Our rebuild has to be timely and proactive. We need to consider the context of our young players and capitalize on opportunities that present themselves. If you're willing to sacrifice prime years of young top line players like Suzuki and Caufield for a <5% chance per year at an elite talent... I guess go for it. But the point is to build a winning team, not gamble years of good hockey away dreaming of a single player that may or may not ever arrive or change the fortunes of the club when they get here. Slafkovsky, Kotkaniemi, Galchenyuk, Drouin, Dach, etc. are all top-3 picks but just aren't good enough to turn the team around or build around.
What do you do when the window closes on Suzuki/Caufield/Dach/Slafkovsky/Guhle/etc. after rolling the dice on top-5 picks? If winning the lottery happens, great. We still need to be building in the meantime. Investing vs. gambling IMO.
It's basically a varied approach to the promised land.
Keep trying to acquire more first round picks by moving players that aren't pencilled in with your future core once you have returned to being a Cup contender.
Select a player at the draft with your own pick as long as it is the best you have in the first round and use the other pick(s) acquired to to trade for a young NHLer that fits your needs and your team culture.
Last year was a blueprint to how MON wants to rebuild.
They used their own pick to select Slafkovsky and used the mid first round pick they acquired in return for Romanov to trade for Dach. Then, they used their third 1st round pick to select Mesar.
Hughes was seeking to acquire a third first round pick again this season to do pretty much what he had done at the last draft; pick with his own pick, make a trade for a young NHLer with a mid first round pick (FLA's), probably Dubois and use his third first rounder to select another player at the draft. Unfortunately, the injury bug hit and the players he had as trade bait for a third first round pick were out of play.
Still, nothing prevents Hughes from selecting a player with MON's own first round pick, packaging FLA's 1t round pick for a young NHLer (Dubois or a top-4 RHD) and, maybe packaging a player like Dvorak and our second round pick for a late 1st round pick as our third first round pick and a late 2nd round pick to replace the one we packaged with Dvorak. We would, once more, select a player at the draft with that third 1st round pick.
wonder what Kent thinks about PLD????
They were seen fishing together last summer.
