I’m of the opinion that you can be in a rebuild, and also make the playoffs. This sport is not a vacuum. Just because your team is young and inexperienced, doesn’t mean you can’t exceed expectations. Just because you are a certain age, doesn’t mean you can’t play good hockey. DB came out and said he traded for EJ as a stabilizing presence for what is happening right now, this season. I’m not sure what the issue is here? Should they just pack it and not even try? Should they just tell all the current players, GFY, we don’t care how hard you’ve played, it’s doesn’t fit our plan, so we need to NOT make the playoffs in hopes that we draft some player(s) that will help us make the playoffs?
im sure that would go over well. the players would love it.
also, when GMs make trades, none of us have inside details on what took place. We can all sit here and argue what WE think should have happened, but that’s not how the real hockey world works