Grading 10 NHL Teams' Rebuilds in the Last 10 Years
There's nothing easy about rebuilding in the NHL, and teams that decide they're going to pull things apart and start over sometimes find that out in the hardest ways possible.
We've been able to watch many franchises over the years pull the plug and start over to varying degrees of success and countless kinds of failure, too. While our memories go back a long way and can come up with plenty of tales of rebuilds' past, we're going to focus on teams that have done it over the past 10 years.
We've picked out a handful of teams that have rebuilt or are still rebuilding as we write this, and we're going to grade them on how well it's gone or is going. Even though some of those projects might be better suited with an "incomplete" grade, what fun is that?! Either you've got it going well or...you don't.
Grades range from A to F, just like you were in school, and for some of these teams, they might not want to bring these report cards home to their parents, while others are ready to go up on the fridge.
New York Rangers
1 of 10
The Rangers may have discovered that they're addicted to starting over this year, but the rebuild they started in somewhat earnest in 2017 yielded mixed results and bad decisions, prompting them, once again, to let fans know they're pulling the plug to start over.
Draft misses and bad bounces in the lottery dominate the discussion for the Rangers. Here's how their first-round picks went when they started their initial rebuild in 2017:
2017: Lias Andersson (7th), Filip Chytil (21st)
2018: Vitali Kravtsov (9th), K'Andre Miller (22nd), Nils Lundkvist (29th)
2019: Kaapo Kakko (2nd; missed out on Jack Hughes at No. 1)
2020: Alexis Lafrenière (1st), Braeden Schneider (19th)
2021: Brennan Othmann (16th)
By the time 2021-2022 rolled around, the Rangers were back in the playoffs, and two years after that, they won the Presidents' Trophy after making solid moves to add veterans (signing Artemi Panarin, acquiring Adam Fox) and allowing some of their own previous homegrown talent to lead the way (Chris Kreider, Igor Shesterkin).
On the whole, their rebuild accomplished a lot, but nowhere near enough, and some of the misses in the draft were massive. Even the years previous to rebuilding had terrible drafts and few picks to work with. The Presidents' Trophy is nothing to sneeze at, but to go from that to mailing it in in two years is staggering.
Grade: C-minus
Anaheim Ducks
2 of 10
Timing is everything when it comes to a rebuild, and patience plays a role in that, as does scouting and drafting, just ask the Ducks.
Anaheim started its rebuild following its last playoff appearance in 2018, and although the past seven years have been difficult for fans in Orange County, the picks they've made have led it to the heart of the playoff race this season, highlighting how it's happened.
In 2019, they snagged Trevor Zegras (9th overall) and Jackson LaCombe (39th overall). In 2020, they selected Jamie Drysdale with the sixth pick. They moved on from Zegras and Drysdale in trades with the Flyers and added 2022 fifth overall pick Cutter Gauthier in the Drysdale deal.
The 2021 draft saw the Ducks take Mason McTavish in the first round and Olen Zellweger in the second, while in the 2022 draft, they snagged Pavel Mintyukov in the first round. While they had designs on coming out of the rebuild then, they landed Leo Carlsson with the second pick in 2023 and Beckett Sennecke with the third pick in 2024, and both are emerging as top players for the Ducks.
To have success in a rebuild, you have to nail your top picks, and the Ducks' track record in doing that is very good. If any of their depth picks can hit in the coming years, that'll add to their wealth, but being able to do so well in the draft has led to their breakout this year.
Those young stars in the making, mixed with veterans they've added in recent years to balance out the roster (Radko Gudas, Alex Killorn), along with other homegrown players (Troy Terry), make their rebuild look smartly executed.
Grade: B-plus
Montréal Canadiens
3 of 10
Even though a lot of NHL fans didn't have a lot of sympathy for the Canadiens when they decided to rebuild, they're busy cursing them out now after seeing how well they've done in putting it together.
It's wild to think about how the Canadiens were in the Stanley Cup Final in 2021 and how Carey Price's injury forced them to start over. Patience isn't something that works well in Montréal, and the prospect of a rebuild was daunting. But the Habs had an ace up their sleeve already with Cole Caufield (2019 first round) ready to take off in the 2021-2022 season.
Caufield's great rookie season was followed by the Canadiens winning the draft lottery and surprising many by taking Juraj Slafkovský instead of the consensus No. 1, Shane Wright. Turns out the Habs made the right call, but their best pick of the 11 they made that year was with their second second-round pick, Lane Hutson.
Even Montréal's drafts since then have yielded a peek into the future and more of what's working for them now. The 2023 draft saw them take David Reinbacher fifth overall, but they also grabbed goalie Jacob Fowler in the third. In 2024, they snagged Ivan Demidov fifth overall as well, and his immediate move to North America juiced up the Habs attack with even more speed and creativity.
Caufield, Slafkovský, Hutson and Demidov have made the Canadiens a fast, fun team to watch and even more suddenly contenders in the East. Rebuilds don't have to last forever after all.
Grade: A-minus
Chicago Blackhawks
4 of 10
Just a little more time, that's all Chicago needs before we all find out just how well their rebuild out of their Stanley Cup dynasty plays out.
