The thing about a tank is that it undermines the establishment and maintenance of a winning culture. Teams like Buffalo, Ottawa, Detroit, Arizona, Columbus, Edmonton (pre-McDavid) for years had high draft picks but never internalized how to win - and a lot of that is how to play without the puck. Conversely, teams like Boston and Tampa Bay have been winning year in and year out without high draft picks because they expect a baseline level of commitment and play without the puck that breeds and sustains winning - and doesn't necessarily require high draft choices.
That's why this year - and the Hershey run last year - have been so important. What our young guys lack in terms of high-end skill is potentially offset by the experience of being key cogs in a team that wins - and wins in a not very pretty, if you don't play hard without the puck we're f***ed kind of way.
The prime years with the Rock The Red core they never really learned to play consistently hard without the puck and consistently connected as a 5-man unit (Trotz got them to do it in spurts, and somehow one of them coincided with games played in April, May, and June 2018).
It's amazing what Carbs has done in a year - when you look at how many years the lessons he's instilled here those teams I mentioned above have gone without ever learning them effectively. It goes a long way toward making up for the lack of high draft picks (and the one we got last year we seem to have hit pretty well).
The natural counterpoint to that is the success that franchises like Chicago, Los Angeles, and Pittsburgh had following their tanking periods. And Tampa also had an extended tanking period prior to their peak, with them picking 1st overall in 2008 (Stamkos), 2nd overall in 2009 (Hedman), 6th overall in 2010 (Connolly), 10th overall in 2012 (Koekkoek), and 3rd overall in 2013 (Drouin).
And, of course, there are plenty of elements beyond just the team culture that contributes to the success and failure of these various organizations. Boston managed to have a 2nd OA and 9th OA pick without tanking because of Toronto's ineptitude after the Kessel trade. Tampa has obviously had all the salary cap shenanigans to help keep them relevant (and getting a franchise player in the 2nd round in Kucherov is an obvious boon). On the other end of the spectrum, teams like Arizona, Ottawa, and Columbus simply never received the same type of resources or organizational support to help them turn the corner after their rebuilds that other teams did. Ottawa is the only one of those teams at the salary cap this year, and that's after they finally got an ownership change after Melnyk's death in 2022. For all the talk of Buffalo maybe turning the corner this year and how coaching held them back (it did), they're still the second lowest payroll in the NHL this season.
Winning culture is important, but you can establish a winning culture after a tanking period just fine if you invest properly and put the right people in charge of the front office and locker room. Play away from the puck is also tremendously important, but is separate from a winning culture (guys like Tortarella never shut up about play away from the puck, but he hasn't exactly established a winning culture anywhere in his last several stops). Los Angeles built a winning culture with incredible play away from the puck, despite having a stretch of time where they didn't make the playoffs for 6 straight seasons (7 straight years with the lock-out) and picking as high as 2nd overall (Drew Doughty).