I know the point, but the outlook is just all wrong. It's like winning the cup and saying "damn, we're not getting a very good draft pick this year". The lack of elite players drafted by the Wings in the last 20 years is a direct result of us being so good. Anything but being in this situation would have been a miracle. In fact, it is a miracle that we didn't end up here 10-15 years ago. And Holland can try to build a playoff team, what matters is how he does it. I believe he has the patience to build through the draft and leave our best young players off the table in trade discussions but we'll see.
Z is paid like elite talent
Two goalies paid like #1s, no big deal, one will be moved or lost in expansion
Depth - again no big deal, you move some of it when you need to pay someone elite money
Green - big contract, but short term and easily moved
Franzen - his LTIR cap hit hurts more if we're not spending to the cap
Those are the big reasons we're a cap team. We should keep spending to the cap as long as ownership allows it, which is hopefully for the forseeable future.
If this were 2012, I'd be right there with you.
But since then, we've seen 5 years of an obvious decline in success, to the point that the team had no chance at getting anywhere near a championship, and were even heavy underdogs in the first round.
Now does that mean Detroit should have found an elite player by now? No. But I'm not frustrated with the front office simply because of the caliber of talent that has been added to the team over the last several years via the draft. It's the cumulative effect of:
* Significant decline in success
* Many underwhelming draft picks
* Far fewer trades than the rest of the league, including zero impact trades
* A stubborn insistence on retaining role players at excessive cost/term
* Even after falling out of contention, continuing to load up on average to mediocre veterans, rather than letting kids with legit potential get more ice time
Had there not been the Clearys and Legwands, and had there not been years on end of not managing to trade for a defenseman, and had there not been the bloated contracts...By itself, I'd have very little to complain about with Detroit's draft record.
But as people have said before, it's death by a thousand cuts, and all the factors get wrapped up in each other, into one giant mess of frustration.
So now, after having missed the playoffs altogether, and looking like a team that needs a major rebuild...If this front office goes back to the same well of risk-averse, low-ceiling, sneak-into-the-playoffs-and-anything-can-happen thinking ONCE AGAIN...
...I'll have no faith that this franchise will ever be great again until there's a major housecleaning.
And it's a huge shame, because I grew up loving this team, even before The Streak ever started. So I really really hope the philosophy meets reality before they head down the path that returns to the days of giving away a car at each home game to get fans to show up.