The most desolate franchise

[playasRus]

I wish Ottawa could be lambasted in the media the way NHL fans know it is. Maybe hiring Eugene's ego could convince a sale or Adobe spending. Or even him butting out of hockey ops

 

[mattef]

Any answer that isn't Buffalo is wrong. Don't have anyone outside of Eichel, Reinhart, and Dahlin. Don't have many good prospects and have mismanaged the ones they do have thus far. What they do have is a ton of bad contracts.

many teams are in the same situation but without even the dream of a Dahlin or an Eichel. Take Minnesota. I'm sorry but they really have nothing going on for them. loooong road ahead.

 

[Brownies]

The NHL is an awesome awesome league if the Habs are supposed to be the most desolate team (according to a few people). I’ve enjoyed watching the team these past two years. I hate this idea that it’s the cup or doom/gloom. The notion that 1 team should enjoy a year while the other 30 cry in a corner is laughable.

 

[Hammettf2b]

How is this not Detroit in a landslide?
Bunch of bad contracts, some strong prospects yes, but a lot of mediocrity, and then on top of all that they are in Detroit

Those bad contracts don't hinder the rebuild. They just replaced Holland with Yzerman and they are guaranteed a top 4 pick in this years draft.

 

[tucker3434]

Detroit. There just isn’t much currently there, and as we’ve seen, just being terrible is no guarantee you’ll get a franchise player anymore.

 

[M.C.G. 31]

Montreal is up there.


Directionless under dumb and dumber duo of Molson & Bergevin, shoddy player development under this regime up to this point, no actual plan so when a position is somehow filled (centre) another big hole is created in the lineup and organization depth chart (left defense). Not good enough to contend or even make the playoffs, but not bad enough to bottom out and be guaranteed a top-4 pick. Big contracts in Price and Weber on the books, the aforementioned GM insisting on not rebuilding and moving players or even committing to an actual plan aside from hoarding mid-round draft picks.


It’s a shitty situation. A few other teams may have it worse but this organization is spinning its tires in mediocrity like the pre-Shanahan Leafs were.

 

[Do Make Say Think]

many teams are in the same situation but without even the dream of a Dahlin or an Eichel. Take Minnesota. I'm sorry but they really have nothing going on for them. loooong road ahead.

The last time Minnesota went all-in was in 2012 and they couldn't get past dynasty Chicago. They are on the downswing but we all saw it coming.

Buffalo has been terrible since 2008?

 

[Flameshomer]

It's the team with this stat line over the last 20 years:

GP. W L OTL T
1497 635 661 154 47

1500 games and 815 losses. 42% win rate over 20 years, and I'm being very generous including the first 5 years of the two decades gets way worse if you do 15 lo .

This is edmonton in case anyone was wondering. The Oilers are statistically the most pathetic "pro" sports franchise of this millennium.

 

[Voight]

96 pts last year and a pipeline of very good prospects coming up. Yes, they've had injuries this year but to suggest no man's land is ridiculous. They ARE rebuilding without saying it. They have price's replacement and another 11 picks this summer. They'll be fine

They have made good picks but their player development sucks / is subpar.

Kotkaniemi looked good but he's now in the AHL. The rest are still question marks and they don't have any real bluechip prospects.

They are pretty much stuck trying to go for 7th or 8th place and hoping they make it, otherwise they will just have a lower end lottery pick year after year.

 

[Stewie Griffin]

Coming from a Sharks fan, we definitely aren't in a great position, but have better ownership then most teams in the league, which means a lot more than some people think. Ownership is who funds for everything, allowing you to remain competitive longer and attract new assets.

With that in mind, the teams that come to mind are Ottawa, who is collecting more talent, Minnesota (who never really goes all in, or tank-mode to grab a top overall pick), and I'm also tempted to include Arizona/Florida because of their lack of success (other then a handful of playoff runs combined in their histories) and how hard it is for them to attract big free agents.

 

[ItWasJustified]

Price hasn't been great but he still makes them a lot better than NJ, OTT, DET etc

True, but the fourth worst team still has a good chance to win the draft lottery.

 

[mattef]

The last time Minnesota went all-in was in 2012 and they couldn't get past dynasty Chicago. They are on the downswing but we all saw it coming.

Buffalo has been terrible since 2008?

i assumed the thread was about the current situation of a team, not historically. that's a whole other discussion.

