It matters how you tear it down in an NHL rebuild

Might as well let your girlfriend steal that rock concert t-shirt – instead of losing it on an NHL sports gambling site.

The Sharp Shooter audio podcast is on pause and it may or may not return.

It is to say finding balanced betting coverage other than the homer takes is next to impossible. Fans of teams do only care about the home team. That content exists in over abundance.

Personally; the context of a grouping of team’s comparative to each other is the rare complex I have. Somehow, I desire for what is not out there. Counter-culture NHL coverage that has big picture accuracy and still attentive to the local team market details fused into one. This blog spot is where I plan to share my thoughts for the time being now. It will be mostly NHL Western Conference team’s information and opinion.

It will especially gear to the Central Division teams I watch* most. Please note terms and conditions do apply*: The preceding statement excludes the 2023-24 Chicago Black Hawks; especially when due to injury; Connor Bedard is not in the line-up.

My co-host pod-mate Warren Smith and I were discussing WJC players from Western Conference teams while noting Cutter Gauthier, 20, LW/C, the now former Philadelphia draft pick, had a good tournament but fell out of our now “paused” podcast framework.

The out of nowhere trade to Anaheim later that week was a surprise to all the NHL Insiders; never mind the beat reporters, and would have been a topic tackled with the Ducks involved - had we continued podding. That is why, it to me, was the logical first topic to pick up the blog as a writing point. Anaheim trading valued emerging first round but oft injured draft pick defenceman Jaime Drysdale, 21, in the trade deal was notable.

Having missed substantial GPs due to injury over the current and prior szn; Drysdale still already has over 100 NHL GP to his resume. If he is healthy – there is no question the skilled puck moving d-man can be an impact NHL player. The expectation is Gauthier will be also, an impact top line NHL forward, sure bet top 6 F at prime age. The limited time I enjoyed watching Drysdale (and he impressed) – Anaheim along with a 2025 2^nd round pick paid a steep price for Gauthier’s rights.

My first thought was a compliment to Philly GM Daniel Briere for moving Gauthier who decided not to want to sign and play with the Flyers after the WJC tourney that maximized his return value. It is said, that NHL teams always tend to overvalue their own draft prospects; and hold onto them. If a player does indeed bloom later – the stock tradable value is lesser than prior to the players early pro development.

I haven't covered Philadelphia or the re-build plan - the addition of the can play at the NHL level now Drysdale, helps a team that is teasing making the playoffs more than they are vying for the draft lottery. Drysdale is an addition that helps the present group while at an age he is part of the Flyers rebuild.

After a hot start, Anaheim faded and will be in the lottery conversation by comparison and Gauthier instead of Drysdale has a push the plan further down the timeline feel to it. 

Take now injured Anaheim forward Trevor Zegras, rumored to be dealt prior to being sidelined again due to injury. When was the height of the return Zegras would have provided Anaheim, if not after his own record-setting WJC performance and to the point, even at 22, if traded this year - how much has his stock depreciated since. His development that is said to require better commitment to two-way play at the NHL level as an example. Ask yourself. Could Anaheim land a potential same aged top pair d-man such as was the cost to obtain Gauthier has? If Anaheim does move on from Zegras – view his return in comparison to Gauthier cost to acquire and then ask yourself who had a better WJC individual showing?

Injuries saw Arizona call up Dylan Guenther, 20, and he has had the opportunity at times to play alongside all-star winger Clayton Keller, 25 (due to Barrett Hayton’s injury) and rookie Logan Cooley, 19. It has provided a glimpse of the elite skill emerging as Arizona gets more competitive on-ice. A team playing meaningful games this szn.

The call-up had Arizona put vet F Zach Sanford, 29, on waivers, who simply failed to be impactful in a bottom 6 role. Sanford part of the St. Louis Blues Stanley Cup 2019 winner was traded to Ottawa prior to the 2021-22 szn due to poor cap management by GM Doug Armstrong that required a roster player to be dealt and Sanford became the crunch to cap compliancy.

Ottawa moved the F to Winnipeg at the deadline. After Sanford signed as a UFA with Nashville, then this szn with Arizona on an 800K deal. Thru all the stops; Sanford’s ability to remain an everyday NHL regular is years removed from his St. Louis days – where now; his AHL GP combined is more than his NHL GP totals the past 2 szns. Chicago becomes Sanford’s 5^th Central Division team to play for while Ottawa is the lone non-divisional outlier. Its a good spot if Sanford hopes to stick hold and play in the NHL regularly again. If Chicago has no interest after this szn in re-signing Sanford, it signals how difficult to find another landing spot for next year will be.

Chicago organizationally may want to brush away any current connection to its previous three Championship wins. It was done by the draft and development model. Tearing down a team it is assumed (making an ass out you not me if you believe that to be true) can be done by anyone.

I never invested in watching closely the Ottawa never completed by former GM Pierre Dorion rebuild. I have watched the Arizona GM Bill Armstrong one. They are not the same and that includes from the tear down first step. Chicago under GM Kyle Davidson went the way of Ottawa.

