That ship sailed away when Hunter dropped the ball with the drafting. Blackhawks won because they drafted really well, even before Toews and Kane. It was deep group of talent including Keith, Seabrook, Hjalmarsson etc. drafted outside of first round and well before their real rebuild started. We got our top players from those early drafts, but couldn't get any solid late round picks in "Hunter era".
Environment in the league was also different, since most of the teams had to gut their team, because of the salary cap and they didn't have that young players base waiting. It was easier to build trough draft and become good in a few years. Now there are "copycats" everywhere in different stages of rebuilds. Buffalo has been in rebuild for over a decade and Edmonton ran into some problems, when they couldn't draft outside of first round.