Alex Ovechkin

Nearly every NHL fan who has endured years of playoff heartbreak reaches a point where they call for their favorite team to blow up the core and go into a rebuild. It’s happened everywhere, including in Pittsburgh from 2010 to 2015, when Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and company could barely get out of the first round. The same thing happened in Tampa Bay in 2019, when they were swept in the first round by the Columbus Blue Jackets. But, in Tampa Bay, there were calls for patience after the embarrassing defeat, perhaps learning a lesson from the Penguins, whose patience with their core paid off. Both of those teams eventually captured back-to-back titles and were rewarded for sticking with their core group of players. The same can be said for the 2026 Stanley Cup Champion Carolina Hurricanes, who have endured years of playoff disappointments, rode it out with their core, and were rewarded with hockey’s ultimate prize. So, which leads to more success? A full teardown and rebuild, or riding things out with a core that can’t get wins when the games matter the most?

The list of teams that faced playoff disappointments is much longer than just Pittsburgh and Tampa Bay. The Washington Capitals had their own set of playoff disappointments during the Alex Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom, and John Carlson era, but they kept that core together for more than a decade before it ultimately paid off with a Stanley Cup in 2018. There were many calls for Washington to move someone from that group, but those calls were ignored, and Washington continued to build around the group and improve it year after year.

In Tampa Bay, the Lightning endured a Stanley Cup Finals loss in 2015 and Eastern Conference Finals losses in 2016 and 2018 before finally breaking through. Calls in Tampa Bay were constant for the team to do something, anything, to shake up a core that some felt was stale. But two Stanley Cups and three finals trips later, it’s clear that Tampa Bay made the right call to ride things out with their group.

On the other hand, the teardown is always viewed through rose-coloured glasses because folks remember the Penguins during the Sidney Crosby era, when they drafted Crosby, Malkin, Kris Letang, Jordan Staal, and Marc-Andre Fleury. They may also think back to the Chicago Blackhawks, who used the draft lottery to pick Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews.

The problem with viewing a full teardown with such optimism is that for every successful rebuild, there are teams that struggle for a decade or more. The Edmonton Oilers and Buffalo Sabres have both spent more than a decade rebuilding and have nothing to show for it at this point, though the Oilers came close to a title twice. The Sabres went 15 years without a playoff appearance, which should serve as a cautionary tale for anyone who believes that a full-scale roster teardown guarantees a window of contention. In fact, it doesn’t end with Buffalo and Edmonton, as the Philadelphia Flyers rebuilt and tore down more than once during the 2010s after multiple failed launches.

Much of the evidence points to teams that keep the core together being more successful, yet fans and media love to call for the general manager of their favorite team to rebuild when things get tough. A lot of that is an emotional reaction after a loss, which is understandable given that emotions run high come playoff time, and sometimes fans and media say things purely in the heat of the moment. But even though it might come off as rash, it’s not always wrong to want to tear down a core.

The best time, and perhaps the only time, to tear down a core is when it has become too old and too expensive to continue pressing with it. The Pittsburgh Penguins are a good example of this. They kept the core together during the 2010-2015 failures, but should have likely broken the core up around 2021-22 after five consecutive playoff series losses. They didn’t do so, and general manager Ron Hextall added to the core in the summer of 2022 in an effort to extend the Penguins’ playoff appearance streak, but they unfortunately hit a wall in 2023, and Hextall was fired.

The argument to keep the Penguins together during the 2018-22 run made sense, given that teams aren’t successful immediately after blowing up their roster, and the Penguins still had Crosby and Malkin playing at a high level. Had the Penguins torn it down, it likely wouldn’t have been five years before their draft capital reached the NHL. By then, Crosby and Malkin would’ve been 40, and the team likely didn’t have the patience to wait that long, nor would Crosby and Malkin.

The choice to keep the core together or blow it all up and start over is a case-by-case decision. The idea of always tearing down a core after a few playoff failures is wrong, and keeping an old, expensive core together forever is a bad idea, too. The best measuring stick for something like this might be long-term success and whether a team has consistently been a top 5-7 NHL team and won some playoff series.

Carolina struggled in the Conference Finals for years, but they showed management they could consistently win two rounds in the playoffs. This created an internal belief among management, and the Hurricanes were patient for years despite ugly third-round losses several times. But the Canes knew they had elite talent, a deep roster, and prospects coming up the pipeline. And finally, this year, their patience was rewarded.

This is what makes a case like the Toronto Maple Leafs so compelling. They’ve been good for a long time and have been a contender on paper at times. They have elite-level talent on their roster, but they can’t get past the second round, and most times, they can’t even get out of the first round. There is an argument that patience could pay off in Toronto, and it’s possible that argument could be right. The history of the NHL is littered with teams that lost many times before eventually breaking through and winning a Stanley Cup, and it’s not to say Toronto should plan a Stanley Cup parade, but it is to say they should give their core a few more chances to win before tearing it all down.