The 2016-17 Conference Final run is the Ottawa franchise’s last playoff appearance. 6 years and counting. Vets still playing of that team include now Pittsburgh defenceman Erik Karlsson - who did with San Jose win the Norris trophy for his 100pt plus szn. Now captain of last year’s Cup winner in Vegas, Mark Stone. The recently retired goalie gem all-around great mentor and good for the room Craig Anderson, and 2 other character active NHL depth players C Jean-Gabriel Pageau, now with the Isles; and D Codi Ceci, now in Edmonton.

At some point – the “rebuild” Ottawa sticky-note was to trade all the older than 25-year-old players and since the stockpile of talented draft picks have failed to have - a team culture or leadership of vets who have had success as Senators. If you wanted an active NHL mentor for Brady Tkachuk? Who better than Mark Stone of current NHL players to be a perfect arch-type to have? For Thomas Chabot? You could do worse than Karlsson as well Ottawa has not had a mentor top pair Norris winning capable Karlsson replacement till Chabot’s selection, and therefore, no passing of the torch. Ottawa does aptly play in Canadian Tire Centre with tire fire never out of rebuild by former GM Dorion fittingly still to fix.

Every year – Ottawa bemoans its inability to develop an NHL starting goalie – yet Anderson finished in Buffalo 3 szns after Ottawa organizationally passed on him. Last year, it was traded away to Minnesota goalie Filip Gustavsson working in tandem with another full-value character Cup winner Marc-Andre Fleury that posted a 20+ win szn. Seattle claimed Joey “don’t pull” Daccord from Ottawa in the expansion draft, who is this year’s most recent break out tender. That duo with vet Craig Anderson was possible for an Ottawa team if a small core group of players in prime age to veteran age were kept to show the path back to the playoffs and playoff success.

While Arizona may not have much of any playoff success. Arizona did not deal away Clayton Keller, Nick Schmaltz, Lawson Crouse and had wanted Jacob Chychrun to stay through the build as well. To Armstrong’s credit, with Chychrun under team control – the trade was slow played that even current Yotes defenceman JJ Moser played on Arizona with Chychrun on the team. This off-szn Arizona nabbed Sean Durzi when he was off-loaded to free up LA’s cap space without Chychrun in the fold. Durzi’s addition after developing under LA Cup winning vet Drew Doughty might be worth noting on his early NHL development surrounded by an elite Cup winner.

The let the talented figure-it-out how to win on their own is not “how to” rebuild. Its how to never come out of one. Chicago could still have 2 cup winners Patrick Kane (1^st overall, 2007) and Jonathan Toews (3^rd overall, 2006) teaching Connor Bedard (1^st overall, 2023) how to win. They could have after Cup wins Alex DeBrincat (2^nd round, 2016) finishing Bedard feeds along with Kane. Depth forward Cup winner Brandon Saad (2^nd round, 2011) could be in Chicago too. The defence has all retired but it was draft and developed - Duncan Keith (2^nd round, 2002) and Brent Seabrook (1^st round, 2003) and Nik Hjalmarsson (4^th round, 2005).

Instead; this new drafted Bedard led group had briefly now Oiler Corey Perry for a role model – that should not be seen in the same sentence together. Never won Taylor Hall who ended up injured. Chicago GM Kyle Davidson rather than load up on taking on say off-loaded for free with a draft pick d-man Shane Gostisbehere to flip him for more picks after improving the players tradable value as Arizona did - has instead overpaid for never Chicago vet NHL’ers like Nick Foligno 4M and 4.5M 2year extension and properly valued Jason Dickinson 2.65M to a now 2year 4.25M extension overpay – while after a horrendous szn a year ago – Davidson handed goalie Petr Mrazek, a 3.8M acquired salary dump now re-upped to a 4.25M 2year extension as well. I would love to be a team cap cruncher – I know Chicago needs to hire someone. Oft injured but Cup winner with Tampa, Tyler Johnson is in his final year. He needs a new agent if his 2year extension AAV is not on par; with say Clayton Keller’s 7.1M per. Simply using poor deductive reasoning that GM Davidson contract valuation deficiencies display and giving Johnson a 2M+ raise extension as well arrives at that number. Proper roster construction requires proper player AAV valuations. Chicago is not doing that under Davidson.  

And especially, no disrespect to Dickinson; who was properly valued by the current contract he was signed to after a salary arbitration filing while playing in Vancouver. This group of Davidson overpays is to get to the cap floor while not maximizing the cap space available to weaponize the draft assets like Arizona under GM Armstong just gave a Rhodes Scholar worthy “how to” execute model that like watching Arizona play hockey games – the rest of the league failed to take notes of.

The reality is Arizona is playing meaningful games this year – Ottawa is not – and how a team is torn down to be pieced together is as important a step as any other in a rebuild. As Ryan Reynolds, Van Wilder character famously said, “write that down.”