The most desolate franchise

[Do Make Say Think]

Toronto has got to be up there: they haven't achieved anything since 2004 and their young GM gave awful contracts like they were candy on top of making bad trades that saw him give up all his grit for more defensively challenged players. They might miss the playoffs this year. Think about how pathetic that would be.

Then you have the front-runner in Buffalo, no one can argue that something is very wrong there. At least Ottawa has a solid prospect pool and has always been good at drafting.

 

[Peat]

I don’t think it gets much worst than the Sens. Not even talking player/prospect wise. You can draft high level players, you can fire GM’s and coaches, but you can’t fire a ****ty cheap owner.

That's the big one. I'd say the Sens future actually looks pretty bright in terms of prospects and picks, and they were good recently, but it needs a non flustercluck owner to bring that home and, well, here's hoping for them but...

 

[LEAFANFORLIFE23]

Buffalo. No matter what they do there seems to be zero progress in that organization and, naturally, things are getting pretty tense with all their stakeholders.

they are getting worse

 

[bobholly39]

Gonna put on my hipster hat and say Montreal. The team has no identity or direction, and the Bergevin + Molsons combo is perhaps the most generally ineffective and meandering GM + owner combo in the league. I think Bergevin is closer to sleepwalking into an actual plan than coming up with one himself, and the Molsons seem to have confused the 2007-2013 Toronto Maple Leafs with a well run organization.

Habs have a very good prospect pool and some decent roster players too. I know a lot of fans are tired of Bergevin and lost faith in management, but we certaintly aren't in contention for the worst off franchise overall.


Also - people saying Buffalo - nope. You have Eichel and Dahlin. There are definitely franchises worst off than that.

 

[MuckOG]

Minnesota. No Goalie, several untradeable contracts, not much as far as prospects go..

Actually, the Wild have several good prospects, including Kaprizov, Boldy, Khovanov, Addison and Beckman.

 

[LEAFANFORLIFE23]

Habs have a very good prospect pool and some decent roster players too. I know a lot of fans are tired of Bergevin and lost faith in management, but we certaintly aren't in contention for the worst off franchise overall.


Also - people saying Buffalo - nope. You have Eichel and Dahlin. There are definitely franchises worst off than that.

It's not about. that, it's about the piss poor drafting beyond the top 2, because ANYBODY can pick Eichel and Dahlin, I can do that, you can do that that's easy.

It goes beyond that, it's about pissing away draft pick after draft, after draft pick.

It's about not having ANY center depth, or forward depth in general partly because they gift wrapped ROR to St Louis and partly because you have about 2.5 top 6 wingers

It's about not having a #1 goalie

It's not about Eichel and Dahlin it's about EVERYTHING after them.

 

[bobholly39]

It's not about. that, it's about the piss poor drafting beyond the top 2, because ANYBODY can pick Eichel and Dahlin, I can do that, you can do that that's easy.

It goes beyond that, it's about pissing away draft pick after draft, after draft pick.

It's about not having ANY center depth, or forward depth in general partly because they gift wrapped ROR to St Louis and partly because you have about 2.5 top 6 wingers

It's about not having a #1 goalie

It's not about Eichel and Dahlin it's about EVERYTHING after them.

You seem to be saying you need more than just Eichel and Dahlin to win. I agree

What i'm saying is - many teams are in a similar position to what you describe, but without the luxury of having an Eichel/Dahlin combo. Hence - no, Buffalo are not the worst off.

 

[Sting]

Ottawa's prospect pool is top 5 in the league. Batherson, Norris, Brannstrom, Formenton, JBD, Thomson, L. Brown, Wolanin, Daccord are all solid prospects. I'd venture to guess all of them make the NHL, with the only question mark being Logan Brown.

What they lack is a franchise level talent, and you get those typically from drafting top 10. They'll have two of those this year.

I would venture to guess Detroit / San Jose are in in worse shape overall.

 

[Hostile Offer]

You seem to be saying you need more than just Eichel and Dahlin to win. I agree

What i'm saying is - many teams are in a similar position to what you describe, but without the luxury of having an Eichel/Dahlin combo. Hence - no, Buffalo are not the worst off.

