How We Should Build This Team From Top To Bottom

[Plum]

Detroit has made the playoffs for 23 straight seasons winning 4 cups in that span. Alot of people say it has to with drafting, some of it is true but some of it has to how the develop their players, what type of players they draft and everything from top to bottom. They are the perfect model for every team IMO.

First, their drafting. Known for their drafting no one quite knows how they draft very good hockey players in the later rounds and trade down which can unexpectedly still get them the better hockey player. For example in 2011, the Detroit Red Wings traded their 1st round pick to Ottawa for 2 2nd round picks. Ottawa drafted Matt Puempel and Detroit drafted Tomas Jurco and Xavier Ouellet. The Detroit 2nd rounders have played 40 NHL games, Puempel none. It's as the Wings can see the future. They draft players with pure skill and develop their defensive game and other parts that aren't as good because you can't teach pure offensive skill can you? Nyquist, Datsyuk, Zetterberg all very good offensive players but got their defensive game developed and now look.

Another thing is how they bring their players to the pro leagues. Look at Sheahan, Jurco, Nyquist, Tatar. All played years in Grand Rapids together and graduated to the NHL together, that's how you build a group of young players. Don't throw em in one and one, get them together, get them ice-time and then once they're starting to become ready make space for them by getting rid of vets and place them in. Now how do they make the playoffs? They have Datsyuk, Zetterberg, Franzen holding the load in the NHL with Kronwall in the back and a good goaltender backstopping them. Eventually, Nyquist, Tatar, Jurco, Sheahan, Mantha, Pulkkinen will be in the NHL and they'll do again and again. It's a cycle and with Babcock as the coach he'll know how to get his team winning and how to develop young players.

We have the Sedins, a good defense and Kesler. Let's get a good scouting group, draft risky players when we need to seek some 1st line potential offensive players and when we do let's develop both sides of their game. You can teach parts of their game at 18-20 years old.

We have to build an AHL team with our prospects and develop them then give them stints in the NHL to see where they are at then eventually start slowly getting them full time in the NHL. Here's Tatar's last 5 years.

09-10: 58 games in the AHL

10-11: 70 games in the AHL, 9 games in the NHL.

11-12: 76 games in the AHL.

12-13: 61 games in the AHL, 18 in the NHL.

13-14: 73 games in the NHL.

He slowly gets thrown in the lineup (10-11) they see where's he at then react and it seems as if he wasn't quite ready so he plays a whole year in the AHL (11-12). Now in 12-13, they play him in the NHL, try him again he's at 18 games in the NHL one more year for him. 13-14 he plays full in the NHL.

Grenier had some good points in the AHL I think he deserved a stint in the NHL to see what he could do when we were battling injuries.

Benning and co. should look at building an AHL team, that's where our team is going to come from.

Shinkaruk - Pelletier - Grenier

Fox - Gaunce - O'Reilly

Archibald - Friesen - Ferriero

Mallet - Lain - Blomstrand

Tommernes - Corrado

Cederholm - McEneny

Andersson - Blain

Eriksson

Cannata

This team looks okay but we could be better and after a 2013 draft which seems like a really good draft we can build on this and hopefully become an organization like Detroit.

[mpt]

There's a difference, Detroit knows how to scout and develop players, we suck at both. If Ron Delorme stays we have no hope.

[Plum]

There's a difference, Detroit knows how to scout and develop players, we suck at both. If Ron Delorme stays we have no hope.

I read on this forum that Delrome has been replaced by Eric Crawford and that Crawford was responsible of the 2013 draft so he's off to a good start.

[Rounoush]

I read on this forum that Delrome has been replaced by Eric Crawford and that Crawford was responsible of the 2013 draft so he's off to a good start.

Interesting. I did not know this, if true.

[Baggins]

You are of course ignoring that throughout the 90's right up the cap era they backed up money truck to keep their best players and to add top quality ufa's and had one of the highest payrolls in the league. At the end of that era they got lucky with two of their late round picks to carry them into the new era. They also had one of the larger scouting staffs in the league. They've been lucky enough to be one of those teams that has a longtime owner who doesn't care about the cost.

[tas]

You are of course ignoring that throughout the 90's right up the cap era they backed up money truck to keep their best players and to add top quality ufa's and had one of the highest payrolls in the league. At the end of that era they got lucky with two of their late round picks to carry them into the new era. They also had one of the larger scouting staffs in the league. They've been lucky enough to be one of those teams that has a longtime owner who doesn't care about the cost.

illitch pays the team in hot 'n ready and crazy bread.

[Rush17]

There's a difference, Detroit knows how to scout and develop players, we suck at both. If Ron Delorme stays we have no hope.

I would like to correct you. We use to suck at scouting. We now have Jim Benning! :D We did pretty good last draft too in our guys defense. We need to correct our thinking folks.

[jdatb]

Good post OP +1.

illitch pays the team in hot 'n ready and crazy bread.

[sharnhayre]

We obviously need to build from within our organization. Drafting has become more and more important every year and with the formula teams have used to reach the Finals, a lot of developed players are coming through the teams pipeline.

