Blah blah blah nearly every off season or TDL they say the same shit and unsurprisingly HF does their usual prospect circle jerk headlined by the usual suspects.
He said this at the Hlinka tournament... Wtf else do ppl think will be the primary topic of conversation or answer to a question. You think he'll be talking about veteran long-time NHL players?
Meanwhile this offseason, the nhl roster is 90% the same to start last year (adding miller and a new backup goalie - 2 vets).
And essentially 100% the same to start at fwd (at this point) , and they tried signing Monahan or Henrique and trading young players for Necas. Hmmm
It’s an interesting debate and although there is a hint of frustration and possible cynicism in your post it’s not unfounded.
Looking back:
When the Jets arrived for the 2011-12 season Atlanta had just come off integrating Bogosian, Kane, and Burmi in their big rebuild (flop) all as 18 year olds. Zero delayed gratification for the fans hungering for the youth movement.
Then there was the lull. After Burmi it would take three seasons for the Jets to integrate their next prospect Schief and Trouba 2013-14 but that began the golden era of prospect integration up to Connor in 17-18. That group of prospects largely drove a bottom 13 NHL team to 2nd OA in the NHL and a cup contender.
That begot the dark age starting after Connor . Our drafting kind of went in the tank due to later picks, missing on picks, and more picks traded away. Stan, K-Ves, Jack,……..there was no real integration after Connor 17-18. The Next guy to come along that showed even a remote promise of playing top 6 fwd or top 4 D was Samberg in 2022-23. That was a half a decade slump and it explains why we don’t have the young pieces to get this core over the top.
However, I think starting with Perfetti we have begun to add some prospects that are not as rich and deep as our golden age but they are better than the dark ages. We have had two set backs that don’t help with McG doing the heel turn and Chaz looking like he is too fragile for Ice hockey but we still have a few interesting assets that “may be of help” over the next couple of seasons. Chipman’s panic boner doesn’t really help prospect integration as he brings in 80 year old coaches and trades draft capital to try to sell empty seats today but……..
The reality is the golden era core will age out over the next 3-5 seasons so the win now and forever strategy can only be fueled by shuffling the deck chairs for so long. The only practical way to re-build a core in Winnipeg is to hit on draft picks.