Detroit has always had a high percentage of it's roster made up of it's draftees. So saying it sucks might be a little harsh, but certainly could be better. We certainly have not been drafting many late round gems as of late.
Regarding the defenseman drafted from 2000-2015 in the first two rounds (Kronwall, Kindl, Smith, Oullet, and Sproul), Sproul would be the biggest disappointment. After the second round, ( Ericsson, Meech, Quincey, Jensen, and Marchenko) are the only draftees to have played greater than 100 NHL games.
It is tough to be too critical on the "system" in the development of defenseman when so few have been drafted in the first two rounds. Unfortunately, Ericsson and Quincey would be considered late round gems because of the number of games played.
It will be interesting to see how Cholowski and Lindstrom pan out when evaluating the systems ability to draft and develop defenseman. So few impact defenseman (1-4) are drafted beyond the second round, it is really a crap shoot and tough to blame the failure of the system in development. No defenseman drafted after Ouellet in 2011 became a stud (although it would have nice to draft Kucherov with that pick). Detroit has to concentrate on drafting defense with at least two, if not three, of its first four picks this year.
Regarding the logjam on defense, they have to find the right mix of career AHL players and prospects. First, they have to ice a competitive team for their audience. Second, they need older players that can mentor the prospects. Lashoff has been given credit for Hronek's improvement the second half of the year. Cleary has been given credit for Bertuzzi's development.