I haven’t been this happy since 2017

[Dionysus]

Flew too close to the sun, thread is now bringing the optimism crashing back down.

 

[PlayOn]

Dallas only missed the playoffs twice single 2017 and even made the finals in 2020 with a bunch of players they've had since forever, like Seguin, Benn, Klingberg etc.

Carolina also only missed one playoff since 2017, but yeah, they're probably the only example.

Anyways, all I'm saying is "drafting is the easiest part of a rebuild" is a pretty stupid argument. That's the biggest failure point of so many rebuilds around the league. That's not the case for us.

Not only this, but there’s a long history of teams that get top 5 picks wrong.

2017 - Nolan Patrick
2018 - Kotkaniemi, Hayton
2019 - Kakko, Dach, Turcotte
2020 - Byfield over Stützle

Etc…

Every year someone makes a mistake in the top 5. And a lot of teams draft well but find themselves with major holes at a certain position - the Sens did a pretty good job of balancing out the team. Not to say it was perfect but basically this entire core and then some was built through the draft.

 

[frightenedinmatenum2]

How many teams have successfully done a rebuild since 2017 without a 1st overall pick?

I agree with you to an extent, but I don't like looking at drafts in a static basis as if every draft slot is of equal value year to year. The 2020 draft was advertised as having three 1st overall type talents in Lafreniere, Byfield, and Stutzle. Byfield and Stutzle were both seen as guys who could go 1st in weaker draft year.

It's also ironic that not winning the 1st overall pick that year ended up helping them in the end.

 

[Silky Johnson]

Jinx thread jinxed.

 

[swiftwin]

I agree with you to an extent, but I don't like looking at drafts in a static basis as if every draft slot is of equal value year to year. The 2020 draft was advertised as having three 1st overall type talents in Lafreniere, Byfield, and Stutzle. Byfield and Stutzle were both seen as guys who could go 1st in weaker draft year.

It's also ironic that not winning the 1st overall pick that year ended up helping them in the end.

Yes, Stutzle was a no-brainer pick, but Tkachuk and Sanderson were not.