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NHL teams that could go from missing the playoffs to winning the Stanley Cup

In an alternate NHL universe, the Penguins and Jagr resolve their differences, the Czech superstar lines up alongside Sidney Crosby and chases Mario Lemieux's all-time franchise points total.

In the NHL's salary-cap era, quick turnarounds are more difficult to pull off than they have been in the past because there's only so much talent you can rapidly import before financial limitations come into play.

Teams also generally live close enough to the cap that the league's top stars almost always sign big extensions instead of hitting a free-agent market where most squads can't afford their services.