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To reiterate,
My choice of the term "surgical" is that I think a rebuild/tank/evaluation/rebuild/development can be done very "precisely" (hence, surgical, like a surgical missile strike), that this will lead to better results.
If we look at bottom-dwellers of the past decade, a point that I think needs to be made is that the worst way to rebuild is to be sucked into the sucking mode kicking and screaming trying to hold on to 8th place for dear life. When teams that should be rebuilding try to make 8th place, they often fail. Here are some examples:
- Toronto. Toronto is a team that should have rebuilt at the latest when Burke was hired, when they finally got rid of most of the Mukoska five or whatever. However, they tried to "make the playoffs", they traded two firsts for Phil Kessell, and they signed a lot of long-term contracts on the UFA market. They then proceeded to suck for years, drafting Rielly last year. They're going to suck again this year, and probably the year after that. A lot of their problems are also due to the fact they dealt away the pick that became Tuuka Rask to get Andrew Raycroft, and that they gave away a high pick (13th?) to get Vesa Toskala.
- Columbus. The Blue Jackets have also been trying to make the playoffs. A decade ago, they got Rick Nash, a player good enough to prevent them from drafting top-5, but not good enough to be the core of a championship team. They then got a hot year out of Steve Mason, and made the playoffs. Following this, they wanted to make the playoffs again. They acquired Wisniewski on the UFA market, Prospal on the UFA market, and they traded Jacub Voracek and Sean Couturier for Jeff Carter. They ended up finishing last. After a decade of mediocrity, their attempts to make the playoffs dragged them into last place, kicking and screaming.
- Edmonton. They made the Stanley Cup finals in 2006. They subsequently signed players like Sheldon Sourray and Shawn Horcoff to bad long-term contracts, and have subsequently sucked year in and year out with no way out. It was long and painful for Edmonton fans.
- Long Island. Tried to be a contender under GM Mike Millbury and traded Jokinen, Reden, Berard, Brewer, McCabe, Luongo, Spezza, Bertuzzi, and Chara. A decade of sucking followed.
I see teams like Calgary and potentially San Jose going through this process in the near future. The five year sucking jobs happen when teams that are bad try to make the polayoffs or try to make the playoffs, it's an inferior strategy to building from within with the exception of when you're very good and thus close; for example when Boston added Kelley, Horton, Kaberle and Peverley in the year leading up to their cup win.
In the subsequent thread, I proposed a novel strategy: to enter a rebuild on our own terms rather than to be dragged into it kicking and screaming. I argued that with the additional power gained from being active rather than being reactive we could complete the job quickly.
Thus far, the only argument presented against this proposed innovation is the circular counterargument that this innovative strategy has not been tried before. That is not a valid counterargument.
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