So, we've discussed how teams rebuild and transition into a winning team. It's time for the Execution: now that you've rebuilt your team, how do you win and keep winning? That last point is why I'm not going to look at Pittsburgh's rebuild as much Chicago or Los Angeles, because Pittsburgh "only" got one Cup out of their rebuild (in 2009), and while they've consistently iced competitive teams since then, they have yet to make it back to the Stanley Cup Final and appear to be on the decline, having squeaked into the playoffs as a second-place wild card in 2014-15.
Chicago (2010-present)
By this point, Chicago was coming off a Conference Finals appearance in its first playoff appearance in seven years and a new coach, Joel Quenneville, was leading the charge.
Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane, taken in 2006 and 2007 with top-five picks, were in the League and flourishing. Kane won the Calder Trophy as the league's best rookie in 2007-08, while Toews came third in Calder voting. Both would go on to have very good 2009-10 campaigns with Toews winning the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP.
Duncan Keith, who scored just one point less than Kane as a defenseman, was drafted in 2002 and at 26 was hitting his prime. Marian Hossa had been acquired in the offseason and played a key role in the 2010 Cup championship. Fellow Slovak Tomas Kopecky was also brought in during the offseason and played in a limited but useful fourth-line role.
However, after the 2010 Cup victory, the Hawks were in cap trouble. So what do you do? If you're the Blackhawks, you go through a sort of controlled demolition of your roster that aims to minimize and absorb as much damage as possible.
And make no mistake, this mini-rebuild took it's toll. The Blackhawks suffered two consecutive quarterfinal losses, and slashed their payroll by nearly $4 million dollars. Troy Brouwer, Andrew Ladd, Antti Niemi - all gone. But in 2013, they were back, winning the Stanley Cup in six games.
But how? The Blackhawks went from tire fire to Stanley Cup winner to fringe playoff team to Stanley Cup winner again in the space of nine years. How did they do it?
Michael Frolik and Johnny Oduya were acquired by trade, but no other key players were acquired. I think the main difference was the emergence of Corey Crawford. In 2010,
Crawford was a lowly third-stringer for the Blackhawks, having played just eight games up to that point, only one of them a win. But in 2010-11, after starting goalie Antti Niemi left for San Jose. The then 26-year-old Crawford was thrust into the starting role and well . . . didn't do so well. An adjusted save percentage of .9295 put him at a medicore 25th (out of 55 qualifying goalies) in adjusted save percentage from 2010-2012. But in 2012-13, Crawford had a breakout year, saving an extra 345 shots that year compared to his performance from 2010-12. Crawford led the team to the Cup with an outstanding .932 save percentage.
After a Conference Finals loss in the 2014 playoffs, the Hawks came back and won the Stanley Cup again in 2015, with Crawford manning the nets. And that takes us to the present day. The Hawks are considered by many, traditional pundits and stats guys alike, to be a modern-day dynasty and are widely considered to be the best team in the League in the past five years.
Los Angeles (2012-present)
Like I said in part three, it appeared the Kings were still in the Transition stage. The Kings squeaked into the playoffs by five points in the number 8 seed after consecutive quarterfinal losses. As we've covered before, the Kings Cup victory was shocking - but not if you looked at the stats. The Kings were a very good possession team (3rd in the league in Score-Adjusted Corsi%) who were nearly scuttled by an abysmal 6.5 shooting percentage - second-worst in the league. Drew Doughty was a key player, and Jeff Carter had been acquired in a blockbuster midseason trade.
The Kings had another good season in 2012-13, making it to the Conference Final, but in 2013-14, the Kings came back roaring with a Stanley Cup victory, with largely the same roster.
Like the Blackhawks, the Kings were helped with the emergence of a goalie. Jonathan Quick. He posted a mediocre .912 save percentage before 2012, but Quick emerged as a top goalie in 2011-12, with a lights-out .946 save percentage during the playoffs, earning him the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP and a nomination for the Vezina Trophy as top NHL goalie.
Strangely enough, Quick would never have such a good season again. In 2013-14, he posted an uncharacteristically (even for him) bad .902 save percentage, and since then his save percentage has mostly returned to where it had been before 2011-12. Since his 2012 Cup-winning season, he's played at about the same level, with a .914 save percentage. If you eliminate 2011-12, his career save percentage falls from .915 to .912.
But I digress. In 2014-15, the Kings shocked the world and missed the playoffs by four points. Many had predicted the Los Angeles Kings would contend for the Stanley Cup. People brushed it off as the Kings being the Kings - the Los Angeles Kings had a penchant for muddling through the regular season before dominating in the playoffs. But the Kings got a reality check after a late-season loss to the Calgary Flames (who many predicted wouldn't make the playoffs) which eliminated them from playoff contention.
Is this a sign that Kings are in decline? Maybe. It's just one season, but maybe it's a forerunner for things to come. I guess we'll see next season.
Pittsburgh (2009-2014)
In 2009, the Pittsburgh Penguins won the Cup, with top-five picks Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and Marc-Andre Fleury putting in superstar performances.
But since then, though the Penguins have consistently iced competitive teams, but have consistently declined in playoff performance, with a comparatively measly Wp16 of 26.250 during the past five seasons.
They've gained a reputation as a team who does great in the regular season, only to go down in the first two rounds. In the 2014 offseason, they fired longtime coach Dan Bylsma and appear to be on the decline.
