Panthers’ Stanley Cup championship should put an end to NHL GM’s lazy roster-building excuses

No, not the Stanley Cup Finals, although that’s over, too. Congratulations to the Florida Panthers, who defeated Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers by narrow margins, avoiding a historic collapse and capturing the franchise’s first championship. This ends a three-year span in which the Panthers won the 2022 Presidents’ Trophy followed by back-to-back Eastern Conference Championships. With the Stanley Cup banner now ready to fly over Florida, it is truly an impressive stretch, worthy of all the praise that will be thrown its way in the coming days and weeks.

No, what is finished is a story. You know how to build winning NHL teams. You know all the beats. Let us recite them together.

The salary cap makes trading very difficult.

Free agency is a fool’s game.

It is a draft-and-develop league.

You don’t make change just for the sake of change.

You can’t do anything during the season, because it’s too complicated.

You’re at the bottom, you hope to win some lottery and you draft your original. Then you stick with it, maybe with a few minor quips on the margins, because there’s only so much you can do in the modern NHL, and anyone who tries to tell you differently doesn’t understand it. Is.

And most importantly: The GM of your favorite team has a hard job. Don’t expect too much. Go easy on it. He is doing his best, even if his best performance looks very bad, like always taking the path of least resistance.

We’ve heard a few variations on that story from around the league over the years. Apparently, we got this from the GM himself. But we also got it from broadcasters and insiders and beat writers, who have always been a little eager to admit it. And these days we even hear it from fans, many of whom have internalized this idea so thoroughly that they’ll become legitimately angry at any suggestion that their team should… well, Anything.

This is very difficult, friends. be reasonable.

And then the Florida Panthers called BS on the whole thing.

Let’s start with the core. Yes, they did and drafted Aaron Ekblad with the No. 1 pick in 2014. In the end, he wasn’t the best player in that draft, or even close to it, but he’s been a reliable top-pairing guy ever since. And he hit a spectacular home run off Sasha Barkov, the No. 2 pick in 2013.

But as far as the draft is concerned, that’s all. The only other regular on the playoff roster who was acquired via the draft was Anton Lundell. (They also drafted Dmitry Kulikov in 2009, but he worked out with seven NHL teams before returning to Florida this season.) The rest of the roster was pieced together in all sorts of ways that might have been considered impossible or at least improbable. It is believed.

Big-ticket free agents? That would be veteran Sergei Bobrovsky, who received the second-highest salary of the cap era among goaltenders, a contract that looked like an overpay until he re-emerged as a Vezina candidate the past two years.

Mid-season trade? They weren’t “too complicated” for Bill Zito in 2021 when he acquired Brandon Montour and Sam Bennett, two deadline hires who became part of the long-term plan.

A few months after those two moves, Zito landed Sam Reinhart from the Buffalo Sabers for the first and top prospect. It was still a risky move to win, with no guarantee that they would keep Reinhart for more than a season; A timid GM himself could have taken a more patient approach. Zito was not timid and it resulted in a player who scored 57 goals.

And then there’s the big one: the Matthew Tkachuk trade, a true blockbuster from the 2022 offseason. Remember the context there – when Tkachuk made it clear he wanted out of Calgary, a handful of teams were ready to corner him and wondering how much they could reasonably give up for a potential franchise player. can do. Then Zito elbowed his way to the line with a monster offer that seemed too good to be true for the Flames. This cost them a 100-point forward and one of their best defensemen as well as a first-round pick, who has yet to be traded. The hockey world was shocked by how much the Panthers gave up. Does anyone think they might want to do something else right now?

Zito also had the ability to find major value around the edges, such as signing Carter Verhaeghe as a free agent and signing Gustav Forsling off waivers. Obviously those moves matter. But the story of this Panthers championship is the story of a team that is willing to make big, bold moves. Exactly the kind of moves most teams aren’t prepared for.

And yes, you can also offer a million other excuses as to why your team can’t be expected to do business this way. The weather is hot. Taxes are less. Players like Tkachuk are never available, except when they are. What if those tricks don’t work? So what?

This is the kind of push-pull we are used to hearing. Trust me, your favorite team’s front office knows this very well, and they’re really hoping you’re ready to recite it in their defense.

The alternative is that you, or the media, or (God forbid) the owner look at everything the Panthers have put in over the last few years and wonder if a GM who is making millions really has such a hard job; That the easy way is the only way.

To be clear, this doesn’t mean that the long view can’t lead to success or even championships. A three-year plan can work. A five-year plan can work. A Steve Yzerman could work in the Detroit scheme. Maybe this time next year, we’re talking about a Cup champion who patiently drafted-and-developed, focused on long-term planning, took no risks and saw it all pay off. a parade.

It can be possible. There’s more than one way to win a championship.

But that’s what the Panthers have just proven: there is more than one way, The only way is to be timid, conservative and patient. It is not alone, no matter how many times you have been scolded about it.

That’s worth keeping in mind, especially right now, as the NHL is embarking on a ridiculously abbreviated offseason, with most of the action appearing in the next week or so. If you’re a fan of one of the many teams that fell short of expectations this year, this is what you’ve been waiting for. This is the time for your team to get to work and make big, bold moves that can change the direction of a franchise.

There will be some of them. And some of them won’t do that, instead sticking to a more fundamental approach. A modest deal here, some careful spending there, drafting some we couldn’t believe were still there when we picked prospects and called it a summer. See you in September, everyone, don’t forget to renew those season tickets.

And then, when anyone would dare question that viewpoint, he would roll his eyes and start lecturing. What do you think it is, fantasy hockey? Do you want them to take action just for the sake of it? Don’t you know there’s a salary cap? We were on a few names, we were kicking the tires, we were listening but not buying, and it wasn’t working. Fools, what do you want the front office to do? their job?

Don’t buy it. Or at least, don’t buy that it’s the only option. That never happened, unless you’re a GM who’s more concerned about his job security than winning anything.

Bill Zito and the Panthers have proven it, and now they’re busy frolicking in the ocean with the Stanley Cup because of it. This can happen when a team decides that the path of least resistance will not take them where they say they want to go.

You’re not being unreasonable or some kind of bad fan for asking your favorite team what they’re doing moving forward.

(Top photo of Panthers president and GM Bill Zito hoisting the Stanley Cup: Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)