 

[The Panther]

This is edmonton in case anyone was wondering. The Oilers are statistically the most pathetic "pro" sports franchise of this millennium.

I don't see it. If you're talking about "the millennium", we're going back to 2000. Since then, the Oilers have had 9 (soon to be 10, probably) winning seasons, have had the Art Ross and Hart trophy winner, and have been to the 7th game of the Finals. There are a handful of teams that have done worse. The Oilers might indeed be the most disappointing (given the high draft choices and two or three failed 'rebuilds'), but not the worst. Not the most desolate either, as they consistently sell out their games.

The "winner" here might actually be Atlanta/Winnipeg. They've had one or two more winning seasons than Edmonton since 2000, but they've made the playoffs only 4 times in nearly 20 years, including once in their first fifteen seasons.

 

[Boxscore]

San Jose, Montreal, Minnesota, Anaheim.

 

[Tage2Tuch]

Something is wrong in buffalo

People need to calm the hell down with Buffalo, everyone predicted them to finish out of the top four and what are they fifth or sixth?

they’re on paper a .500 team at best and right now there .500....what am I missing? They have two top ten assists for the next decade and people are saying they have the bleakest outlook of 31 teams? Get real.

I get the wait has been long but don’t let that blind people from what’s actually going on.

now if there like this in two years from now, he’ll maybe even next year then I’ll join this train.

ullnark looks to be great Ukko Pekka Luukonen too but he’s in his second year and dahlias in his second year.

reinhart and eichel their 5th, sure but they have pieces, joker, Montoya, olofsson, cozens, Ryan Johnson should be good, Samuelson is thought to bring in a tough rugged leadership role. Skinner, is still young and locked up, tons of cap room coming up....

every team has prospects

 

[Tage2Tuch]

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

You already showed how much you pay attention to what this team has in it’s pipeline last summer when you thought olofsson would be a bum. Now your point him out. How convenient.

You WANT the answer to be Buffalo. Anyone who thinks a team with two top ten in the league pieces for the future has. Worse future then all of the other thirty one franchises obviously doesent understand how this goes.

you go around trashing buffalo on here as a hobby and have horrible logic like saying victor olofsson didn’t count for this season because he hadn’t proven anything (leads ago in scoring scores thirty goals in the all)

This is for the future....what does that last 8 years have to do with anything.

No number one goalie? You realiZe they have one of the best goaltending prospects in the works and UllMark is already excellent he’s just in his second year.

the leafs are like only 8 points ahead of the sabres right now and on paper buffalo isn’t supposed to be that great anyway.



Infact you can make a strong argument Buffalo has a brighter future then tpronto, based off the fact one of luukonen Or ullmark should be the starter in or close to prime with eichel and dahlin while Tavares and Anderson Will be too old it matter and Matthews and mariner are leaving town. And what else is there after that? Rasmussen Sandin! Wow.

Actually suggesting a team with one of the best young cores Prospects included has the absolute worst looking future in the league not only shows your agenda, it shows blatant ignorance.


People can be all dramatic with how bad it is and bla bla, they have only 30-35 million off the books by next year, so there’s your goalie or depth issues solved (and they have pieces anyway) ps- Colorado was historically bad in 2017 and the next year they almost bounced the preds out and the year after they eliminated the top team in the west in the first round. Things can change in a hurry in this league. Remember the leafs finishing dead last then making the playoffs? It happens all
The time and Buffalo isn’t even dead last there what 25-24-8? Hyperbole central on here.

I know it hadn’t worked out In the last ten years for Buffalo, whether it not be the right mix but that was then, that’s not what this is about. It’s about the next ten. And buffalo already with Eichels and dahlin disqualified themself from cinsiderationd here. That’s just the truth. And when that happens, when they make the playoffs in the next couple years, I’ll be the first one to tell you I told you so, just like I did with Eichel.

 

[SecretOilersFan]

This is edmonton in case anyone was wondering. The Oilers are statistically the most pathetic "pro" sports franchise of this millennium.

What statistics are you pulling from? Or how are you defining pathetic? Or more likely are you just staying true to your username?

