They're not in a precarious position at all. You tear it down now and rebuild over the next 3-5 years, or you keep pretending you're competitive and spend 7-10 years in the hockey hell where you're not good enough to make the playoffs but not bad enough to draft top tier talent.
Hey look at the Canucks,
Our GM is an Idiot, our luck in the lottery abysmal, our owner delusional
But somehow, this year, Horvat and Boesser made this a team that was going to be in the playoffs,
THANK GOD HORVAT GOT HURT, the fact that we sank to the bottom as soon as he was out is proof enough we need more blue chip draft talent, and because he did I think we will get it,
But, think about it, we didn't even draft well, but somehow, someway, rebuilding happened in spite of dummy's at the wheel
As long as Detroit doesn't trade it's first rounders SOMETHING will start to happen, I'd even say that Larkin is the first piece of that puzzle