Yes and no. Look at Detroit, Buffalo, New jersey... Heck, look at Toronto before Matthews, Marner and Nylander. Missed the playoffs 7 straight years and 10 years out of 11!
I said in 2020-21 that the Sens wouldn't go anywhere with Pierre Dorion at the helm. To me, he was the worst GM in NHL history (yes worse than Milbury) and he kept DJ Smith too long, a really nice guy but who shouldn't be a head coach. They would probably still be in no man's land if Melnyk was still the owner. The team sale allowed to finally move on to a new era and new management so they now have a chance to move forward.
7 years is not always "one hell of a long rebuild" but in Ottawa's case, they could have built something really special and much faster as they had an incredible wealth for trade when they decided to rebuild. Karlsson was 27 y/o, Duchene was 28 y/o, Mark Stone was 26 y/o, Pageau was 26 y/o, Hoffman was 28 y/o, etc. Plus, they already had Chabot, Batherson, Formenton, Nick Paul, etc in their prospect pool
Dorion squandered/wasted a lot of time and rebuild potential. I have criticized him/them for years.
Damn, that's all? I thought the gap would have been bigger. Marner is the QB playmaker, Tkachuk is just a front net presence so of course Marner should get more points as he feeds 4 different guys including the best goal scorer in the NHL...
I don't see what your post is adding to the full picture... If you read all my posts in this thread, all of this has been painted already.
The point is when you consider all other factors (also already brought up in post #45 : age, contract status, cost, type of player, physical frame, goal scoring ability, intimidation factor, etc.), the small difference in production is not enough to offset it. Unless you're really deprived of playmaking talent for the PP. But I'm satisfied in that regard with Stutzle, Batherson, Giroux, Chabot, Sanderson, etc