Well said.You failed to discuss the definition of success. Winning the Cup is a terrible measurement. One team wins the Cup every year. Was every decision by every team which did not win a bad one? You're making up stats to support a false premise. You can imagine any while you're at it: "How many times did acquiring the best goalie in the league result in winning the Cup? See???!! It doesn't work most of the time!! We shouldn't try to get a good goalie!"
Tanking and drafting future super stars results in media buzz, ticket and merchandise sales, advertising, making the team more attractive for good coaches and players as a destination, points and wins, the list goes on.
If you actually did analysis and came to the conclusion that multiple very bad seasons actually do more harm to the franchise compared to the eventual upswing made possible by high first and 2nd round picks then you'd got something, but all you said is duh see they don't win the Cup that often. Duh, winning the cup requires hundreds of things to go right, not only getting a star player, despite it surely being a big help.
Is perpetual mediocrity any more successful?
The Leafs tanked for Matthews and now get bounced from the playoffs early every season.
Seems like most teams in the league really have no more claim to success than say, the Habs...who were at least able to grab opportunity when it came knocking and ride the wave to the SC Finals a few years back.
I am not saying a bust just that he's not a generational talent as advertised. MacKinnon is a physical specimen, bedard is never going to be that big or fast as a 5'9 guy.Bedard is in his second year.....Mackinnon had 53 points in his 4th year
idk about the MLB, but NFL and NBA are not comparable. I don’t even think NFL really has true rebuilds.How do the other major sports leagues compare in time to turn around a rebuild? More or less the same?
if you trade away veterans for picks and end up with not having enough talent, you can call it tanking.Do you think all of these teams are "tanking"? Or do they just don't have the talent to compete right now? I don't think every team tanks.
The word "tanking" has become so overused that many people don't know there's a difference.Doesn’t this prove they aren’t tanking and are actually just bad?
All those teams basically had a lot of runway to get better and still pick high in the Draft. A lot of teams out there have been flirting with the "sort of close to the Playoffs" mediocre spot, some are young teams that are trying to come out of recent rebuilds themselves... like do you think Buffalo or Ottawa want to do another tank right now? Some just don't want to blow it up and go for a tank even if on paper they "should". Basically, nobody new is consciously entering a tank phase and it's fairly unlikely that most of the middling teams could fall far enough to do an accidental tank. Look at the Goal Differentials of the bottom 5 last season compared to everyone else. There is a huge gap. Ottawa and Arizona were 7th and 6th to last with goal differentials of -26 and -18. Then you had Montreal at -53, Columbus at -63, Anaheim at -91, Chicago at -111 and San Jose at -150.It's interesting as they all decided to tank at around the same time and no other teams have made that choice. Rebuilding in hockey takes a while. It just does as no one player can elevate a team like they can in basketball. They only play a 3rd of the game and are dependent on the teammates they have.
I'll be curious as to even if the bottom 5 are the same, will their point totals all be higher this year because I think they are all better than they were last year. And then 5 years from now, will they be amongst the best teams in the league or not. Time will tell but yeah, it sucks to be a Blackhawks fan right now.
Chicago spent way too much time trying to hang on when the team was long passed its expiration date. It would have been nicer to have a deeper foundation from 2018/2019 Drafts but I suppose everything looks different if Boqvist and K. Dach are better than they were.It's because none of those teams have actually, truly, committed to a rebuild and still ice teams of overpaid, overvalued, and underperforming veterans. Those teams all missed the boat on when to start their rebuild.
I agree, this summer is going to get interesting as new teams will go all-in for the tank. 2026 and 2027 look to have franchise-altering talents in Mckenna and Dupont.I'm also curious who joins the party going into next year with McKenna coming out and the 26 draft looking pretty sick
This is like it is today only because the preds lucked out a win last night and have played more gamesHonestly it is surprising how consistent those teams are season to season. Same bottom 5 for 3 years now.
22-23 season:
32- Ducks 58 pts
31- Jackets 59 pts
30- Hawks 59 pts
29- Sharks 60 pts
28- Habs 68 pts
23-24 season
32- Sharks 47 pts
31- Hawks 52 pts
30- Ducks 59 pts
29- Jackets 66 pts
28- Habs 76 pts
This season
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I am not sure of that stats but it must be pretty rare to have the same 5 teams at the bottom for 3 years straight.
You are right but sometimes there is nothing you can do.It's because none of those teams have actually, truly, committed to a rebuild and still ice teams of overpaid, overvalued, and underperforming veterans. Those teams all missed the boat on when to start their rebuild.
idk about the MLB, but NFL and NBA are not comparable. I don’t even think NFL really has true rebuilds.
There should be 2 divisions with promotion and relegation.
To the bolded…please tell me you’re not talking about Texier. If anyone thought this guy was supposed to be a star, shame on them. Guy is one of the worst players in St. Louis and is probably out of the NHL altogether very soon. How he got a 2-yr contract for over $2M/year is a beyond me. He may look the part of an NHL’er with good size and some skill, but his decision-making is brutal and his compete-level is questionable. If he was one of Columbus’ top prospects it’s no surprise the rebuild hasn’t gone well.Feeling a bit protective about CBJ on this one... not that they haven't made some pretty big mistakes including bad coaching hires culminating on the Babcock fiasco but since July 2021 they've had two players die including their biggest star, their other supposed star forward lost his father in Nov 21 and was battling depression ever since and lost like 25+ games most seasons due to various injuries, culminating his time as a Blue Jacket with entering the PAP after playing only 18 games in 23-24 in a yet another season ruined by injuries and eventually figuring out he needs a new beginning elsewhere.