There's a very long article by HSJ about Detroit rebuilding. It includes more detail than I expected, and some comments that run closer to what several of us have asked for:
What's ahead for Red Wings? NHL GMs say rebuilds need time, luck
Holland:
“It’s about patience. Those teams in the league that are good now, they probably were bad for a period of time. They picked high, they used that bad period of time to acquire an excess of draft picks, and then they did a great job at the draft and they built up a core. Now they’re going to run it for six or seven or eight years and they’re going to see what that foundation can do.”
Holland:
“Finding superstars in the sixth and seventh rounds is not a sustainable model,” Holland said. “We beat the system a little bit by finding Datsyuk and Zetterberg, and they played basically their whole careers together. We found two top-five picks in the sixth and seventh rounds."
“The same franchise can’t keep beating the odds. When you pick late enough long enough, the system probably wins out. We’ve picked late enough long enough. So going forward, we are acquiring draft picks, we are building through the draft.”
HSJ:
"The lower the Wings finish in the standings, the better their draft odds, which have yet to be released. Drafting inside the top three can accelerate a rebuild. The Blackhawks missed the playoffs nine times from 1998-2008, but during that time they drafted Jonathan Toews (third, in 2006) and Patrick Kane (first, in 2007)."
"The Blackhawks won Stanley Cups in 2010, 2013 and 2015. The Pittsburgh Penguins had incredible luck in 2005 when they were awarded the No. 1 pick, which yielded superstar Sidney Crosby. That was a year after they'd used the second overall selection on Evgeni Malkin. The Penguins went on to win Stanley Cups in 2009, 2016 and 2017, and are contenders again this spring."
Holland:
“You need to have three or four super-duper stars that are in the prime of their careers,” Holland said. “I’m talking generational players. Wasn’t Lidstrom a generational player? Wasn’t Yzerman a generational player? Wasn't Fedorov?"
“We had generational players, Hall of Fame superstars. When you look at teams today who you think are Cup contenders, go to the NHL Guide and Record Book and figure out when the makings of those teams began. It takes a number of years. I’m trying to speed the process up between this year and last year by acquiring more draft picks. Now, the process only gets sped up if we do a great job at the draft."
“The goal is to contend for a Stanley Cup. The reality is, you look at the teams that are Cup contenders — Tampa, Pittsburgh — they’re not teams built on 21-year-olds. They’re teams built on 25-year-olds and older, 28-year olds, 30-year-olds. We’re going to continue to draft and the team has to be built — the engine, the foundation — for the most part has to be built through the draft. That’s how the Detroit Red Wings were built in the 1990s and 2000s."