Yes.
Other teams have kept their core and won.
I think hockey is a very random game and a bounce here or there can decide a game or series.
Barkov and Tkachuk were considered playoff no shows until recently and they had worse stats than our core.
Bobrovsky was the backup going into the playoffs the year before.
Past results to not always reflect future results.
Ovechkin was a loser and would never win until he did.
Since MacKinnon was drafted in Colorado their playoff record would make you think that he could never win a cup.
There lots of examples of this sort of thing.
I don't think them winning is ever likely, but I think that is the case for every team.
Whoever is favored to win next year likely won't.
I can respect your stance. I feel your stance on this is, “we have elite players, why pivot off of that”. As you’ve stated, other teams have won with their “cores”, have been patient and have garnered positive results (Stanley cup).
I guess where we need to look is to the other teams, whom have stayed patient and won with their cores.
I’m going to list some “core” level players that these past winners have moved on from.
Washington: Greene, semin, Williams
Colorado: ROR, Duchene, Barrie
Florida: Huberdeau, Weegar, Gudas
Vegas: everyone
Tampa: JT Miller, Johnson, palat/Stamkos(after cups)
Even Pittsburg moved away from their “3 headed beast” model (Crosby, Malkin, Staal down the middle).
I would say there’s a fair amount of data that backs the idea of moving assets to re-jig the makeup of these teams before they made their final push to the top.
This is not a knock on JT and Marner. They could both sign in CBJ next year and be key contributors to a cup win - I just believe there needs to be some curation here, as we’ve never attempted to build anything, only accumulate assets. We’ve done well, we have 3 elite fwds - some massaging should be (and IMO needs to be) done.