Stop Wandering The Desert And Make Marginal Improvements

Zdeno's Cigar is back with more advice for building a team and staying competitive throughout a rebuild, or, more accurately, a retool:

Take the San Jose Sharks for instance. San Jose has been a model NHL club for the past decade or so ... but the team is ageing and has lost its elite edge. So what does management do? They've traded a depreciating asset for two quality draft picks, and my bet is that there's more to come. San Jose likely won't scorch the earth entirely, but they will re-engineer the team in a way that will make them younger and ultimately more competitive in the future, but what they won't do is delay the inevitable and obtain returns of cents on the dollar.

But if you take the risk and tear the entire franchise apart in the name of a "rebuild", there's every chance the people in charge of the rebuild won't be able to break the cycle.