The "rebuild" was a stupid idea in the first place. They had a good team. All they needed to do was sell at the deadline in 2018 come back the next year with a new coach who gave a shit. Coincidentally thats exactly what this team should do.
That roster reminded me of the Bills from 2021-2023. Good enough to win meaningful games and make the playoffs, but not enough to push them over the edge.
That core was not good enough. They had multiple opportunities and kept losing for the same reasons. The rebuild was 100% needed.
Shame we never saw it through completely. Blame Dolan for stepping in. Blame our spectacular ability of wrecking the development of our top-10 picks. I’m not too critical of what happened with Lias. That was a shit draft after the 4th pick which Gorton tried to get. Kravtsov was a shit pick though.
I find it comical how so many casuals on this website seem to know more than the professionals that get paid big bucks to run an organization. We were all skeptical of Zibanejad’s extension. We all see Lindgrens ineptitude. We all hated Goodrow’s contract. Buch trade. Overpaying for MSL. The horrendous McD and JTM trade. Signing Nemeth and burning our 2nd to move him a year later.
The rebuild was the correct move. But, the pros running this organization f***ed it up. Like they always do. It’s no surprise we haven’t won a cup in 3 decades. I swear, I wholeheartedly believe someone like Gag, RB or Machinehead would have more success running this franchise than the halfwits currently employed.