Inside the NHL’s Power Brokers: Who Truly Runs the League’s Most Dominant Franchises?
Plenty of credit is due to Hughes and Gorton. The latter still gets credit for preceding over a similarly rapid, successful rebuild with the Rangers.
As one Eastern Conference exec said: “We see rebuilds taking a decade or longer, and Jeff Gorton is now on his second one that’s taken less than five years.”
8. Washington Capitals
Total points: 35 (appeared on 9 ballots)
Owner: Ted Leonsis
President of hockey operations: Brian MacLellan
GM: Chris Patrick
Last year: 19
The Capitals have threaded what seemed like an impossibly thin needle, rebuilding a playoff team on the fly for the last few years of Alex Ovechkin’s remarkable career. Last summer’s moves — acquiring a distressed asset in Pierre-Luc Dubois, rolling the dice on goalie Logan Thompson and maximizing the talent of defenseman Jakob Chychrun — have all paid off to some degree, and plenty of other home-grown players have popped, as well.
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