Detroit may be the one team that can complain more than AZ about the luck of the draft lottery.
They had three issues.
1. The biggest issue was changing GMs. Wonder what this would have looked like if it was just Yzerman leading the way the entire time. He only took over for the 2019 draft. Bet he would make the argument this is year four not year six.
2. They had some big expensive contracts for players way over the hill they needed to shed. They couldn't be as agile early on to a mass picks
3. They really got hosed on their drafts. Not trying to defend them because they have been a top org for a long time but the 2017 and 2018 drafts were very weak and they picked poorly. Yzerman started turning it around but they go Seider (who looks great but isn't a Dahlin type talent or obviously not as lucky as NJ was) and Raymond in 2020 (not exactly on par with Stutzle but again, looks pretty good). They managed to outplay their position last season in a top heavy draft yet again. They really need to take the shotgun approach and hope that they can find more gems with multiple selections.
We got pretty lucky since BA took over.
2020: Caught a faller in Guenther. He was as high as 3rd overall at points his draft year. I'm sure there are many who have him higher then 9th in a redraft and he hasn't broken out yet. We also got Moser which getting two hits in one draft is a huge accomplishment. Could have three with Doan. Shockingly DET didn't have multiple 1sts in either 2019 or 2020. They did have three 2nds in 2020 and may have gotten some gems.
Result: potential top 6 winger and top 4 defenseman.
2021: I'd argue that most would have Cooley 1OA in a redraft. I could see some still making the argument for Jiricek, maaaaaybe Nemec but I think the majority would take Cooley 1st now. I'd say this draft year was similar to 2019 for DET. Seider probably would be #2 or #3 for most people now in redraft. Then we got project center Geekie and defensemen Maverick/Duda.
Results: Potential 1C + three project picks that have massive ceilings (three 1st round selections). DET finally has multiple selections in 2021 landing a top defenseman and top goalie prospect. 2022 they played themselves out of the top two tiers of players and ended up with a safe 2/3C prospect (I'm sure their fans believe he is a 1C lol).
2023: the draft will obviously be very very important for us. But again with DET gunning for a playoff spot they will be grabbing someone in that third tier of players. They have multiple 1sts though so maybe the move up or attempt to take more shots at it.
I guess what I'm getting at is I'm shocked looking back at how their rebuild has gone even since Yzerman came in. Gotta wonder if he was their for 2017 and 2018 of they have Necas or Vilardi over Rasmussen and Hughes or Dobson over Zadina and how different that team would look now.
Raymond-Larkin-Necas
Seider-Hughes
Wow