Brightest and Darkest Futures 2018 - 5 year outlook

[Kaners Bald Spot]

If you take who the player was during the time in which they won the Cup, Toews and Bergeron were absolutely Elite number one centers. I'd argue that players like them are more valuable in the playoffs than your Crosby/Malkin/Ovi types. There is a reason why the Hawks Kings and Bruins won every cup from 2010-15, and the reason is Toews, Bergeron and Kopitar. They were damn good offensive players that were elite defensively. During those years, if you were a one line team, you had zero chance vs those three because they'd shut your top line down and score on them in the process. I just think that the very good offensively/Elite defensively two way centers win more cups than the elite offensive players in this era of hockey. Just don't make the same mistake the Hawks did and overpay them. Elite offensive centers are more valuable during the regular season, but the elite defensive center who is very good offensively is definitely more valuable in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. This was the crux of the Toews vs Crosby argument in 2014. It is the same in every sport, and it is cliche for a reason: Offense wins games, Defense wins championships. Nobody wins championships with an Elite offense without a top 10 defense to back it up.


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[Henkka]

Detroit will be in good shape in 5 years. Out of cap problems , nice youth now to trade for futures like Nyquist and AA . Just had a very good draft and if that keeps up I view Detroit being a young talented team all coming of age at the same time. In 5 years Detroit will be no fun to play.

Yep. 2 years goes and Detroit doesn't look bad at all anymore.

 

[TheAngryHank]

In 5 years Pittsburgh will be laughing stallk.

 

[Seedling]

Yeah, looking at their prospects a bit more plus the other guys they have who will be around for a while, I misjudged Detroit's 2-4 year outlook. As dumb as it may sound, it might be a good thing they don't have Zetterberg this year. It will force them to test some players more and hopefully those players excel in the added duties.

 

[heilongjetsfan]

I decided to create 2 polls - the first asks which 10 teams have the brightest future? This doesn't mean "who will improve the most", but rather "who will be cup contenders, who will rack up the most points, who will always be near the top". The second poll is the opposite, and asks "who will rack up the least points, be near the bottom, will not contend" over that 5 year span.

Brightest
Top 10 teams with the brightest future 2018

Darkest
Top 10 teams with the darkest future 2018

Below is a graph showing the results. I will keep this thread updated for new votes periodically. Users can also change votes if they see fit.

Snapshot of August 1st 2018

Snapshot of July 31st 2018

Note - The decimals in the % are hidden, which may explain some weird math.

I know this discussion has been dead for a year, but HF just advertised it to me at the bottom of a page in the Jets forum, so it seemed like fair game for a bump.

This is a cool idea and I wonder if you'd thought of resurrecting it this year. It would be interesting to see how opinions had changed in a year (ok, 14 months.) My guess is my Jets fall off a cliff and the Habs climb significantly.

I think this would be a really fun year-in, year-out topic that in a few years could really give an interesting macro of changing opinions throughout the league.

 

[Hustlr]

Also curious, please update

Thx in advance!!

seems like the perfect type of thread to bump my man ^^^