[Angry Goose]

Absolutely agree with not rushing younger players into the NHL. It's like boxing- even the most successfull amateur boxers slowly develop their professional career because it's a different game against bigger, stronger and more experienced opponents. DET prospects step in when they're ready to play and contribute right off the bat and it shows.

I have faith in Benning & co that they will identify good prospects in the draft. They are of a sound hockey mind due to years of professional experience and you can't ask for much more than that.

[missioncanucksfan]

Detroit also had a great nucleus of Hall of Famers in Yzerman, Fedorov, Lidstrom, Konstantinov

Add a Hall of Fame coach in Scotty Bowman. Bowman was never afraid to trade away the popular core players that were there and not producing due to a variety of reason such as injury, lack of hockey sense, whatever the reason.

Over the course of time...the successful managers, NHL, NBA, even CFL, were able to make the tough decisions on popular players.

THIS, imo, is what needs to happen here. Rid ourselves of aging core vets that have an injury history and arent quite up to snuff as they did in the past. Thanks for your help guys but time to go. As a whole, they wont perform as well...but split up and sold off as strong supporting vet players is the avenue we need to go down to recyle this team into a younger model. Burrows, Bieksa, and eventually Sedins can all bring in picks and prospects or players selected in the past 2-3 years that are all on the cusp of breaking out of the minors.

Bieksa would look great being sent to Toronto to play with Reilly. Surely Bieksa could fetch a high pick and a decent prospect

Burrows...a coach like Tippet or AV would love to have Burrows on their roster.

What could Phx and NYR offer up?

Sedins...where could we send them? Where would they agree to go? Surely they could fetch some great returns

Kesler will eventually fetch a 1st, prospect and young roster player....GREAT START.

Add those to whatever picks we end up with...Reinhart or Virtanen or whoever we select.

Add that to whatever the previous above could bring then add that to our young nucleus of Kassian, Jensen, Tanev, Gaunce, Horvat, Shinkaruk, Corrado, Fox

Insert a coach who can mold young players such as Johnston, Stevens, or Desjardins and let these guys develop.

If they fail a year then we get a great pick again.

I like our Team being put forward. I dont mind suckin for a year or 2...heck, Ive been witness to longggg stretches of suck but I and Im sure many fans feel better when there is "Concrete Hope"

What I wont stand for is to shell out $700 to bring my family to a game and watch "has been" players that shouldnt be on this team anymore and the postgame interviews in wondering what the heck happened from game to game

[erkayloomeh]

I'm a believer in no big fat contracts no matter who it is. It cripples you from having a balanced line up. A team needs to roll 4 good lines. All four lines have to be able to defend as a unit; your top two.lines providing the Lions share of offense and your bottom two lines chipping in a few goals as well and being able to play rugged hockey. A ppqb is important. If we are ever going to succeed we need Alex Edler to get back to where he should be. Otherwise we had better Draft one so that in a few years we have one. We also need to have team toughness.

That speed bagging incident on Daniel in 2011 from Marchand still is embarrassing. I can't believe Daniel didn't fight back or no one defended him. Marchand should have been leveled even if it meant taking a penalty

[asian player]

They've figured ways to find core players without having to get a high pick. They have a winning culture and can attract their guys to sign for less

[Fred65]

Don't mistake Detroit now and Detroit years ago. As one poster mentioned they had their best years when their was no cap. Have a look at some of their draft picks it's abysmal. They did however luck out on some late picks....prospects they had themselves passed on. Now with the Cap era you can't keep buying players and leave your draft picks in the minors. You have to have a percentage of your team on ELC to make up for the big contracts your stars are paid. The last few years Detroit have staggered into a late addition to the play-offs and don't last long. Detroit is likely in the same position as the Canucks with an aging list of star players. It's a young mans game now

[Plum]

Detroit also had a great nucleus of Hall of Famers in Yzerman, Fedorov, Lidstrom, Konstantinov

Add a Hall of Fame coach in Scotty Bowman. Bowman was never afraid to trade away the popular core players that were there and not producing due to a variety of reason such as injury, lack of hockey sense, whatever the reason.

Over the course of time...the successful managers, NHL, NBA, even CFL, were able to make the tough decisions on popular players.

THIS, imo, is what needs to happen here. Rid ourselves of aging core vets that have an injury history and arent quite up to snuff as they did in the past. Thanks for your help guys but time to go. As a whole, they wont perform as well...but split up and sold off as strong supporting vet players is the avenue we need to go down to recyle this team into a younger model. Burrows, Bieksa, and eventually Sedins can all bring in picks and prospects or players selected in the past 2-3 years that are all on the cusp of breaking out of the minors.

Bieksa would look great being sent to Toronto to play with Reilly. Surely Bieksa could fetch a high pick and a decent prospect

Burrows...a coach like Tippet or AV would love to have Burrows on their roster.

What could Phx and NYR offer up?

