Quote (Secksii @ 5 Jun 2023 10:32)
Seattle and Vegas got insane depth cuz of the expansion draft, but the problem with them was that they couldn't get high end talent cuz they're protected by all teams and couldn't draft them. The Eichel buffalo issue helped Vegas get their 1c they've been looking for, and he's doing well and carrying them in the playoffs. That trade was a success for both teams. Seattle needs to draft another high end player or trade for high end talent to take the next step, otherwise they'll be those teams that makes the playoffs but fail to go deep consistently til the window closes.
+1 Well said
Quote (Slimesy @ 5 Jun 2023 10:57)
I dont think its bullshit at all, it takes time. Even though the rebuild technically started before stevie got here, it didnt really start until he did get here. And he's already gotten us really close to the playoffs. We had a wild card spot locked up for nearly 75% of the season give or take before we ran out of gas. Depending on what stevie does this offseason i could see us making the playoffs next year, or more realistically the year after. We have 38(?)m in cap space and its supposed to rise like ~7m next offseason. We'll have to sign Raymond and Seider, which wont be cheap, but we'll still have tons of money to go after some high ends FA to round out the team this or next offseason and start pushing for a cup run.
Honestly the Wings are one of the most improved teams I've seen the last two-three seasons comparative to other teams who were in a similar spot like you said they are close to being that 8 seed whereas most other teams imo have almost zero shot at the playoffs. That's upper management doing their job as well as players rising to the occasion once their in their 2nd-3rd year in the league.
I was just trying to explain to the OP that building a team from scratch(rebuild) is 100x harder and takes far more time then being created as a "competitive team" for the league. I think the league made the right decision in that sense because you didn't want the new teams to be god-awful and you want their fan bases to grow quickly. But for teams in their 3rd,4th,5th year of a rebuild and having little to no chance at playoffs that fucking sucks donkey balls.