Absolutely not. They've been this up and coming team and a future contender for like five years running and nothing is happening regardless of the pieces they acquire. It's eerily similar to Edmonton pre-McDavid. I don't think there are any teams in the same position. Maybe Arizona but at least they've legitimately been in the playoff hunt for these past two years.

 

[Kaners Bald Spot]

Minnesota. No Goalie, several untradeable contracts, not much as far as prospects go..

They have more cap flexibility than the Sharks do....

 

[HockeyWooot]

I’m going to say Buffalo. They have two major cornerstone pieces, but sadly still seems to be a relatively hopeless situation in building out a competitive roster around them.

Originally wanted to say Minnesota purely in terms of young pieces for the future, but if they decided go for a rebuild they could probably do it effectively while retaining good vets to help with the development of any young players they draft. The question is if they would ever decide to rebuild.

 

[bobholly39]

Absolutely not. They've been this up and coming team and a future contender for like five years running and nothing is happening regardless of the pieces they acquire. It's eerily similar to Edmonton pre-McDavid. I don't think there are any teams in the same position. Maybe Arizona but at least they've legitimately been in the playoff hunt for these past two years.

Looking at it from the perspective of "If I were an expansion city and could choose to acquire any current team in-full for my city, who do I pick last" - Buffalo certainly wouldn't be picked last by me. Eichel/Dahlin are fantastic pieces.

McDavid was too fwiw. Despite Edmonton's embarassing years of suckage, they were never the "most desolate franchise" after 2015 because McDavid is such an x-factor that can accelerate any rebuild/contention status. Same for Eichel/Dahlin.

 

[Voight]

Well the Panthers have made the playoffs twice in the last 20ish years, haven't won a playoff series since 96, and are currently in the late stages of another failed rebuild. So probably them.

Bob is struggling but the Panthers have a very good core of Barkov/Hub/Trocheck/Ekblad etc. If he turns it around and goes back to his elite level of play, they will certainly be a team to be reckoned with.

Their core is all signed on team friendly deals too.

 

[FirstRowUpperDeck]

I was thinking of the desolation in the stands. Consistently the least attended games are those of the Islanders, Panthers, Yotes, Hurricanes and Sens. Each hovers in the 70's% in attendance, while every other team has at least 90% of seats filled (or sold, I am sure the STH don't attend every game, and there are probably 100's of tickets given away each night that are called "sold.")

 

[Perfect_Drug]

Buffalo would have been fine, but management and fans are too impatient.

Trading away Kane and RoR were mistakes.
Signing Skinner to that boat-anchor contract was a mistake.

Dahlin will be a perennial Norris contender in 2-3 years.

YOU CAN NOT RUSH THIS.

Absolutely nothing you do will speed up this timeline.
When Dahlin/Eichel becomes a dominant force in this league, so will the Sabres.

Just stop doing stupid shit out of impatience.



signed,

- Every Oiler fan circa 2007-2019

 

[JTToilinginToronto]

Sharks came to mind here immediately. At least a team like Detroit is guaranteed a top 4 pick in June.

 

[Kamina]

The Sharks are a model franchise. They will have to retool, but they'll be back eventually.

As a few people have said here, you can't get around bad ownership. Melnyk has said that the Sens will spend to the cap after the rebuild is done... I'm not sure if anyone believes that though.

 

[93LEAFS]

I was thinking of the desolation in the stands. Consistently the least attended games are those of the Islanders, Panthers, Yotes, Hurricanes and Sens. Each hovers in the 70's% in attendance, while every other team has at least 90% of seats filled (or sold, I am sure the STH don't attend every game, and there are probably 100's of tickets given away each night that are called "sold.")

I'd think in very strong markets season ticket holders could re-sell their tickets at a profit for games they don't go to. In strong markets, they can probably re-sell them at cost. In healthy markets, you would at least think the team would be popular enough that you could gift them to a friend who would be happy to go.

I get the Panthers, Yotes and Sens attendance issues. I don't get how NYI and Hurricanes are so low after the runs they had last year.

 

[lauraP]

It's not you, not even close, you got Brady Tkachuk, Thomas Chabot, 2 top 5 picks, 3 1sts and 6 2nds over the next 2 drafts and that's BEFORE you sell this year.

You are in good shape.

