Hard Idle said:
Your initial point is not supported by facts. The "hired guns" theory was ancient history long before the new CBA. Most "hired guns" have been colossal flopps (Oates, Zhamnov, Leetch, Housley...).
Colorado and Detroit have only had one big playoff run in this decade - that's one less than Carolina. Half the Stanley cup finalists and conference finalists in this decade have been teams with small-to-medium payrolls.
The Devils were a medium spending team who's core is mostly built form within with the odd free agent tweak. The closest thing NJ has had to a late-season "hired gun" was Tommy Albelin comeing back form Europe...
What the last few playoff years have proven is that it's not about the salaries, reputations and marquee names at all. A good playoff run is most likely to consist of a balanced team heavy on hungry and motivated players who have been written off or underused in other organizations and are now willing to die for a coach or GM who gives them another break....
One would assume the management of a playoff team made a reasonable judgment call in acquiring ‘hired guns’ to help its chance of winning the Stanley Cup. Otherwise, what is the point of getting help from ‘hired guns’ at all? So if they happened to be gigantic flops, management must take its share of responsibilities. But in the case of the Hurricanes, obviously the acquisitions of ‘hired guns’ Doug Weight and Mark Recchi pay off handsomely now. So as the acquisitions of Roloson and Samsonov for the Oilers, except it is too bad that Roloson is injured at the most critical series of playoffs.
The point in my post you quoted really is about the merit of salary cap in the new NHL. Now the large market teams cannot go on to buy championships by flexing their financial muscle that cannot be matched by the small market teams anymore. Below is the list of Stanley Cup champions from 1995 to 2004 up to the 2005 lock out.
1995 New Jersey Devils
1996 Colorado Avalanche
1997 Detroit Red Wings
1998 Detroit Red Wings
1999 Dallas Stars
2000 New Jersey Devils
2001 Colorado Avalanche
2002 Detroit Red Wings
2003 New Jersey Devils
2004 Tampa Bay Lightning
NJ Devils, qualified by you as medium spending team, won three times. But the big spending teams, Avalanche, Dallas Stars, and Red Wings won six times combined. So salary cap will bring parity to NHL, which allows small market teams to have a fair chance to compete for the Stanley Cup.
With regard to the Sabres, it remains to be seen how their management will put the team together for the new season. By narrowly missing a chance to win the Stanley Cup this time, the good doc hopes Regier and his gang learn a valuable lesson and go on to put a formidable championship team together.
As an interesting piece of imagination, if the Sabres had better luck and managed to hold off the Hurricanes in the third period of game 7 when they had the 2 to 1 lead, it would be an interesting scenario to see a wounded Sabres team against the Oilers without the injured Roloson in the Stanley Cup Final!!! Of course, Roloson might not have been injured then since he would not be crushed by a Canes player in net in game one of the series.
