You don't get a chance to make a run unless you make the playoffs, though. Not saying it's the rule but look at a team like the Panthers right now. Anything is possible in the playoffs but you have to make it in first.
The Panthers are a stacked team that were expected to go on a run like they are, but everyone forgot because they had such a lacklustre regular season. They got to that point by building up their roster. With a few exceptions, every team "inevitably" (I use that word cautiously) will get good in today's NHL, it's just a matter of winning it all while they're in that window before they inevitably wash out and become not so great, which is where the Jets are finding themselves now, on the right hand side of a peak but before the valley.
The Jets have struggled to market the team well recently. Trying to market a potential rebuild seems like a failure to me, especially when players have no interest in being part of it.
They don't really have a choice but to market a rebuild at some point, for the reasons stated above. And in such a scenario, the players who have no interest being part of it are irrelevant because by definition, they'd be gonezo.
