I don't think that's the only take away possible here.
In fact - I thought that the 'right' way to go about the last offseason - would be conservatively.
For me - the Demko/Markstrom decision - the e.d. somewhat dictated a 'trajectory' choice for the franchise - and imo they made the right call. I 'would have' executed a similar 'plan' - of letting at least two of our three expiring UFAs move on, in spite of the quality of players that they are/were. For me, the most difficult to replace was Tanev - and critically, he was Hughes' partner - so I'd have prioritized him for a number of reasons, additionally, not least of which was the relative wealth we have in youg goaltending and young RW prospects (I thought Hoglander was likely ready) - and he's not the only RW in the pipeline, so as difficult as it was to let go of Marky and Tofu - there were mitigating circumstances (including the covid cap stall) that I think made it reasonable to 'set back' the trajectory more in line with Demko and the rest of the youth.
That said - the team still had the potential to uptick from within with youth emerging - and had a few good additions - that gave them a chance to relatively 'sustain' where they were - but that really depended on Demko, EP, Hughes, etc sustaining or improving....In Hughes case, the loss of Tanev was 'Hughe' - in EP's case, he simply wasn't healthy, in Demko's case he had a rough start like most of his peers....But still, I loved the way the team rebounded, went on runs and got themself back into striking distance pre outbreak - that imo was the 'representative' stretch of the season after working out some of the early/preseason puck moving braincramps....
I think they should be conservative again this offseason. I 'expect' more uptick from within, and more youth push - I think they 'should' bring back 'foundation' - will still need Edler, Sutter, Beagle types in transition - but be conservative and short term about it - with the exception of perhaps some opportunity shopping for youth via the expansion draft and some of the players that might be available as a result (ie Cal Foote - and we also might have 'room' to add a forward we could protect).