The way too early "Takeaway from Carolina's success?" thread

[Stickpucker]

They had some pretty high picks for a 6 year run between 2013 & 2018 though:

5 OV
7 OV
5 OV
13 OV
12 OV
2 OV

Where are the Crosbys, McDavids, Toews, MacKinnons, Malkin, Makars?

None of those picks are even close to that level. None will even sniff the HoF or individual trophies.

Svechnikov was compared to Hossa at the draft and isnt even as good defensively as Hossa was despite being coached by RBA. Hossa was what, the 4th or 5th best players on those Hawks/Penguins teams?

 

[Beukeboom Fan]

They just got a career performance from a 37 year old. Hall had that one great regular season a player, and otherwise has just been a guy. So, yet another career best playoff performance by an aging player, likely to not be duplicated. There have been multiple years where Ehlers scored 0 goals in the playoffs. Their D group is also aging, with a couple guys either getting Cup paid or needing replacement by who knows what. Who knows what their goalies will be. Is Bussi the guy? He wasn't even the guy a week ago.

A lot of playoff games over the last 8 years. It takes a toll. And they finally got over the hump. So, will that extra edge hunger still be there? And there's a whole bunch of younger teams coming up.

You would have thought that the Canes just didn't go 16-3.

The playoffs beyond skill are always about who gets hot, and who stays healthy. Canes had the combination of both of those, and ran it to winning the Cup.

 

[I Hate Blake Coleman]

to win 19 is pretty impressive in 16 games

Adjusted for Claude Giroux

 

[MVP of West Hollywd]

Carolina just beat a better version of the team that Florida lost to in the Finals a few years back. Does that mean Florida’s Cup wins don’t have the same taste since they didn’t face Vegas?

I prefer Vegas forwards in 26 but their blue line in 23.

 

[Smif]

Where are the Crosbys, McDavids, Toews, MacKinnons, Malkin, Makars?

None of those picks are even close to that level. None will even sniff the HoF or individual trophies.

Svechnikov was compared to Hossa at the draft and isnt even as good defensively as Hossa was despite being coached by RBA. Hossa was what, the 4th or 5th best players on those Hawks/Penguins teams?

You just picked 6 of some of the very best picks from the last 20 years. For every Toews, there's a Strome, for every McDavid there's a Yakupov. It doesn't mean they didn't bottom out because they didn't draft a franchise player.

With that being said, they made the necessary adjustments to move players and did it without the franchise player.

 

[Cavin 4 Gavin 2026]

The name of their game is Scoring depth and shot suppression. When your playoff "first" line and Conn Smythe winner are actually your 3rd line center, your kids on your second line lead the team in scoring during the playoffs next to a rejuvenated project vet, and guys like Svechnikov, Jarvis and Ehlers are more depth than premier guys on your playoff run (plus your two goalies can take turns getting hot at the right time and the defense holds opponents to only 23 shots against per game), that's a tough team formula to beat as it takes buy-in and timely performance.