If the upside to this season is 1st round elimination, perhaps management could package a player or two at the trade deadline for a first round pick. At this point, I'm certain that even Holland is aware that this team is in rebuilding mode; I only wish he had come to terms with that sooner.
Also, it seems as if this would be a good draft to try and load up on physical defensemen; between Ristolainen, Nurse and Zadorov, perhaps we could nab 2 of these players for a fairly quick improvement to our defense, assuming of course that we don't keep them caged up in Grand Rapids for five years in favor of older players that have been forced into the AHL for good reason.
IMHO, our defense needs gritty defense focused defensemen, and has been left wanting since it lost Konstantinov's juggernaut presence. Offensive defensemen are also an obvious need for today's game, but you can't have offensive defensemen fumble around, as they often have, while our backchecking forwards stand idly by, as they often have, and not clear the players screening your goalie, etc.
An effective team builds off of a combined defense, or ideally a physical, defensively capable defense that has some offensive flair as well. If you are willing to acknowledge that this is a rebuilding period to the Wings, I propose that the ideal place to start is with a solid defensive core; obviously, Boston's approach to its structure comes to mind -- they don't always score goals in droves, and as far as the modern Boston roster, it seems as if they have had to really grind out goals at times, but they are building in a manner that allows them some security against Philidelphia-esque absurdly porous defense/goaltending. Perhaps it's time to re-build accordingly?
