Quoting: mhockey91
We’re they ever really true contenders though?
Quoting: TheEarthmaster
I think it's closing pretty soon if they ever had a window to begin with. I honestly thought they wouldn't be that good this season, Bishop was just so good last year and I didn't think he could keep it up. And while Bishop was great this year, they've still kinda been all over the place. But it's not like this team doesn't have good pieces for the future. Go for it through Pavelski and Radulov's contracts, and then tank until Benn is gone, get some younger pieces through the draft and build around them and Heiskanen.
Quoting: SevenLeg
I don't follow them much but they were always not more than a 2nd round team to me
I think thats the problem, they were never reallllly a contender as is.
Benn was good just before they built up some depth, now their depth is old.
Their goaltending is dope, but just as their old guys are getting older,
and their future players (Seguin, Miro, Hintz, Robertson, and even Klingberg might not be enough to get competitive.
One could argue they need to pull a Boston, dip for like 3 years by trading away Benn, Radulov, Bishop, Lindell, etc (keeping their young core intact) and then build up a few more prospects, and then in 4 years they could be in the bruins position with a few old guys (seguin, Klingberg = Bergy, Krejci, Chara), but also have a dope young core (Miro, Robertson = Carlo, Mcavoy, Debrusk) and prospects (unnamed prospects = Urho / Studnicka)