The cupboards were so 'bare' when TNSE acquired the Thrashers - at least Chevy had draft pics to work with. 7 in 2011, 6 in 2012, and 8 in 2013. Chevy selling Oduya yielded a couple of extra picks in 2013 - upped it to 10.
But after a few years under Chevy, we were down to 5 picks in 2019, 4 in 2020 and 4 in 2021. Spells no bueno for the near future.
Bare is pretty cyncial view of our prospect pool. I think it is likely in the middle to high end. Look at team like Pittsburgh for what a "bare" prospect pool really is
For a rebuild team it would be an ok start.
But I am going to lay out 2 teams that went full rebuild and neither had help for the UFA pool
Edmonton and Buffalo
The Oilers went from playing in the finals in 2005/06 to Mcdavid 10 years later. That included not 1, not 2 and not 3 but 4 1st overall picks during that time. It would be interesting to see where they would be if they didn't land McDavid.
7 coaches during that time. Its likely if they didn't have an owner who was as Rich as he is and wasn't invested so heavily in the play of his team maybe they fold up. Instead they get McDavid and a new rink and away they go. But that is 10 long hard years.
Why did they fail for so long? Who knows blame it on poor drafting or coaching or management but the reality is it took that long for them to get to where they are and it took the luck of the lotto to land McDavid.
The Sabres were in no man's land following the 2010/11 season. Just good enough to get in the playoffs but not really good enough to do anything. That was there last playoff appearance. 11 years later they are still on the outside looking in. They drafted 2nd overall twice. Both of those players who should be pillars of their franchise are gone. The fjnally get the 1st overall pick in 2018 and again in 2021. They seem to have the foundation for the most part for a good team but it hasn't happened yet.
Again why did they take so long? They really tried to build a team around Eichel and Reinhart. They made deals to bring in players like O'Reilly and Kane. But it didn't work.
Now where am I going with this?
If we want to rebuild completely we need to at the bare minimum acquire 2 1st overall picks. We have to hope one of those picks is Franchise carrying. We have to "hit" on our other 1st round picks around them. Since we can't acquire UFAs like a Panarin or Hamilton(ie we are not the Rangers or Devils), we have to make astute trades at the right time to bring in impactful players to augment our top draft picks.
I would guess you move on from PLD/Schief/Helly/Wheeler/Dillon/Demelo. Your guys that have value in trades and are going to be UFA's. Your goal should be a top 3 pick in 2024/25/26. If you pick outside that you must get that pick correct ie.. he has to be better then most if not all the top 3 that year ie think Cale Makar or Matthew Tkachuk
2027/28/29 your team should be poised to make the playoffs but may miss but the last 2 years you should know if the team you have can be as good as you want them to be if not then its a repeat of the first 3 years
In other words be prepared to not make the playoffs for years