That's fair. I would rather us be loaded with some top flight C's in the pipeline but sometimes you play the cards that you are dealt. I would be feeling very different if Byfield or Stuetzle were sitting there at 4 and we still chose Raymond over them. But both of those guys were gone in 2020; and in 2021 - all the top C's (which were questionable at best beyond Berniers) were all taken as well. I get it that you want a reward for all this tanking - we all do. But it's not the Wings fault that they aren't getting Crosby, Eichel, McDavid, level talent. Those guys haven't been in the last three drafts and we haven't had the lottery luck to get a swing even at the Top C prospects.
If anything, the Wings have done the best with what they've gotten. Mid Top 10 picks, without clear elite C prospects - they are literally defaulting the 2nd most valuable position we could hope to have - big, mobile, defenseman. They are taking literally the highest ceiling, arguably as impactful as an elite C, prospects that they can get a hold of in 6'4+ two-way defenseman because I think the team recognizes the same thing you do: We need more talent. Period. And Elite talent. Except these drafts haven't really been oozing it and the ping pong balls aren't bouncing our way.
I think the depth of our problem and how bad our franchise was in three years ago is being overlooked here. I think we do actually have quite a bit to show for the horror show of the last three years. We're out from underneath numerous boat anchor contracts. Our playing time on the ice isn't being eaten up by the broken bodies of Holland's last ditch efforts. We went from a capped team under numerous multiyear contracts to having more financial flex than anyone in the league. That means something. The Wings have had over 31 picks over the last three years. That's a ton of kicks at the can. And I know we're really feeling the lack of an elite C Prospect - but the Wings pipeline was worse for Defense, which historically take longer to develop than forwards. At least with Holland - we had some players and prospects up front: Larkin, Bertuzzi, Zadina, Mantha, Rasmussen, (Svechnikov), Smith, Veleno, Berggren. That did get some hits in there. It was not all bad. Defense? Utter wasteland. You can argue that there are pieces in that forward group - 2C, Top 6 Wingers, etc. On Defense - you had Hronek. Cholowski. Lindstrom. Period. That was it. Full Stop. Goalie was a mess as well. Literally Pertuzelli. Now we have the goalie for our next three years and potentially the goalie for the next 10 after that.
No matter what we do, we aren't finishing below BUF, ARZ, CLB, and OTT probably as well). And Leddy or no Leddy, competent goaltending or not, we're going to be a bottom 10 team but probably not a bottom 3. So we're going to go through another brutal year and we're going to go searching for a Pastrnak next year; like we have tried for the last couple of years with 2nd and 3rd round Center picks. The problem with that is those 2nd Rd prospects becoming a perennial All-Star Cs, is pretty slim, like "don't count on it" slim. So I don't really get mad when they burn a 2nd for adding a good defenseman who can bring a lot to the table in our player's development and boost morale a bit, fill a hole, and truly not really hurt our lotto all that much.
To say we have nothing to show for the last three years - I would say we have a lot to show for the last three years.