year for a guy(Grabner) that scored 27 goals in each of the last 2 years? Smart, value move.
2: The Galchenyuk trade was absolutely a rebuild move. He's 24 years old and a top 6 center. That's called a core piece. Much more valuable than Max Domi who scored 9 goals each of the last 2 years.
3: The Stepan trade was a move to get a good vet with consistent top 6 production in the lineup. They gave up the 7th overall pick but the odds of landing a 55 point center with the 7th overall pick aren't great. Not only that, Stepan was only 27 years old at the time of the trade. Chayka pretty much picked him to be the "captain" of the forwards during this rebuild.
4: I'm not sure why you trade OEL even in a rebuild. You can pick a player to build around. A 26 year old #1 d-man is a good pick.
You seem to think rebuilding teams should just ice a lineup of 20-22 year olds making league minimum and not spend any money on veterans that can take pressure off youngsters. That's a good way to stunt development.
1. Re: Salary Cap Floor. Yes, I'm aware of it and so are Arizona. That's why they have such HOF'ers as Pavel Datsyuk, Marian Hossa, Chris Pronger, & Dave Bolland (surely he's in someone's HOF? Somewhere?). If teams like Arizona or Ottawa had it there way, they would use dead cap hits with little actual money owed rather then spend on Michael Grabner's & Alex Goligoski's of the world. While being aggressive in UFA does help get to the floor, he signed those players because he thought they could help his team win hockey games. He traded for Hjalmarsson & Demers because he thought it would help his team win hockey gams.
He wasn't finalist for JvR because he just wanted to get to the floor. Rather, he wanted a 35-goal winger to help his group get where he thought they'd be last year
2. Domi for Chucky was not at all a rebuild move (he actually traded the younger player lel). It was a change of scenery hockey trade. I like Chucky, but he should never be a core piece (until he proves otherwise, and he hasn't in 6-years). If he thinks Galchenyuk is a true core piece, then his team is going to be in the sewer for a while. That sounds harsher than I intend it to, but to me core players are the untouchables and the block in which the team is built upon. Unless he sets the world on fire when he comes back (and he could, but he could also put up the same numbers he always did), Galchenyuk ain't it.
3. Cool. Doesn't change the fact that rebuilding teams don't trade away #7 Overall draft picks + 21-year old dman for a prime aged 27-year old 2C & a 28-year old goalie. Also, that same day, he traded for Hjalmarsson. Nothing says "hey! we're rebuilding!" like trading your draft pick reward for a 70 pt season for players in their prime who are ready to go.
4. You trade OEL if you're rebuilding because he gets you the most futures in return. It's p simple. They didn't trade OEL because he thinks they're close to contending and they're not really rebuilding.
So yeah, I've outlined countless moves that show he's not really rebuilding. You can ignore them if you want, doesn't change the fact that they happened and his team isn't getting results despite adding a lot of prime aged NHL talent.
There is exactly 1 (one) rebuild-ish trade on Chayka's resume: Hanzal & White to Minnesota. Excluding cap dumps, p much every move Chayka has made has been so the team gets better now. That is commendable and a credit to Chayka, however his vision and picking of NHL talent hasn't gotten the Coyotes any results whatsoever. As of right now his vision is failing.
