I agree you will eventually need those middle of the line up players, too. But I just think it’s better to take swings early in the rebuild for those core players, both because they are the truly necessary / harder to acquire pieces, and because you limit the risk your middle of the lineup players keep you high enough in the standings that you limit your ability to get those core players.
The bigger piece was having Toews/Kane on their ELCs when those signings were made. They had to start to dismantle their middle lineup guys by 2010 because those guys priced themselves out.
And they did have Kane, Toews, Sharp, Keith and Seabrook in place before those moves became possible. Not sure it would have worked the way it did if they had the middle sixers but not that group at the top.
They won their first Cup before any of those guys, save for Alec Martinez, made the team. It was on the back of Kopitar (lottery first), Doughty (high first), Brown (first in maybe the deepest draft ever), Carter (traded their former #2 overall pick for), Richards (traded their former #5 overall pick for) and Williams (traded their high risk / high reward second rounder Patrick O’Sullivan for). Their other main key pieces were UFAs, guys they traded their Hronek equivalent (Visnovsky) for, and an offer sheet.
I don’t have an issue shifting gears once you’re further along in the process, like where LA was when they drafted Toffoli / Pearson.
It also helped they found elite goaltending, which they wouldn’t have won without most likely. That’s a big game changer too.
Agreed. Not suggesting upside is the only thing they should weigh, and obviously don’t chase upside if it’s not there. But when you get to the back third of the first round / early second odds are they’ll have a few guys similarly ranked (absent some faller) and I hope the priority is on upside over certainty.
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