Top 10 teams with the darkest future 2018

[Sidney the Kidney]

Everything I wrote was with the OP in mind. I say that within 5 years they will be in decline, but the decline will have started well before that. They will still be good enough to lead a great team in the playoffs, but my problem with that is that they lack the young talent to make up for their decline. That's why I compared them to Chicago. All it would take for the Penguins to have massive problems is for Crosby or Malkin to take a step back like Keith and Seabrook did for the Hawks. They are still good players for the Hawks, but just not as dominant as they once were. The big loss for them is the slight downgrade in Keith. The problem is no one to take the pressure off of him

I'd argue the biggest problem with the Hawks was how much guys like Toews and Seabrook are earning hampering them from being able to add depth. The Pens don't have any albatross contracts unless you think Crosby or Malkin will drop from 90+ point players to 50 point players within the next couple of years.

Again, it could happen due to injury, but when is the last time two fully healthy players of Crosby and Malkin's stature declined in their mid thirties to the point where they are no longer top line players? Even if they both decline to "only" 75 point players, that's still better than a lot of teams have down the middle.

I also think you overrate the lack of talent outside of their core group. Guentzel's proven himself to be a playoff beast, Murray's won two Cups as the starter and has put up historically good numbers along the way, and both are under 25. And their depth guys like Rust, Maatta, Dumoulin, Schultz, etc. are all in their early to mid-twenties.

Washington literally just won their first Cup with a core group including a 32 year old Ovechkin (who doesn't seem to be declining), a 30 year old Backstrom, and a 31 year old Oshie. San Jose's still considered a contender with a core that's even older than the Pens.

I'm not saying it's a guarantee they keep winning Cups -- it's never easy, no matter how old the core -- but I also think you're envisioning a decline in Crosby and Malkin that would be quite dramatic and would be a rare thing for elite players for the Pens to not be a good team over the next 5 seasons.

 

[justafan22]

When Dallas's core gets older, do they have enough prospects to fill those needs other than Miro?

 

[Critical13]

Bumping up - open until start of October when I am going to cut it off.

You can change your votes based on things which may have happened. For example, if Dallas signs Seguin, that will change my vote.

 

[obey86]

I didn't choose ten, but I like the poll idea OP.

So without further ado....

Detroit: Same as the Rangers, although I think their situation is even worse because they have some truly god awful contracts on that team. Henrik Zetterberg is slowly going to pasture. Another team that could use a high end talent.

Please explain how the bad contracts they have on the books will hinder them in any way moving forward with the rebuild. They have 21 million in cap hits coming off the books next offseason, another 24 million the offseason after that, and then another 17 million the offseason after that. The only player worth a damn they need even need to re-sign to a biggish deal in that timespan in Mantha in two years, and (maybe, if he improves) Athanasiou. So yeah, they have some bad contracts on the books, but it's not going to matter...they are loaded with enough cap space to do anything possible moving forward.

 

[Intact]

I would be an extremely rich man if I could bet against New Jerseys odds in this poll.

 

[Nizdizzle]

I would be an extremely rich man if I could bet against New Jerseys odds in this poll.

I mean, they have the 20th most votes, do you think they should have more or less?