It's no secret that the Chicago Blackhawks tanked earlier in the decade, and it landed them top-three picks in recent seasons.
Was tanking a bad idea? I mean, the Blackhawks have been arguably the least relevant team so far this decade, and you can credit the disaster that has been since the 2020s began with tanking.
And really, historical evidence is stacked against them. In a recent mailbag, Mark Lazerus of The Athletic (paywalled) said in an answer to a fan that, "I’d argue that no team in the salary-cap era has won the Stanley Cup by actively tanking.