Not to the extent that this team is apparently going to. Pittsburgh, Chicago, LA, and now Tampa, Calgary and Winnipeg are all built primarily through the draft with free agents supplementing the cores they built organically. For the last 7 years the Wild have been a team that was built through free agency and trades and supplemented with the draft. Now Fenton plans to double down by signing overpaying for more UFAs (when we still have the first two).
I have no issue with dipping into free agency to fill holes, but if the plan is to pay Duchene 9.5M and hope he’s the answer, then I do have issues. You don’t build your core through free agency. It’s how you become a cap team that can’t win a round in the playoffs.