I mean even in the NHL that is debatable one bounce here and there (or Roloson not getting injured) and we would have a recentish cup which is more than what a lot of NHL teams could say. What makes EDM embarrassing was our poor development system and weak/poorly managed high draft picks for the longest time (I mean Bear is probably one of the first non First rounders that has actually turned out for the team so that says a lot). In terms of actual success there are a lot of very bad NHL teams like Atlanta (who only went to the playoffs once and never won a single game), Arizona, FLA (who had a playoff drought as long as us) etc.

Still in NA sports nothing beats the Cleveland Browns despite our suffering what those guys face is on another level.

Anyway yeah the right answer to this question for longest time was the Oilers and even this season we have had some very unfortunate luck. Still we got hope at least this season has shown that. Buffalo and NJD are basically in the same state we were pre McDavid so they kinda win this. I probably would say Buffalo more so than NJD due to the quality of players they have drafted vs NJD. Shocked they haven't been better.

I wouldn't consider Detroit a desolate franchise just because they really suck now due to the massive success they had before falling on hard times. Their fans got to experience a ton of success they aren't desolate in the slightest.

 

[chauron]

Old, declining team. No 1st round pick this year. Not a great prospect pool. No goaltending. Their future is not very good.

I guess you will have to add the BRAND into discussion, not sure how Sharks is doing but probably not declining in that sense?

 

[KCC]

Sharks in the west and the buffalo oilers in the east.

 

[Filatov2Kovalev2Bonk]

Sharks in the west for sure. Karlsson on a brutal contract and declining, Thornton should have retired or have been traded years ago, Marleau same. Pavelski should still be there, Burns is...Burns, I guess. Doug Wilson needs to go as well, limited prospect depth. Just yikes.

East is probably us or MTL, both franchises in a dead zone but we're likely progressing over the next 2-3 years while the Habs are keeping Bergevin...

 

[Hitemwith4]

Have you looked at our prospect base recently? It flat out sucks. Botts is just about the worst NHL GM since Milbury, nothing but screw up after screw up after screw up. Besides the Joker trade everything the guy has ever done has blown up in our faces like a hand grenade. The guy is on a whole other level of sheer incompetence but because of his status as Hockey Canada Golden Boy he gets a free pass from the gutless hockey media ( Hi Bob "Sabres fans just need to be patient, you can't expect a GM to get a team to not have it's season be over before the end of January in only 3 years" MacKenzie!). It's hard to pinpoint the most idiotic Botts move: was it swapping the first pick of the 6th round for another team's 6th rounder the next season straight up? Was it refusing to do a paper transaction on Mitts last season to make him eligible to play in the AHL playoffs because Botts felt he was a lock for Team USA at the WC even though he had been terrible and didn't even belong in the NHL? But my favorite was this past draft when he inexplicably used the last pick of the first round to grab yet ANOTHER defenseman. And did I mention the kid produces less offense than lots of goalies? And did I mention we passed on a bunch of high end forwards (which even Stevie Wonder would be able to see was/is BY FAR our biggest organizational need)? One we passed on is among the leading goal scorers in junior hockey and carrying a team that had no right finishing out of the league basement to the playoffs. The defenseman has been really bad on a well below average college team.

Just wondering who is this prospect ?

 

[Hitemwith4]

What is wrong with the term? He is only signed until 33 years old.

Yeah 21 goals this year will most likely hit 30 and for 7 mil not bad in this NHL. I could see a team trading for him if the sharks decide to go full rebuild and the sharks could get something pretty good for him

 

[Hitemwith4]

Detroit. There just isn’t much currently there, and as we’ve seen, just being terrible is no guarantee you’ll get a franchise player anymore.

Steve Y just got there, their rebuild is just being started. Holland if remember correctly really wanted to keep pushing for playoffs so there not in worst state

 

[WingsMJN2965]

How is this not Detroit in a landslide?
Bunch of bad contracts, some strong prospects yes, but a lot of mediocrity, [MOD]

Because the bad contracts are falling off as the major signings need to happen, and they've already built a solid supporting cast.

Detroit right now is not in much different a position from Toronto going into the 2016 draft. You still have to hope you win the lottery and find your Auston Matthews level player, but they're running away with the top odds at that.

Add in that they have a competent front office, which is better than what can be said for Buffalo or Ottawa.

 

[sabremike]

Just wondering who is this prospect ?

Prospect Report: Arthur Kaliyev

Passing on Kaliyev is going to end up being an even more catastrophic mistake than the ROR trade.