Quoting: DougieGilmour
Well there’s a few problems with that question. First off there wasn’t anyone like Sid or Ovy in 2008-2009, that is still a superstar forward and 34 to 36. Guys like Iggy and Datsyuk were still very good but a bit younger. The only player who was older and still elite was Lidstrom but he was pushing 40.
Second, it’s like comparing apples with hand grenades when comparing our cup drought with the Caps. They had been a competitive team even before Ovie showed up. Do you remember the Bondra days? They even went to a cup final in 97. Also, it’s just not the same thing. The Caps are never going to mean as much to that city as the Leafs mean to people all across Canada and the intensity of the demand to win because of our horrible last half a century is a whole different kettle of fish. We haven’t won a playoff series in almost 20 years. We haven’t been to a Cup final in my life and I’m turning 52 in a couple months. I don’t know if it’s mostly generational but people my age and even older have never seen this team win anything. Now I want to be wrong but I have ZERO faith in the statistician we hired as a GM. I don’t particularly lack trust in Matthews as the kid is everything he was supposed to be. I agree we can build a team around him but while we are no where near as sad as Edmonton is with their generational star, we still have failed thus far. I’d sacrifice the next two decades if it meant one cup. I guess I’m out of patience
look, for similar reasons I would take the Washington trade 10 times out of 10. But I firmly believe that trading Matthews for Crosby does not make the team better today. Maybe I haven't been around as long to see failure for quite as long as some fans (Im 19) but I get it, I grew up in the Phil-Dion laughing stock era. From a level headed management perspective, everything prior to the Matthews era just has to be considered a sunk cost. I don't have much patience either but I'd rather be forced into patience than to blow it all on declining players.
I have some faith in Dubas, people seem to forget how abysmal the defence core that he inherited was. We went from Rielly-Hainsey-Zaitsev-Gardiner-Dermott-Polak to Rielly-Brodie, Muzzin-Holl, Sandin-Liljegren all on Dubas' drafting, signing, and trading (rielly and liljegren of course being exceptions, though it was his marlies team that developed liljegren). I also buy into the philosophy that you can afford to pay your stars big money and trade 1st rounders when you draft well (Niemela in 3rd round, Knies in 2nd round, Robertson in 2nd round) and can effectively scout to acquire cheap bargain players that make a big impact (ex. Bunting, Kase, Kampf, Mikheyev). Truly I think the roster he assembled last year was unbelievable but got derailed mostly by injury, but also by poor performance.
Also, to say that Matthews has been everything he's been expected to be is even selling him short imo. I can't recall the last time we saw the best goal scorer in the league (yes I said it) also be a Selke candidate for two consecutive years by the age of 24. He's not prime Crosby, but he's undoubtedly better than 34 year old Crosby, and that's why that makes no sense at all.