Are NHL dynasties a thing of the past?

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As the systemic dismantling of this summer’s Stanley Cup champions continues in earnest, league watchers are crying foul. Where detractors of the current, hard revenue based cap once denounced the communistic, unilateral sharing of league revenue as the prime illustration of illogic in the CBA (alongside the long-long term contract loopholes), Monday’s exit of Antti Niemi from the Chicago Blackhawks has helped turn the club into the latest martyr’s of the cap.

The death of the NHL dynasty, if you will, has gained sentimental traction amid a maelstrom of arguments against the current CBA that are bound to follow the Kovalchuk saga as the various concerned parties position themselves for the next round of bargaining negotiations in two years time.

And amid all the hysteria that has followed the exits of Versteeg, Burish, Byfuglien, Sopel, Ladd, Eager, Madden and Niemi, few seem to ask; couldn’t the ‘Hawks have won it within the strictures of the cap?

You see, Dale Tallon’s era was one of successful mismanagement, engineering a cup run on two great draft picks and a slew of shoddy contracts, expensive term extensions and exorbitant bonuses. And that is without mentioning the messy and costly re-signings of the “Chicago-five,” when Tallon failed to meet deadlines in tendering qualifying offers to five restricted free agents.

The sum total was an all or nothing run to the cup under a new GM who had to find a means of fitting the wage demands of franchise cornerstones Toews and Kane into a jigsaw that already contained Huet, Hossa and Campbell at a combined cap hit of $18 million.

While one can credit Tallon with turning Chicago around from the NHL’s retirement home into an attractive franchise for free agents, he did so by over paying for talent and with a lack of foresight that placed three millstone contracts around the clubs neck for a total of 24 years prior to the conclusion of Toews and Kane’s entry level contracts.

Subsequently the Blackhawk’s are no poster boy for the death of the NHL dynasty; indeed Stan Bowman has done a miraculous job of retaining the core of the clubs cup-winning team whilst shelling eight key, but essentially replaceable players, amongst whom only Byfuglien and Burish were internally developed draftees.

Of course the club is still over or skirting the cap depending on your source and still five players shy of a full roster; but the worst of the restructuring appears over for now. mapleleafshotstove.c...on-built/#more-12043

It's something I've mentioned for a few years now...this era is one where any team can seemingly have a shot at the cup. That sounds vague and maybe nice to some people but it's true. We've seen teams like Carolina and Tampa go from champions to teams picking in the draft lottery just a few years later. Teams are going to be mismanaged and dismantled just like the Hawks. You may be able to keep that great core around like Toews, Kane, Keith and Seabrook but without the supporting cast, are they really an obvious choice to win it next year? That's the thing with the cap, on one hand it's nice to know that there's plenty of teams who can win it where as on the other hand, there's no dynasties. In recent memory, outside of the Wings there hasn't been one team who's been dominant. Not one team has had a target on there backs so to speak. Isn't there something wrong with this? IMO there is.

There is one and only one....... Detroit...... What other team has had the success that the Wings have had over the last 15 years? This is the homer in me comming out, but it also not far off. Ken Holland is a genius.

Welcome to the salary cap. When was the last time a football team had 15 years of dynasty? It can't happen in the day of the salary cap, eventually your young players will out price themselves and you'll make the decision of letting others go to keep your young players, or letting your young players walk.

Impossible under the cap to consistently win for 15 years.

I don't think so I think it is very well possible and thats whats going to make a GM rich some day. If a team can keep their core of players for a 10-15 year span then its very possible. I think it's not out of the question for Chicago to repeat they have a core of talent consisting of Toews, Kane, Hossa, Sharp, Bolland, Seabrook, and Keith. Their roster only lost role players and they have replenished their roster with younger role players. For each player they lost they added one or two solid prospects. Then again teams like the Red Wings and Penguins have shown repeating is easier said than done.

i also think it depends on what you consider a dynasty..3 cups in 6 years? in 7 years? the devils won 3 in 8 years, were they a dynasty? the red wings won 4 in 10 years, are they a dynasty?

i think it all depends on what somebody considers a dynasty

To me a dynasty is a team that constantly goes out there and proves to be the team to beat year in and year out.

I think we are witnessing the beginnings of dynasties as we speak. Teams like the Blackhawks, Penguins, and Capitals all have young talent that have been winning for a few years now. Then you have teams like Detroit and New Jersey who always seem to make the playoffs. Once again, it all depends on your definition of "dynasty"

Wings and Devils have both been dynastys over the last 10 ish years or so. Penguins or Hawks are in the best shape to do it today. Pens are already in 2 of the last 3 cup finals.