Grading the NHL's Recent Rebuilds

The Buffalo Sabres and Philadelphia Flyers are two teams that have either recently undergone a rebuild or are in the process of starting one. With them facing off Wednesday night on TNT, we thought it might be a good time to take a look at how they—and other NHL teams that have been going through rebuilds—have handled the process.

We are going to look at eight franchises that have either completed, started or are undergoing rebuilds over the past few years and how those rebuilds are looking.

Part of the evaluation will be the young talent assembled, how it has developed, the overall vision and how much success the team has had.

Anaheim Ducks

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Leo Carlsson

Rebuild status: Ongoing

During the Bob Murray era, the Anaheim Ducks seemed to keep putting off a rebuild for far too long, and it put the team in a state of constant mediocrity. While the rebuild never really resulted in a complete fire sale and all-out tanking endeavor like those of some other teams, they finally started the process and have begun to assemble a nice core of talent.

They have tried to complement that core with some solid veteran additions over the past couple of offseasons.

The key to all of this, however, is going to be the development of their potential cornerstones, specifically Trevor Zegras, Mason McTavish and 2023 No. 2 overall pick Leo Carlsson.

Carlsson is going to be the fascinating part of this because his selection was a little bit of a surprise.

It seemed to be a foregone conclusion they were going to take Adam Fantilli with that pick, but instead opted for Carlsson.

The Ducks are being patient with Carlsson this season and are allowing him to focus on adjusting to the grind of a full NHL season while building up his strength. The early returns are promising, and he looks like he has a chance to be a cornerstone talent.

Anaheim is not a playoff team yet, but it has some of the most important pieces in place to get there sooner rather than later.

Current Grade: B

Buffalo Sabres

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Tage Thompson

Rebuild status: Nearing completion, time to start paying off

The Buffalo Sabres have been in a perpetual state of rebuilding for the better part of the past 12 years, a process they have started and restarted several times.

The most recent phase seems like it has a chance to be the one that will actually pay off with tangible results.

It has been a process that included two No. 1 overall picks on defense (Rasmus Dahlin and Owen Power) and an influx of young talent that has all started to reach the NHL at the same time.

The most significant piece of this rebuild, and the one that has helped give Sabres fans the most hope, has been the emergence of forward Tage Thompson. The Sabres initially acquired him as part of the deal that sent Ryan O'Reilly to the St. Louis Blues in 2018, and for a few years, it looked like it was going to be a disaster of a move for Buffalo. O'Reilly helped the Blues win a Stanley Cup, while almost all of the pieces Buffalo received looked to be nothing but spare parts and roster filler. Including Thompson.

But during the 2021-22 season, just when it looked like Thompson was going to be just another forgettable first-round and trade bust, he put all of his size and skills together into a sublime combination of strength and skill and blossomed into one of the league's most exciting players.

Buffalo rewarded him with a seven-year, $50 million contract extension after that breakout year (38 goals, 30 assists, 68 points), and he followed it up by being even better in 2022-23 (47-47-94). He is one of the central cogs in the Sabres organization, and they have rapidly developed into one of the most exciting, talented young teams in the league.

They also made a shockingly good trade in the Jack Eichel deal by landing two long-term pieces in Alex Tuch and Peyton Krebs. It was looking like the Sabres were going to have the Eichel era end in brutal disappointment, but it might actually be one of the few trades where everybody gets exactly what they needed. Vegas got a superstar to put it over the top for a Stanley Cup. The Sabres got multiple productive pieces for their rebuild who want to play for them.

They still have some big question marks in goal that they need to iron out, and they still need to snap this decade-plus long playoff drought, but they are on the right track. The potential is there to give them A for the process. But the lack of results is still holding them back from getting that grade. For now.

Current Grade: B

Chicago Blackhawks

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Connor Bedard

Rebuild status: Ongoing

The Chicago Blackhawks put off the rebuild for too many years in the Stan Bowman era, clinging to the idea they could still compete despite plenty of evidence to the contrary.

