Salary Cap: 24-'25 Salary Thread: Crosbicles Volume MMXXVII: Retool over! Time to go for a cup in 2026!

[AuroraBorealis]

No team is definitely 7-10 years away unless they have some truly awful contracts or buyouts. The Penguins are just bad and will be so for the immediate future. What happens after that depends on who they draft. The 04 Penguins were much worse yet were in the finals 4 years later

That's with unreliable levels of luck, and with back-to-back top 5 league players who were elite out of the gates.
And that's before they changed the draft lottery where even #32 in the league only has a 25.5% chance of picking 1st.

That's not a formula for this team now. Dubas will have to carefully build this out, and results will be more achieved by committee.
I really don't see them being in a Finals in 4 years. We don't even have 1 piece of the next core identified and/or developed yet. We're also passing on multiple 1sts we could get through trade, just to play guys well into their 30's, at a time when we should be tanking.

But if the optimists wanna believe that, I'm not gonna shame them for it. Crazy stuff happens in this world.

 

[66-30-33]

Florida back on the table for EK65 at the draft

What does Florida even have?

 

[Pancakes]

That's with unreliable levels of luck, and with back-to-back top 5 league players who were elite out of the gates.
And that's before they changed the draft lottery where even #32 in the league only has a 25.5% chance of picking 1st.

That's not a formula for this team now. Dubas will have to carefully build this out, and results will be more achieved by committee.
I really don't see them being in a Finals in 4 years. We don't even have 1 piece of the next core identified and/or developed yet. We're also passing on multiple 1sts we could get through trade, just to play guys well into their 30's, at a time when we should be tanking.

But if the optimists wanna believe that, I'm not gonna shame them for it. Crazy stuff happens in this world.

You don't have to win the lottery to get elite talent. If you finish poorly and lose the lottery you're still picking top 3 or top 5 and likely to get great players at those slots.

 

[Gurglesons]

What does Florida even have?

Mackie and Luostrainen would be great adds.

Not sure why we would trade EK65 though.

 

[bambamcam4ever]

That's with unreliable levels of luck, and with back-to-back top 5 league players who were elite out of the gates.
And that's before they changed the draft lottery where even #32 in the league only has a 25.5% chance of picking 1st.

That's not a formula for this team now. Dubas will have to carefully build this out, and results will be more achieved by committee.
I really don't see them being in a Finals in 4 years. We don't even have 1 piece of the next core identified and/or developed yet. We're also passing on multiple 1sts we could get through trade, just to play guys well into their 30's, at a time when we should be tanking.

But if the optimists wanna believe that, I'm not gonna shame them for it. Crazy stuff happens in this world.

The Penguins only won one draft lottery and that was with a 6% chance. It's not likely they will again like that but top 2 picks are the most sure-fire way to build a consistent contender

 

[BillyOcean]

"we don't want to end up like Chicago and San Jose".....

Or you could end up like the 2000s Blackhawks and 2000s Penguins. Something something live in our fears.

Why are these talking heads and front office staff not concerned about being the Flyers ? The mediocre middle for 50 years.