I mean, to paraphrase the legendary Pierre Dorion, "it was a team"Is the argument that a roster with Eberle, Hall, RNH, Schultz, Klefbom, Perron, Petry and Draisaitl, all of whom were 27 or under, was nothing? McDavid definitely changed the trajectory of Edmonton and he's the biggest reason they became relevant, but the takeaway from that list is that its truly mind boggling that they made the playoffs once in his first 4 seasons.
But sure, those young guys had promise but the team around them was garbage. That's how rebuilds go. And to your point, it took drafting a guy who should easily finish as a top 5 NHLer all time just to get back to being a playoff team. And even then it took work to build a roster that was capable of making it to the finals, and still, that roster needed to be carried on the back of some legendary performances from individuals.
The Ducks are in a fine spot. It's frustrating that they couldn't get some temporary strength to try to leverage a playoff push, but it happens. They still have a lot of young talent that hasn't reached their full potential because they're still learning and developing.