The point is that Patrick Eaves is getting first line minutes playing with Tyler Seguin and Jamie Benn. Drop whichever current young Wing you want on the 2007-2008 1st line with Datsyuk and Zetterberg, they'd probably be tracking towards that many goals too.
The guys in Detroit play different roles. The only one who can remotely be considered in the same type of role is Nielsen and he is an inferior player to either of the two Dallas guys. As evidenced by making about $3M less than Benn and less than Seguin who is on a fantastic deal out of RFA and Nielsen being a UFA at the time of his.
If anyone here was beating the drum about losing Patrick Eaves in that Legwand deal back in 2014... or even cared before this year when he's been getting playing time with two of the best players in the NHL... I'd love to hear it and I'll bow to your foresight. The thing is, nobody was doing that. Just like Chicago fans weren't bemoaning the loss of Dan Cleary back in 2005-08, even when he turned into a 20g third line on Detroit's cup wins.
I wasn't beating the drum, added the necessary caveat in my first post, and I'd take a prime Hank & Pav over those two every day of the week.
If anything, I was highlighting the fact that the Wings have gone from a team that makes also-ran's look amazing, to the team that will be on the losing/complaining end soon. Problem is, right now the Wings have several 'said also-ran's' locked up at premium. In other words, when they had low/no talent guys feeding off of their studs, they should have flipped them but didn't.
Almost everyone knows Eaves is a product of his line-mates. The Wings have stocked their farm/roster with marginal support troops, so I'm happy with the supply chain.