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One of the things about the structure of the NHL and its salary cap is that teams go through cycles of winning and losing, giving almost every fan base their turn at an era of competitiveness. Teams build through the draft, rise to the top, add free agents, then inevitably decline and restart the process. Three clubs have reached their peak and will be in "win-now" mode in 2015-16. We will be counting them down on ESPN Insider this week. These teams have done everything possible in the offseason to set themselves up to be Cup contenders and will be buyers come deadline time. These teams are also not set up to win for the foreseeable future, unlike the Blackhawks or Lightning. It's now or never! At No. 2, we have a team that many believe is no longer a Stanley Cup contender: the Pittsburgh Penguins. They have been a perennial top team during the past 10 years, last missing the postseason in 2005-06, which was Sidney Crosby's rookie season. With him, Pittsburgh finished first or second in its division every season until 2014-15, when it slipped into the playoffs on the final day of the season (with a win over 30th-place Buffalo, no less). After the Penguins were eliminated in short order by the Rangers in the first round, it would be fair for prognosticators to take them out of the 2015-16 conversation, but they should not be cast aside as a middling team just yet.
Why they can win now
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