These guys, at best, are 3rd liners. At the VERY VERY best. Most likely they are fourth liners.
Rust, Guentzel and Sheary all ended up being key top 6 players during those runs.
Now, you want to recreate the same effect when the core is noticibly older and our prospects much crappier. Should we have continued incorporating youth and developping much better? Hell yeah! But we did not, so we will need to rebuild.
At this point, we won't contend during the Sid era, that much is a given. Fair enough, try and make the playoffs, but do not sacrifice future assets. Start building the foundation and hope for a gem or two.
Bottom sixers is exactly what we're missing right now.
And of those players, only Jake was in the top six. And that was just for '17.