I agree with that, but my original post was more mocking the idea of losing as much as you can year after year until some undetermined time at which the franchise is then "going for it". The Hawks had a solid draft class last year, even though they weren't where the tank crowd would've liked for them to be picking. Solid draft classes year over year are how you build a team, not perpetually waving the white flag or trading anyone who plays winning hockey for 4th round picks.
I agree with that in principle, but the Blackhawks in particular havent actually done so until now. Most diehard fans would rather see something resembling a long-term plan than a yearly off-season patch-job ensuring only mediocrity.
The truth is, if the wanted to retool, they should have started in 2015 when some of their older players were cresting the aging curve. By 2017, a full-blown rebuild was in order. They waited 5 more years of failure to finally pull the trigger. And now we’re at the point where some of the better players, dont fit the timeline, so you may as well sell high now rather than wait til they get older, more expensive, and less valuable in a trade.
The only guy the Hawks have shipped out that you could argue they should have kept was Dach, but it seems pretty clear both player and team were done with each other. Toews and Kane have aged well into ‘complementary piece’ territory, and you couldnt move Jones with a Space shuttle. So the Blackhawks are in the unique situation where selling off everything that isnt bolted down is nit only wise…its frankly overdue.
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