Before the 2022-23 season they finally set out on an actual rebuild, dumping Alex DeBrincat, Dominik Kubalik, Dylan Strome and just about every other veteran who was not nailed down.

Even though it was never spoken about publicly, the goal was pretty clear: try their best to position themselves for the chance to select a franchise player like Connor Bedard at the top of the draft.

They did exactly that, and had the draft lottery balls fall their way to allow Bedard to fall into their laps.

I don't love everything they have done as part of this process, because it seems like they undersold some of their previous veteran assets (like DeBrincat and Kirby Dach, for example), and they have not fully maximized their salary-cap space to buy prospects or prime draft picks from other teams that need to dump salary. But getting Bedard is a potential franchise-changer, and not even 10 games into his career he already looks like he is worthy of the hype.

There is still a long way to go, but the process is off to a strong start.

Current Grade: B

Detroit Red Wings

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Steve Yzerman

Rebuild status: Reaching the point of no return

Steve Yzerman already rescued the Detroit Red Wings once from the NHL's basement as a player.

Now he has the task of trying to rebuild them as a general manager.

We are at a point where that rebuild needs to start showing some results.

The Red Wings have a good core of young talent led by Lucas Raymond and Moritz Seider, while Dylan Larkin has become a legitimate top-line player. The one thing Yzerman has done really well has been being very aggressive in recent years in trying to bring in veterans to help speed up the process.

A year ago he acquired Andrew Copp, David Perron, Dominik Kubalik, Olli Maatta and Ville Husso.

This offseason he continued that process by trading for Alex DeBrincat and signing Shayne Gostisbehere and Daniel Sprong.

Given those additions, the money spent and the number of years Yzerman has been in charge, the time has come for the Red Wings to start showing progress and getting closer to playoff contention, if not an actual playoff spot.

That should have been a reasonable goal last year as well, especially after the offseason additions, but it all simply resulted in another non-playoff effort that saw the Red Wings become sellers at the trade deadline by dealing players like Filip Hronek and Tyler Bertuzzi.

That sort of thing can not happen this season.

If they are not in playoff contention at the deadline this season and making significant progress, it will be fair to start wondering if the Yzerplan is still the path to be following.

Current Grade: C

New Jersey Devils

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Jack Hughes

Rebuild status: Completed

The New Jersey Devils have pretty much nailed it with their process and find themselves as not only a Stanley Cup contender but also one of the most exciting young teams in the league with an enormous potential.

It all started with a couple of No. 1 overall picks (Nico Hischier and Jack Hughes) who have turned out to be cornerstone pieces. Hughes in particular has become a superstar and the type of franchise player that any team should be able to build a contender around. He is looking like an MVP candidate this season and is just entering what should be his prime years in the league.

But it is not just the first overall picks they have hit on.

The Devils have quite a pipeline of young talent that has come through their system to become stars (Jesper Bratt and Dawson Mercer), and it is a pipeline that still has plenty of talent flowing through it—including young defensemen Luke Hughes and Simon Nemec.

The Devils have also aggressively complemented that young core by being extremely active in free agency and on the trade market.

The signing of Dougie Hamilton gave them a bona fide No. 1 defenseman to build their blue line around, while they also swung for the fences to get forwards like Timo Meier and Tyler Toffoli to add to the depth.

Adding to the potential is that most of the Devils' core players are already signed to long-term deals at extremely team-friendly rates. Having Hughes, Hischier and Meier all signed together through at least 2027 at a combined salary-cap hit of just $22 million is massive and gives the front office a ton of flexibility in building around them. They should be a Stanley Cup contender for the foreseeable future.

Current Grade: A

Ottawa Senators

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Tim Stutzle

Rebuild status: Nearing its completion

After going on a shocking run to the 2017 Eastern Conference Final and falling a double-overtime Game 7 loss on the road to the back-to-back Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins from actually reaching the Stanley Cup Final, the Ottawa Senators began the process of gutting their roster and dumping salary.

