From Purgatory to A Cup: Teams that should've rebuilt/retooled, but didn't, then ended up winning it all

[blundluntman]

We've all seen the team that is good enough to make the playoffs, but mediocre enough to not be a real contender. This is fine when a team's developing but can feel like purgatory for fans when they know their team would be better off rebuilding/retooling sooner than later. Are there any teams you can think of that refused to do so, then somehow ended up winning a Cup?

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[frisco]

Actually, no. I can't think of any.

My Best-Carey

 

[MadLuke]

I imagine lot of talks around the Pens before they started winning cups again in 2016-2017.

But I guess they were always in reality real contender (there was competing talk the if Malkin-Crosby are both healthy they are a contender versus the window is closed and it is a mirage), it was just fans exaggerating negatively like the pre-2018 caps.

In this era it is hard to be always be playoff bound without being a real contender, making the playoffs comfortably is quite hard, if we made a list of teams last summer certain of making the playoff in 2025, how many in that list would have been not real contender... Not a lot of space between a will make the playoff comfortably but will not compete for the cup in modern NHL hockey.

 

[Wee Baby Seamus]

2019 St. Louis?

Miss the playoffs for the first time in 7 years in 2018, with a sense that they had stagnated and needed overhauling.

Instead they make one trade, for O’Reilly, start the season calamitously, and end up winning the cup with almost the exact same roster as missed the year prior.

 

[BigBadBruins7708]

I imagine lot of talks around the Pens before they started winning cups again in 2016-2017.

But I guess they were always in reality real contender, it was just fans exagerating like the pre 2018 caps.

In this era it is hard to be always be playoff bound without being a real contender, making the playoffs comfortably is quite hard, if we made a list of teams last summer certain of making the playoff in 2025, how many in that list would have been not real contender... Not a lot of space between a will make the playoff comfortably but will not compete for the cup in modern NHL hockey.

Yeah, this is the one for me. They looked to be firmly in the "make the playoffs, maybe in a round" each year purgatory

 

[MadLuke]

the blues win felt like such a special case that could be an exception that confirm the rules a bit like the 2012 8th place Kings winning it all.

That said not so easy coming up with teams that did that without winning the cup either, constant playoff tend to have contender windows or will make a big move at some point (a la Weber leaving the Preds)