One of the beautiful things about the NHL is that every team always seems to have pieces. In other sports like baseball and football, teams can be stuck in the cellar for years. In the NFL, swinging and missing on draft picks is a recipe for long-term failure. The Raiders have been awful for years largely because of awful drafting and a failure to identify a viable starting quarterback. In Major League Baseball, monetary concerns keep some teams from competing with the big market teams year after year. Teams like the Pirates can’t hope to compete with the Yankees who hand out contracts bigger than the Pirates whole payroll. The NBA has a combination of both of these problems.
But in the National Hockey League, every team slowly stockpiles pieces. Free agency, the draft, foreign leagues, and a complex minor league system combine to give every team avenues to success. Obviously some teams have mastered the art of staying atop the league for long periods as the Red Wings have. But even the league’s worst teams can always see a sunny future. The Islanders are widely considered to be the league’s worst team, but they have the best prospect in the game, John Tavares, and will continue to add top-notch prospects with high draft choices. The Avalanche are the worst team in the Western Conference, but they too added a top offensive prospect in Matt Duchene (above) who like Tavares, will begin the year in the NHL. Duchene and the return of young star Paul Stastny gives the Avalanche a very legitimate offensive foundation.
In the NHL it never seems like a team is that far away from competing. Granted it can take a couple years, but development always seems evident. Parity is something every sport claims to strive for. But year after year the same teams dwell in the depths of the standings in the other major sports. In hockey, no team is without hope. Even if a team doesn’t have money to sign free agents, and even if it makes a few mistakes in the draft, there are other options. Players can simply be signed from overseas; as was the case with the Maple Leafs and Jonas Gustavsson this summer (he’s starting in net tonight). What’s more, draft picks are swapped far more frequently in the NHL than in any other league, making them a valuable currency. If a team can’t draft on its own and can’t lure free agents, well it can package a bundle of picks for a ready-made superstar like Phil Kessel as the Leafs did this summer.
No other sport can claim to give fans as much legitimate hope as the NHL does. Some teams have mastered longevity, but for most the standings really do shuffle every year. One lottery win net the Penguins Sidney Crosby, and they’ve made two Stanley Cup Finals in a row. The Blackhawks returned to relevance rapidly last year. So what team will emerge this year?
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