Another thought re the burn it down re-build philosophy (apart from the annual race to the bottom), is the fairly obvious one that unless you are picking in the top 4 or 5 every year for 3,4 or 5 years, or you get super lucky with a Crosby, Mcdavid year, there are more teams failing with this strategy than succeeding.
Given that apart from Yzerman, maybe Primeau and potentially Larkin in the future, Detroit's attempts at drafting in the first half of the first round has actually been no more productive than rounds 4, 5, 6 & 7 (and beyond) consistently for the last 40 years, the assumption of guarantees is a false one.
Yes, OF COURSE you have a higher chance of getting absolute top quality at the top of the first round, but apart from franchise forwards, you statistically proven to be just as likely to get bonafide first line players in the 2nd half of round 1 and round 2, even ignoring those that slip down significantly.
Sure, one can't rely on picking up a cornerstone Duncan Keith, Erik Karlsson (straight outta #15 purgatory), Shea Weber, Corey Perry, Getzlaf, Giroux, Bergeron, Subban, Carlson, Parise, Tarasenko, Pacioretty, Josi, Faulk or even a major complementary piece like Oshie, O'Reilly, Vlasic, Niskanen, Eriksson, Krejci, Hamonic, Kessler or Backes or countless others but they are out there every year.
And that's ignoring Jamie Benn, Edler, Letang, Pavelski, Klingberg, Brodie, Giordano, Stralman, Johnson, Gaudreau etc etc etc and almost all the top NHL goalies that have been picked up much later in the last decade.
One can't rely on lucky drafting, this we know. But its still relatively recently that the wings have tried to hang on to high picks rather than flipping them at the deadline, and these have resulted in players who's future window people are talking about not wanting to ruin.
If we were bad enough to have a chance at getting a high % lottery pick for 2/3/4 years in a row, then we should of course go down that route. But even with Dats gone, Z & Kronner on their last legs and Ericsson's dodgy hip, we probably aren't that bad unless we trade away a significant number of those likely to be the older members of a future home-grown core.
So refusing to go after Stamkos or similar to facilitate a tank is crazy - we're not bad enough to do so right now, and we might never pick a player as good as Stamkos even if we do.
Of those old enough to merit some assessment, a top 5 pick could as easily land you Yakupov, Ryan Murray, Griffin Reinhart, RNH, Gudbranson, Niederreiter, Evander Kane, Luke Schenn, or Thomas Hickey as it could a franchise player.
6-10 could be Brett Connolly, Burmistrov, Mcilrath, Cowan, Glennie, Paajarvi, Filatov, Zach Hammil or Ellerby...hardly a guarantee.
And that's just using a choice of 5 draft years. The further you go back, the worse it gets.
Jam today is invariably more reliable than Jam tomorrow.
If we strike out in FA, ok lets go with the kids and take it as it comes, playoffs be damned - they might surprise us and make the playoffs anyway. But if we have the chance to pick up a franchise player or one or two other possible genuine first line players, it would be foolish not to.