One by one key players from that 2017 roster were sent away.

Mark Stone.

Erik Karlsson.

Ryan Dzingel.

Kyle Turris.

Jean-Gabriel Pageau.

Derick Brassard.

It was a sweeping set of changes and left the roster as a shell of its former self, igniting a huge rebuilding process.

And while it has taken some time, the Senators are at a point where they are ready to contend, and they have been very aggressive in making sure they get there.

The most encouraging part of the rebuild was how much of a home run they hit with the Karlsson trade. It is really difficult to win a trade of a superstar like that, but the Senators might have done exactly that by landing Joshua Norris (an outstanding top-six forward) and Tim Stutzle (quickly becoming a franchise player and elite scorer).

The other significant development has been Ottawa's ability to get all of its core pieces signed long term. That was always going to be the concern here. Developing talent is one thing. Developing talent and keeping it is something else entirely, and Ottawa never seemed capable of doing that.

But with Stutzle, Norris, Brady Tkachuk, Drake Batherson, Thomas Chabot, Jake Sanderson and Artem Zub all signed long term to team-friendly deals, the core is not only good, but Senators fans should also be comfortable in the knowledge none of them are going anywhere anytime soon.

That core, along with last year's trade for Jakob Chychrun and the offseason signings of Vladimir Tarasenko and Joonas Korpisalo, should make the playoffs a realistic goal this season.

Current Grade: B

Philadelphia Flyers

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John Tortorella

Rebuild status: Just getting started

This is a tough one to grade because even though the Philadelphia Flyers have been in desperate need of a rebuild, and have been showing the signs of actively going through a rebuild, they have stubbornly refused to acknowledge that is what they are doing.

In fact, up until this season, head coach John Tortorella seemed to be the only person in the organization who was even willing to acknowledge the fact that it was happening.

Under previous general manager Chuck Fletcher, the entire thing was a complete disaster as he was seemingly unable to choose a direction and made some shockingly bad—and equally confusing—trades. The deal for Rasmus Ristolainen, the trade of Shayne Gostisbehere, the addition of Tony DeAngelo, and the bad luck that came with the Ryan Ellis deal just seemed to keep the team's tires spinning in mud while the losses kept piling up.

Current GM Danny Briere at least seems to have more of a long-term vision and coherent plan than Fletcher did, and that is the first step toward finding success.

Trading Ivan Provorov and Kevin Hayes this offseason were also significant steps and really kick-started the process.

The most significant part of the Flyers' rebuild, and the first exciting piece to be added as part of it, was the the selection of forward prospect Matvei Michkov in the first round of the 2023 draft.

He has superstar potential and could be the foundation of the organization the next time they are good. But the rebuild will really be defined by what they get when they inevitably deal players like Travis Konecny and Carter Hart, and how they are able to develop players like Michkov and their other top prospects.

In the short term, Tortorella is going to squeeze as many points as he can out of an undermanned lineup.

Current Grade: C

San Jose Sharks

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Tomas Hertl (center)

Rebuild status: Just starting

This is probably the bleakest stretch of hockey that San Jose Sharks fans have ever known. Outside of their initial expansion years, the Sharks have been one of the most consistent contenders in the NHL and have, at the very least, always been in the playoff discussion.

But they entered the 2023-24 season having missed the postseason in each of the past four years, the longest such drought in franchise history.

Given the state of the roster and the organization, that streak is going to extend for quite some time.

The Sharks have gutted their roster over the past year, dealing key players like Brent Burns, Timo Meier and Erik Karlsson, while the remaining core players continue to age and decline.

It has not exactly been the smoothest process to start as the Sharks didn't really get premium returns on any of their core players they dealt. Burns was a complete salary-dump trade, while the Meier and Karlsson returns seemed to be more of a quantity-over-quality situation.

The current NHL roster is the worst in the league.

The farm system needs more impact players and more time to be built up.

The early returns are not promising based on the trades that have been made, but there is still time for that to change.

Current Grade: Incomplete