i think the miraculous job allvin has done tells us something about talent level and expansion.
bitd, pre-san jose expansion, you could rebuild an entire d corps in one year. and it would just cost you draft picks and spare parts. you just had to find a team with too many dmen, because talent exceeded roster spots. in one year we got lumme, diduck, murzyn, and babych for a late 2nd, a 4th, and spare parts and goons. the only player of note we gave up was brian bradley, who was barely an NHLer before they added three new teams (and two more a year later) and we got him for goon craig coxe.
ditto burke’s core. ohlund was our guy, jovo was a marquee piece in a superstar trade. but you couldn’t get a salo now for a peter schaefer, say a hoglander. but ottawa had too many young dmen and he was expendable. ditto mccabe, who was part of a blockbuster, but after the trade the islanders still had kenny jonsson, rookie bryan berard, very raw and young chara, and aging out former top five pick scott lachance. and because of our abundance on the blueline, we likewise gave up aucoin for dan cloutier. so in the early days of the nashville/columbus wave of expansion, there were still more than enough guys to go around.
i won’t go through the gillis years but i feel like then we struggled just to have enough guys. ehrhoff was a gift but ballard cost us and hamhuis was a right place right time UFA.
but we effectively gave up a 1C and a high end 2C for hronek and mp3. direly needed and i think it goes to show that if you aren’t developing your own dmen, there aren’t enough out there to fill the gaps with.
