Yeah Chicago made a few unforced errors and are now finally running out of same. That team is very much like Detroit in the mid-late 90's, where they had the right mix at the right time to capitalize on a changing NHL. In Detroit's case they had a winning young core come together just as the NHL was entering the UFA spending era, where success = making more money and having money = more success. People will bring up Toronto and New York but it didn't work out for them because they were just spending money without having a good core already in place ('94 aside).
In Chicago's case, it was all about first having a good team emerge with the core star players on ELC at a time the other top teams were being squeezed by the salary cap, and second having a completely loaded prospect cupboard due to all the draft picks they had he few years before. Then when it was time for them to feel the cap squeeze, the good players being pushed out were reaching RFA status, not UFA status, which meant they got trade for more good picks/prospects and the cycle just repeated. Now with too many recent mistakes made and the last few rounds of extra draft picks not turning up much their cycle is pretty much finished. Note that in the 2018 draft they're down their 2nd and 4th round pick and only have an extra 5th.
