It's just such a one-sided argument though. You have to add color to your " Look at Buffalo, Detroit, Ottawa" point...
- Buffalo - Pegula is such a bad NHL owner that he has slowed their rebuild progress down considerably. To that point they got bad luck with Eichel's injury and then alientaed him so they could be in a different spot today if not for both those things.
- Ottawa - Had ownership issues themselves the past decade and finally have a new one so let's see where they go.
- Detroit - Not sure they ever dedicated themselves to a full rebuild. In the past decade they've had just one (1) top 5 pick and to do a successfully rebuild you usually need multiple top 3 picks.
Conversely...for all that "Buffalo, Detroit, Ottawa" teams you mentioned, you have to turn the telescope around and look at all the rebuild successes over the past 20 years. Almost every team that won a Cup did so with a core of top draft picks. And they to those top draft picks by truly sucking for multiple seasons. I'm talking about the Penguins, Blackhawks, Kings, Lightning, Avalanche to "name a few."
The "nothing is gauranteed if you rebuild arguemnt" is just so weak. Nothing is guaranteed no matter how you try to build your team...But if anything there's more evidence that Lou's way of spending to the cap on average players is not working at all. And he's literally only GM'ed one way over the past 40 years so even if you want subtle change you're going to have to replace him because he's only going to keep doing what he's been doing.
What you call a "solid foundation" I see as a "tired and average core." Sorokin is the only elite player the Isles have. When Dobson gets is massive payday in the next few months, the Isles are going to have roughly 30 million in cap space committed to those 4 skaters you mentioned who literally scare no other team on a nightly basis. Where is the true gamebreaking talent going to come from to elevate this team to Cup contention in your short-term non-rebuild? Pretty much every player that is elite and leads his team close to a Cup is not only taken with a top pick, but rarely ever changes teams. MacKinnon, McDavid, Draisaitl, Barkov, Makar, Crosby, Malkin, Doughty, Ovechkin, Kane, Hedman, Toews, Stamkos, and more are all top 3 picks in the draft. Those guys basically never come available in a trade in their prime, and even if one of the top players in the league did now, the Isles would be hard-pressed to have the assets to trade for them.
I appreciate your diplomatic philosophy, but the Isles have already been a "playoff team" 2 of the last 3 seasons, but is that all we're aiming for? We need to stop acting like, "If we just get into the playoffs anything can happen." That's such weak garth snow bs. We're multiple top pieces away from being a true Cup contender.
You use the phrase "swinging wildly" as if the Isles GM should attned a 6 year old's birthday party and try to hit a pinata. With a rebuld I'm talking about having a concrete and well thought out plan - Trading older vets to the highest bidder for picks and young prospects, committing to youth across the board with a coach who can instill confidence, get the very top picks in a couple of drafts, and assemble hopefully the best scouting department in the league to capitalize on every pick. Then when a new under 23 year old core starts to emerge, start adding in quality vets to accelerate the team back to playoff threat and Cup contender.
There's no question this plan will take years, but...
- If you do it right it will not take a decade to get back.
- Again this is what most of the Cup winning teams have done over the past 20 years.
- The path we're on with the GM we have is actually leading us nowhere, so we're actually wasting years right now.
