Four Teams Remain....ALL Recent Champions
After a thrilling game 7 victory by the Chicago Blackhawks last night in OT, they solidified their place against the Kings in the Western Conference Final. In the East, familiar foes will play again, with both the Boston Bruins and Pittsburgh Penguins advancing to the Eastern Conference Finals. Why do all these teams sound so familiar? Because they are the 4 most recent Stanley Cup Champions. I'm not saying that is a bad thing, but wasn't the new NHL, especially the salary cap, suppose to limit these teams from becoming the cream of the crop every single year? Lately, besides maybe last season, the same teams have ended up in their conference finals every year and 2 of them go on to slug it out for the Cup. With a league full of many smart people, it shows that having the correct personnel will allow a team to strive in any circumstance.
Lets compare two teams, one that is currently successful based off their years of good drafting, trading players, and signing free agents. The other is in the process of rebuilding, however, still find themselves struggling to get out of the basement. These teams are the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Edmonton Oilers. The Penguins hired GM Ray Shero in 2006 and since then he has been nothing but gold for the team. During this span, they started with Michel Therrien as their head coach and replaced him with current coach Dan Bylsma in 2009. Bylsma and Shero have been the face with the Penguins since, alongside owner Mario Lemieux and a crew of stars including Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. They have won the Stanley Cup in recent years and compete for it every other. Through smart drafting, trading, and signing, Ray Shero has compiled an awesome roster and Bylsma has ran it near flawless. Many of the names that appear in their drafts are making an impact on the roster including Beau Bennett and Simon Depres. They have Derrick Pouliot and Olli Maatta developing right now as well.
Meanwhile, the Edmonton Oilers, who made a run to the Stanley Cup Final led by Chris Pronger in 2005-2006, have not even come close to making the playoffs since. Their best finish in the Northwest Division has been 3rd since that Cup appearence, being this most recent season. Kevin Lowe ran the team until 2008, then Steve Tambellini took over until he was fired this past April when it was evident the Oilers would once again miss the playoffs by a landslide. Craig MacTavish now runs the show in Edmonton and it will be seen how he fares. They have also had four coaches in this time frame. Longtime coach MacTavish was removed in 2008. Since then, Pat Quinn and Tom Renney gave it a shot but fared no better. Ralph Krueger now runs the bench and saw improvement in his first season, but not even close to a playoff-ready team. In these seven seasons of not making the playoffs, the Oilers drafted 6, 15, and 21st overall in 2007, 22nd in 2008, 10th in 2009, and 1st overall in each of the past 3 drafts. Besides Jordan Eberle, the Oilers have mismanaged their prospects. Development is key and when you rush the young players into the NHL, sometimes they can be eaten alive. Not to say any of their recent picks are struggling to the point of no return, but they definitely have not had the right personnel in charge in recent years. It's evident by their lack of good free agent signings and trades, as well as bad late round drafting, producing no depth or role players.
The teams that are left in the Stanley Cup hunt are there for one reason. Management has done their homework and made the right choices while working within a salary cap. Just because a team receives high draft picks every year doesn't mean they will climb out of the basement anytime soon. Maybe that's common sense. But it's just so brilliant to see how these teams are made up and how some of them work and some of them don't. Hard decisions have to be constantly made when working with a salary cap and the teams left have all figured it out.
Meanwhile, the Edmonton Oilers, who made a run to the Stanley Cup Final led by Chris Pronger in 2005-2006, have not even come close to making the playoffs since. Their best finish in the Northwest Division has been 3rd since that Cup appearence, being this most recent season. Kevin Lowe ran the team until 2008, then Steve Tambellini took over until he was fired this past April when it was evident the Oilers would once again miss the playoffs by a landslide. Craig MacTavish now runs the show in Edmonton and it will be seen how he fares. They have also had four coaches in this time frame. Longtime coach MacTavish was removed in 2008. Since then, Pat Quinn and Tom Renney gave it a shot but fared no better. Ralph Krueger now runs the bench and saw improvement in his first season, but not even close to a playoff-ready team. In these seven seasons of not making the playoffs, the Oilers drafted 6, 15, and 21st overall in 2007, 22nd in 2008, 10th in 2009, and 1st overall in each of the past 3 drafts. Besides Jordan Eberle, the Oilers have mismanaged their prospects. Development is key and when you rush the young players into the NHL, sometimes they can be eaten alive. Not to say any of their recent picks are struggling to the point of no return, but they definitely have not had the right personnel in charge in recent years. It's evident by their lack of good free agent signings and trades, as well as bad late round drafting, producing no depth or role players.
The teams that are left in the Stanley Cup hunt are there for one reason. Management has done their homework and made the right choices while working within a salary cap. Just because a team receives high draft picks every year doesn't mean they will climb out of the basement anytime soon. Maybe that's common sense. But it's just so brilliant to see how these teams are made up and how some of them work and some of them don't. Hard decisions have to be constantly made when working with a salary cap and the teams left have all figured it out.
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