Maybe, but no one knows that for certain. If the Kings tanked and had top 5 picks in 6 of those 7 years since 2005, including multiple #1's would they? Didn't work for Edmonton. Florida had a ton during that same era, still haven't made it past the 2nd round. The Islanders had a bunch of top 5 picks in that timeframe as well and were the best of that bunch, but they never made it to the final even with Trotz at the helm. Now they are trending down again.
Who of those teams are closer to contending than the Kings? I would say the NYI are the only one and to be honest they are in about the same spot. Florida is old, too. Quick and Edler's contracts run out after this season, if they go the Kings will be among the league's youngest teams. Rebuilds are hard, and no matter what path is chosen things can get screwed up. There are certainly no absolutes. I take heart in the fact that they haven't completely screwed this one up.
Management hasn’t screwed anything up because they haven’t chose a direction to go in (at least from the outside perspective).
If they wanted to a competitive re-tool, it’s been a vanilla bowl of meh.
If they wanted a fire sale rebuild, they have missed the mark by a while, as holding onto glory year vets by signing and holding onto bloated contracts have only hindered what could have been.
If they wanted to tread water to keep butts in seats, that mark was missed with years of missed playoffs and misguided roster decisions, although they are mighty close to years of that particular desired outcome at this point.
I honestly have no clue which direction the current management team wants to go, but I’m all but certain that the direction the team is headed is gonna bring us back to the Dave Taylor black hole days.