In conclusion: There's not much left to do by the Execution Stage. Teams usually try and keep their roster as intact as possible while supplementing it with trades and free agent signings, usually (but not always) for "middle-six" players, who can play on both the second and third lines. In part five, I'll discuss what makes a rebuild successful, or what separates the Chicagos from the Edmontons.
Chicago (2010-present)
By this point, Chicago was coming off a Conference Finals appearance in its first playoff appearance in seven years and a new coach, Joel Quenneville, was leading the charge.
Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane, taken in 2006 and 2007 with top-five picks, were in the League and flourishing. Kane won the Calder Trophy as the league's best rookie in 2007-08, while Toews came third in Calder voting. Both would go on to have very good 2009-10 campaigns with Toews winning the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP.
Duncan Keith, who scored just one point less than Kane as a defenseman, was drafted in 2002 and at 26 was hitting his prime. Marian Hossa had been acquired in the offseason and played a key role in the 2010 Cup championship. Fellow Slovak Tomas Kopecky was also brought in during the offseason and played in a limited but useful fourth-line role.
However, after the 2010 Cup victory, the Hawks were in cap trouble. So what do you do? If you're the Blackhawks, you go through a sort of controlled demolition of your roster that aims to minimize and absorb as much damage as possible.
And make no mistake, this mini-rebuild took it's toll. The Blackhawks suffered two consecutive quarterfinal losses, and slashed their payroll by nearly $4 million dollars. Troy Brouwer, Andrew Ladd, Antti Niemi - all gone. But in 2013, they were back, winning the Stanley Cup in six games.
But how? The Blackhawks went from tire fire to Stanley Cup winner to fringe playoff team to Stanley Cup winner again in the space of nine years. How did they do it?
Michael Frolik and Johnny Oduya were acquired by trade, but no other key players were acquired. I think the main difference was the emergence of Corey Crawford. In 2010,
Crawford was a lowly third-stringer for the Blackhawks, having played just eight games up to that point, only one of them a win. But in 2010-11, after starting goalie Antti Niemi left for San Jose. The then 26-year-old Crawford was thrust into the starting role and well . . . didn't do so well. An adjusted save percentage of .9295 put him at a medicore 25th (out of 55 qualifying goalies) in adjusted save percentage from 2010-2012. But in 2012-13, Crawford had a breakout year, saving an extra 345 shots that year compared to his performance from 2010-12. Crawford led the team to the Cup with an outstanding .932 save percentage.
After a Conference Finals loss in the 2014 playoffs, the Hawks came back and won the Stanley Cup again in 2015, with Crawford manning the nets. And that takes us to the present day. The Hawks are considered by many, traditional pundits and stats guys alike, to be a modern-day dynasty and are widely considered to be the best team in the League in the past five years.
Los Angeles (2012-present)
Like I said in part three, it appeared the Kings were still in the Transition stage. The Kings squeaked into the playoffs by five points in the number 8 seed after consecutive quarterfinal losses. As we've covered before, the Kings Cup victory was shocking - but not if you looked at the stats. The Kings were a very good possession team (3rd in the league in Score-Adjusted Corsi%) who were nearly scuttled by an abysmal 6.5 shooting percentage - second-worst in the league. Drew Doughty was a key player, and Jeff Carter had been acquired in a blockbuster midseason trade.
The Kings had another good season in 2012-13, making it to the Conference Final, but in 2013-14, the Kings came back roaring with a Stanley Cup victory, with largely the same roster.
Like the Blackhawks, the Kings were helped with the emergence of a goalie. Jonathan Quick. He posted a mediocre .912 save percentage before 2012, but Quick emerged as a top goalie in 2011-12, with a lights-out .946 save percentage during the playoffs, earning him the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP and a nomination for the Vezina Trophy as top NHL goalie.
Strangely enough, Quick would never have such a good season again. In 2013-14, he posted an uncharacteristically (even for him) bad .902 save percentage, and since then his save percentage has mostly returned to where it had been before 2011-12. Since his 2012 Cup-winning season, he's played at about the same level, with a .914 save percentage. If you eliminate 2011-12, his career save percentage falls from .915 to .912.
But I digress. In 2014-15, the Kings shocked the world and missed the playoffs by four points. Many had predicted the Los Angeles Kings would contend for the Stanley Cup. People brushed it off as the Kings being the Kings - the Los Angeles Kings had a penchant for muddling through the regular season before dominating in the playoffs. But the Kings got a reality check after a late-season loss to the Calgary Flames (who many predicted wouldn't make the playoffs) which eliminated them from playoff contention.
Is this a sign that Kings are in decline? Maybe. It's just one season, but maybe it's a forerunner for things to come. I guess we'll see next season.
Pittsburgh (2009-2014)
In 2009, the Pittsburgh Penguins won the Cup, with top-five picks Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and Marc-Andre Fleury putting in superstar performances.
But since then, though the Penguins have consistently iced competitive teams, but have consistently declined in playoff performance, with a comparatively measly Wp16 of 26.250 during the past five seasons.
They've gained a reputation as a team who does great in the regular season, only to go down in the first two rounds. In the 2014 offseason, they fired longtime coach Dan Bylsma and appear to be on the decline.
In conclusion: There's not much left to do by the Execution Stage. Teams usually try and keep their roster as intact as possible while supplementing it with trades and free agent signings, usually (but not always) for "middle-six" players, who can play on both the second and third lines. In part five, I'll discuss what makes a rebuild successful, or what separates the Chicagos from the Edmontons.