The answer is Buffalo 9 years out of the playoffs, VERY little to show for it beyond the top 2 picks they Olofsson in 2014 that's it and he got hurt so we still don't know what he is.

No center depth, no #1 goalie, no forward depth in general.

The answer is Buffalo

Meh sabres can make they leap they just need a gm who isn't a complete dumb dumb. If you look at all of his moves aside from the nylander for jokiharju trade they are just puzzling. He's doing other GM Major favours and acting like he won the trade


Sheary + Hunwick for a 3rd+5th
Miller For 2nd + 5th
Vesey For 3rd

when you trade for cap dumps aren't you suppose to get a prospect / pick as a sweetener ? does every person in the world know this expect the sabres GM ? god leafs should have just kept their 1st and traded marleau to us we probably would have given dubas a 2nd for him

 

[I am Canadian]

Sabres, Habs & Sharks are the top three options imo.

Ducks could be up there depending on ownerships direction - they need a rebuild/retool and they have a lot of assets that could accelerate (Silfverberg, Rakell, Manson, Fowler).. They just need to decide what the plan is.

 

[FunkySeeFunkyDoo]

For long term hopelessness and despair, it's the Ottawa Senators.

If you do any kind of objective analysis of the slow but steady decline of the Sens the past 10 or 12 years, you will find a number of root causes. And every single one of those root causes still exists for the franchise.

 

[Hostile Offer]

Looking at it from the perspective of "If I were an expansion city and could choose to acquire any current team in-full for my city, who do I pick last" - Buffalo certainly wouldn't be picked last by me. Eichel/Dahlin are fantastic pieces.

McDavid was too fwiw. Despite Edmonton's embarassing years of suckage, they were never the "most desolate franchise" after 2015 because McDavid is such an x-factor that can accelerate any rebuild/contention status. Same for Eichel/Dahlin.

Edmonton has at least found some success with McDavid (in small dozes but still). Buffalo is now in year five with Eichel and year two with both of them and have gone absolutely nowhere. They've been trying and trying to build around them but nothing has given them the next step. They've gone through different coaches, GMs and players on literally every position to try and fix what's wrong and it's not helping. It's a hopeless looking situation. Like, if you're the Sens or Detroit or one of the California teams it's easy to pick a direction: slowly rebuild. But what exactly are you going to do with the Sabres?

 

[bobholly39]

Edmonton has at least found some success with McDavid (in small dozes but still). Buffalo is now in year five with Eichel and year two with both of them and have gone absolutely nowhere. They've been trying and trying to build around them but nothing has given them the next step. They've gone through different coaches, GMs and players on literally every position to try and fix what's wrong and it's not helping. It's a hopeless looking situation. Like, if you're the Sens or Detroit or one of the California teams it's easy to pick a direction: slowly rebuild. But what exactly are you going to do with the Sabres?

Ottawa, Detroit, the California teams...all of them are tanking/rebuilding in hopes of landing even 1 player of the talent of Eichel/Dahlin, let alone 2 of them.

Buffalo already has them. They're in a better spot. Just because they've failed and struggled to properly build a successful team around them yet, doesn't mean it can't be done, or that it's harder to do than for teams who don't have such talented pieces.

If I'm an expansion team acquiring a team with the ability to replace coach/gm and make changes as I see fit to core via trades etc - Buffalo is definitely not the last team I pick. A year ago people would have been saying the same thing about Edmonton - and I would have said the same thing myself, that no- a team with McDavid (let alone Drai too) is in a much better place than many other teams without him.

It's much easier to successfully rebuild with such talented players, then without them.

 

[MPGA]

Bob is struggling but the Panthers have a very good core of Barkov/Hub/Trocheck/Ekblad etc. If he turns it around and goes back to his elite level of play, they will certainly be a team to be reckoned with.

Their core is all signed on team friendly deals too.

It's easy to blame Bob, but there are more significant problems despite the flashy scoring numbers. It's a core that can't even make the playoffs in a league where more than half the teams make it. They have peaked as a bubble team. Completely capped out yet still mediocre.

 

[A Loyal Dog]

Habs AINEC.

With idiots like Bergevin, Timmins, and Molson at the helm, there is absolutely no hope. No plan, no direction, always stuck in mediocrity (no man's land) and TERRIBLE drafting.