I think we all agree they'd be in a significantly better place haha. With some playoff series wins to boot the past couple years.

Also - no McCann?

So if 9 of their 18 skaters were different, they'd be good?

Imagine if the fans just said "fine, trade everybody and lets rebuild"

Issue is you wouldn't have Bunting, you wouldn't have Koivunen, Ponomarev, Lucius, etc. That can be applied to all of this, there's a butterfly affect, other things would have gone wrong. You'd still be stuck with Granlund's cap hit, etc

McCann was the offseason prior

Yes to the CAR guys, even though I think Dubas would have signed instead of resigning Zucker.

No to the Granlund because Hextall wouldn't have traded for him because we would have kept Blueger

My bad I'm dumb

More like because 9/18 skaters are different they're not
All the changes but no rebuild just means a revolving door of bad decisions trying to stay relevant.
Need Proof? Look at TML as an example . Until they rebuilt truly there was no success as there was no Matthews,Marner,Reilly,Nylander, ext
TML sold off everyone from those rosters basically and ran out the contracts they couldnt move and after like 2 decade they made it to the 2nd round of the playoffs.
With the pieces they got they could do the same this year as well maybe even hit a ECF but its TML so i doubt it and they'll likely choke lol

Point is PIT isnt rebuilding its just wasting time, valuable time of many future HOFers
You got Great D you likely couldnt move for any value worth it in Karlsson/Letang
If PIT was smart they'd Trade Malkin and Crosby for a stock pile so by their 39th-40th birthdays as their Contracts expire they can come back to PIT for 1 final run.
Karlsson and Letang would have 2-3 years to whip the new guys into shape and make them contenders.

I know MTL would give up a decent return for Crosby but im sure others would too
Malkin at his cap even at his age would draw a lot of interest and likely a higher return cause of the low cap with term.
PIT could re-stock their top 6 completely if they do it right and draft well in that timeline.

Otherwise the final years of 4 All Star HOF NHLers is going to be a sad decline

The final years are already looking sad. Two straight years out of playoffs, no youth in system, acquiring every has been/never weres to fill in organizational holes, etc....

The pieces that they have that have value are the pieces they will not move: Croxby, Malkin, letang, etc....because they view their history tied to them (similar to the NYI teams of the 1980s), and the team will limp along outside of the draft lottery AND outside the playoffs.

That Marino trade was sofa king bad!

Hextall made such a mess of this team.

Thats Valid
Even if they just sold Crosby re-signing him in 2 years
They'd get a couple decent Prospects and a couple decent picks if not a better deal for taking back a Player
Lots of Good players out there with high caps and no real trade partners
Crosby's cap exchange makes a lot of them players in the Crosby market.
For Example a deal where LAK pays PIT to take Dubois or even a 3 way deal with CGY where you get paid to take on Huberdeau.
Scrub nobodies succeed by Malkin and infront of Karlsson and Letang so Huberdeau should have no issues (Plus some players suck in the West it is tougher. He thrived in the East though)

PIT could contend but not by keeping the status quo and gambling as Dubas has a history of doing that and coming up short
He overpaid once and made the 2nd round of the playoffs for his team for the 1st time in 20 years so i hope he learned from that experience.
But find more Bunting like trade deals and get value for that Cap space as it gets filled.