Is Expansion Making Rebuilds More Difficult?

[DrMartinVanNostrand]

…in a league that is inherently competitively unbalanced because it has no salary cap or floor (and I say this as a Yankees fan). It’s one of the reasons baseball and the MLB are becoming less and less popular. Definitely not the league the NHL should aspire to be like.

I don't inherently disagree with the view being expressed here, but since the 2004-'05 lockout, here's the number of unique winners in each league:

MLB: White Sox, Cardinals (x2), Red Sox (x3), Phillies, Yankees, Giants (x3), Royals, Cubs, Astros, Nationals, Dodgers (x2), Braves, Astros, Rangers

13 teams have won the World Series since 2005.

NHL: Hurricanes, Ducks, Red Wings, Penguins (x3), Blackhawks (x3), Bruins, Kings (x2), Capitals, Blues, Lightning (x2), Avalanche, Golden Knights, Panthers

13 Stanley Cup winners since 2005.

Somehow we've arrived at the same number in spite of the differing circumstances.

 

[TheBeerNerd]

I don't think that is the major reason. It doesn't help, but it doesn't tell the whole story.

The biggest culprit is that teams like to burn down everything without an idea of who they want to be on the other side. I've said this before, but I'm really not sure what the team identities of Buffalo, Detroit, or Anaheim are. Ottawa has one under Travis Green, but it's come a few years into their rebuild, and he isn't a good coach anyway.

It's not foolproof. In the Devils' first rebuild, Ray Shero said he wanted a run-and-gun team, but he picked John Hynes as his coach, and that wasn't his style. When they promoted Tom Fitzgerald, he said he wanted to build around the core players, which at the time was Jack Hughes and Nico Hischier. Kind of vague in terms of what kind of team they wanted to be, but you also have to note who is most important and go from there. There have been some tinkers along the way, but he stuck to the plan and they're doing much better.

 

[I Hate Blake Coleman]

…in a league that is inherently competitively unbalanced because it has no salary cap or floor (and I say this as a Yankees fan). It’s one of the reasons baseball and the MLB are becoming less and less popular. Definitely not the league the NHL should aspire to be like.

Competition is hard. If it takes decades to win a Cup then that's just the way she goes.

It's not a problem. It's just sports.

 

[Else Ermine]

I'm not bothered by diluting the playing talent. I feel we're currently in an era with a tremendous wealth of high end talent and depth players have never been more skilled.
On top of that coaching teams have more means now with fitness and video tech to get their teams playing hyper refined systems that do a lot to negate skill disparity. Plus, more often than not you can depend on the refs to look kindly upon you if you're trailing in a game.

I'm open to the idea of a dilution of management talent affecting teams however. Some organisations are just vastly better run than others.