Chicago's biggest hit, 2023 No. 1 pick Connor Bedard, stands out above all since they began starting over in 2022. While they amassed draft picks by the handful in 2022, landing the No. 1 pick and Bedard ensured that the Blackhawks wouldn't be waiting around forever for the rebuild to turn them into competitors again.
In 2022, they picked Kevin Korchinski, Frank Nazar, and Sam Rinzel with first-round picks, and while Bedard is the prize from 2023, they also selected Oliver Moore (first round) and Nick Lardis (third round). Artyom Levshunov gave them the big blue line player they were looking for with the second pick in 2024, and 2025 third overall pick Anton Frondell showed during the World Juniors why he'll also be a force to be reckoned with when he gets to the NHL.
Chicago has used a lot of draft capital over the years in its rebuild, attacking it with volume and time spent developing its picks. But with time running short, it's a good thing Bedard has broken out in a big way this season, or else there would be a lot more questions.
Grade: B-minus
New Jersey Devils
5 of 10
Luck goes a long way in a rebuild, and whether the Devils sold their souls for good lottery fortune or not, the boost they got from it speeding their rebuild along is inarguable.
The Devils had luck on their side when they landed the top pick in 2017 and again in 2019 when they got to select Nico Hischier and Jack Hughes with the No. 1 picks. Those two have been the cornerstones of the team and have proven worthy of the top billing they received in their draft years.
But what's more impressive about what New Jersey's done is how well, in general, they drafted over the years, even if some of those players have gone elsewhere to bring in different players. Fabian Zetterlund, Jesper Boqvist, Yegor Sharangovich, Akira Schmid, Alexander Holtz, and Shakir Mukhamadullin have all been steady NHL players, allowing the Devils to add guys like Tyler Toffoli and Timo Meier.
But their drafts also netted them future core pieces like Luke Hughes and Simon Nemec, as well as high-potential guys like Seamus Casey and Anton Silayev. Unfortunately, success has eluded New Jersey, and a big reason is Jack Hughes's injury struggles over the years, as well as questionable goaltending.
Still, the drafting record is strong, and their high-end talent is outstanding. If the Devils could ever get out of their own way, they'd be going places other than purgatory in the playoff hunt.
Grade: B-minus
Ottawa Senators
6 of 10
Rebuilds come in many shapes, and the one the Ottawa Senators underwent could best be described as "oblong."
Ottawa went seven years between playoff appearances after making the Eastern Conference Final in 2017, and those years in between, after dealing away Erik Karlsson and amassing picks to become a perennial contender again proved difficult.
The Senators pulled a jewel out of the fourth round in 2017 in Drake Batherson, but in 2018, they landed Brady Tkachuk with the fourth overall pick. Even though they missed with their first in 2019 (Lassi Thomson), second-round pick Shane Pinto has been outstanding. But it was the 2020 first round where they really crushed it.
In 2020, the Senators had three first-round picks and selected Tim Stützle (third), Jake Sanderson (fifth), and Ridly Greig (28th). With Stützle and Sanderson, the Senators landed superstar players, and with Greig, they found the kind of sandpapery player any team needs.
What's worrisome for Ottawa is how their drafts fared after that. Their 2021 first-round pick, Tyler Boucher (10th overall), has battled injuries and hasn't had a lot of success in the AHL. They didn't have a first in 2022 or 2023, and their more recent top picks are still developing. That lack of a consistent pipeline of talent will crush any team, but especially one that tried to get out of the rebuild stage for so long.
Adding players like Dylan Cozens, Fabian Zetterlund, and Jordan Spence will help them now and keep them flying with younger legs, but like we've seen from them this season, even bad luck can get in the way of a good thing.
Grade: C
Philadelphia Flyers
7 of 10
Sometimes a team doesn't fully embrace a rebuild and instead sells it as a rebuild on the fly. For the Flyers, they had every design to fully rebuild and yet, success kept popping up to throw a wrench into the mix.
We last saw the Flyers in the postseason in 2020 in the bubble, but they came very close to reaching the playoffs in 2024 under coach John Tortorella, while they were figuring out whether they were rebuilding or not. That team punched above its weight all year before running out of gas late in the season. When Torts was fired a year later, it seemed like Danny Brière's idea to lean into the rebuild would come to fruition.
And yet, here are the Flyers right in the heart of the playoff race again this season and doing so without too much help from the guys that were part of those designs to start over. They've gotten solid play from Cam York this season, and the absence of Tyson Foerster is felt in the lineup. But adding Jamie Drysdale and Trevor Zegras from Anaheim, all for the cost of Cutter Gauthier and Ryan Poehling, has given them a huge boost.
Even though Matvei Michkov has been going through it as he learns how best to be an NHL star player, they're still waiting for other top picks like Oliver Bonk, Jett Luchanko, Porter Martone, and Jack Nesbitt to make their way to the NHL down the road.
This is a report card that ought to be incomplete, but considering how the Flyers are playing with only a few of their developed players and what that will do to set the standard for the younger guys when they arrive, that's not bad.
Grade: C-plus
San Jose Sharks
8 of 10
It's easy to look good when first-round picks become superstars immediately, right? That's the life the San Jose Sharks are looking at right now thanks to Macklin Celebrini.
It would be easy enough to give the Sharks a high grade based on Celebrini's breakout and the way he's able to control games already at age 19, but the Sharks' rebuild has so much more going on with it than just Celebrini. Will Smith (2023 No. 4 pick) and William Eklund (2021 No. 7) have played outstanding hockey in their own rights, and that they've jelled all at once has made San Jose exciting to watch.
It's not just those top pick players who are blowing up for them now; it's guys like 2024 college free agent signing Collin Graf and 2024 second-round pick Igor Chernyshov rising to the moment as well. That's not even taking into account 18-year-old 2025 No. 2 pick Michael Misa and Celebrini's 2024 first-round pick cohort defenseman Sam Dickinson getting into the mix with this group as well.
When you add in 23-year-old goalie Yaroslav Askarov, the 11th pick in 2020 by Nashville, it's a wealth of young riches with potentially more on the way if forwards Filip Bystedt (2022 first-round pick) and Quentin Musty (2023 first-round pick) can develop well enough to get there.
Right now, it looks incredible for San Jose, but more time will have to show to see if this group will be all about Macklin or if it'll be Celebrini and the boys ruling the West.
Grade: A-minus
Detroit Red Wings
9 of 10
There's the "Yzerplan," and then there's the rebuild that's been going on in Detroit for the past 10 years.
The Red Wings' rebuild following their seemingly eternal run of playoff appearances, which ended after 2016, has felt almost as long to fans. What made it hurt even more was that, when they had the worst record in the league in 2020, they wound up essentially losing the lottery and picking fourth after three teams jumped ahead of them.
Out of that gloom came a blessing because they were able to take Lucas Raymond with the fourth pick. Raymond joined the surprise sixth overall pick in 2019, Moritz Seider. Those two players jumped into the Red Wings lineup right away with Dylan Larkin to set the foundation for what's been one of the best teams in the NHL this year.
In the years after that, they added Simon Edvinsson, Marco Kasper, and Axel Sandin-Pellikka with their top picks, and saw 2017 first-rounder Michael Rasmussen provide steady play as well. Those young players and prospects who have become veterans are buoyed by goalie John Gibson now, because waiting for Sebastian Cossa (2021, 15th overall) to be ready might've been a wait too long.
The Wings aren't out of the woods and into the playoffs yet, but this is as good as they've ever looked since the rebuild started, and with the mix of home-grown guys as well as veterans from elsewhere (Patrick Kane, Alex DeBrincat), the Yzerplan might just have been worth the wait.
Grade: B-plus
Buffalo Sabres
10 of 10
Sometimes rebuilds don't just happen once. Sometimes a rebuild gets rebooted, and sometimes that rebuild gets stuck in a loop. That's what's happened to the Buffalo Sabres.
The Sabres rebuild began in earnest in 2013 when they traded away Jason Pominville to Minnesota, and then GM Darcy Regier told fans there would be some suffering. Mind you, at that point, the team was about to miss the playoffs for the second straight season. Thirteen years later, the Sabres are in a position where ending the 14-year playoff drought is a real possibility, but the rebuild that ensued in 2013 isn't the one they're coming out of now.
That first rebuild saw the Sabres land guys like Rasmus Ristolainen, Zemgus Girgensons, Sam Reinhart, and Jack Eichel. Infamously, they traded away three of four of those guys in 2021 to acquire players and picks that are part of the team these days. It's that second rebuild that's driving the wins they're seeing now.
While Eichel got them Alex Tuch and Peyton Krebs, it also got them the first-round pick they used to take Noah Östlund. Reinhart netted them goalie Devon Levi and the pick they used to take Jiri Kulich. The Ristolainen trade got them a first-round pick, which they used on Isak Rosén, and a second-round pick, which they used on Anton Wahlberg.
Guys like Rasmus Dahlin (No. 1 in 2018), Mattias Samuelsson, Owen Power (No. 1 in 2020), Zach Benson, and Jack Quinn are vital players to the team, and all were taken with top 35 picks. Now the Sabres are even getting more recent guys like Östlund and Konsta Helenius into the mix. At this rate, 2025 first-rounder Radim Mrtka won't be far behind.
Even recent top picks have been used to add veteran players. 2022 ninth overall selection Matt Savoie was used to bring in Ryan McLeod. 2020 second-round pick J-J Peterka landed them Josh Doan and Michael Kesselring. 2019 first-rounder Dylan Cozens went to Ottawa for Josh Norris. What's wilder still is that the GM who made those moves, Kevyn Adams, is gone! None of it makes sense, yet it's all working out now.
But how do you grade a rebuild that's been going on this long appropriately? For all that's gone right now and how well they've used the picks and players recently, has everything that didn't work or go right previously to thank for that. All's well that ends well, we suppose, but this season has to end with a playoff berth for this rebuild to really be over and done with and claim success. But right now, things are looking awfully good in Buffalo at long last.
Grade: A-minus
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