Sedins...where could we send them? Where would they agree to go? Surely they could fetch some great returns

Kesler will eventually fetch a 1st, prospect and young roster player....GREAT START.

Add those to whatever picks we end up with...Reinhart or Virtanen or whoever we select.

Add that to whatever the previous above could bring then add that to our young nucleus of Kassian, Jensen, Tanev, Gaunce, Horvat, Shinkaruk, Corrado, Fox

Insert a coach who can mold young players such as Johnston, Stevens, or Desjardins and let these guys develop.

If they fail a year then we get a great pick again.

I like our Team being put forward. I dont mind suckin for a year or 2...heck, Ive been witness to longggg stretches of suck but I and Im sure many fans feel better when there is "Concrete Hope"

What I wont stand for is to shell out $700 to bring my family to a game and watch "has been" players that shouldnt be on this team anymore and the postgame interviews in wondering what the heck happened from game to game

I agree, we should rebuild, develop some good talent and get a good scouting group because that's how you build teams like Detroit and be competitive for a very long time.

Don't mistake Detroit now and Detroit years ago. As one poster mentioned they had their best years when their was no cap. Have a look at some of their draft picks it's abysmal. They did however luck out on some late picks....prospects they had themselves passed on. Now with the Cap era you can't keep buying players and leave your draft picks in the minors. You have to have a percentage of your team on ELC to make up for the big contracts your stars are paid. The last few years Detroit have staggered into a late addition to the play-offs and don't last long. Detroit is likely in the same position as the Canucks with an aging list of star players. It's a young mans game now

They didn't luck out on drafting, I have to disagree. They have a history of drafting NHL players in the later rounds, if it was luck eventually the Canucks should get one of those players and we haven't had on of those in a while now.

Detroit isn't in the same position yes they are a bubble team and look like they are going down but Detroit has some good prospects coming up and some cap space. Nyquist will have a good year, Tatar will, Sheahan will, Jurco will. Datsyuk, Zetterberg, and the Mule will hold the load but they have some helpers. We don't have nearly that much talent and not much coming up.

[EdgarM]

As much as I also believe scouting and management is important on building a winning team, I think equally important is defining the different roles on the team. Who is the #1 goalie, who is the PPQB, who is the leader, who is the power forward, who is the checking/shutdown line, who is the tough guy to protect other players etc. etc. The Luongo/Schneider fiasco, the who plays with the Sedins problem, the who is Kesler a shut down checking center or a second line offensive threat and who is the PPQB? Edler, Hamhuis or Garrison are a few problems which come to mind recently. The Sedins getting constantly "attacked" was a problem that was not addressed for a long time. We have had too many 3/4 line players trying to fill spots on the top 2 lines. Its time we decide who is our third and fourth liners and build the top two lines as they should be. With credible players to fill those roles.

I am hoping this new management will deal with problems "immediately" and not wait until it is too late. Why did it take 3 years for management to realize Booth did not fit on this team? I am confident Linden/Benning will hold "ALL" accountable including the Scouting staff.

[terrible.dee]

Owning their farm team has really set them ahead,

They are in full control of what their picks are being taught and how they are used.

I would think choosing your farm team's coach is a huge advantage,

The last player I can recall us developing in the "Detroit way" was Shnieds

[RogerEpic5]

Great post OP. Canucks drafting has been terrible. Hopefully now with the new changes in the scout team and management, we can draft players that will play maybe 15-20-100 nhl games at least.

[6YPE]

Detroit also had a great nucleus of Hall of Famers in Yzerman, Fedorov, Lidstrom, Konstantinov

Add a Hall of Fame coach in Scotty Bowman. Bowman was never afraid to trade away the popular core players that were there and not producing due to a variety of reason such as injury, lack of hockey sense, whatever the reason.

Over the course of time...the successful managers, NHL, NBA, even CFL, were able to make the tough decisions on popular players.

THIS, imo, is what needs to happen here. Rid ourselves of aging core vets that have an injury history and arent quite up to snuff as they did in the past. Thanks for your help guys but time to go. As a whole, they wont perform as well...but split up and sold off as strong supporting vet players is the avenue we need to go down to recyle this team into a younger model. Burrows, Bieksa, and eventually Sedins can all bring in picks and prospects or players selected in the past 2-3 years that are all on the cusp of breaking out of the minors.

Bieksa would look great being sent to Toronto to play with Reilly. Surely Bieksa could fetch a high pick and a decent prospect

Burrows...a coach like Tippet or AV would love to have Burrows on their roster.

What could Phx and NYR offer up?

Sedins...where could we send them? Where would they agree to go? Surely they could fetch some great returns

Kesler will eventually fetch a 1st, prospect and young roster player....GREAT START.

Add those to whatever picks we end up with...Reinhart or Virtanen or whoever we select.

Add that to whatever the previous above could bring then add that to our young nucleus of Kassian, Jensen, Tanev, Gaunce, Horvat, Shinkaruk, Corrado, Fox

Insert a coach who can mold young players such as Johnston, Stevens, or Desjardins and let these guys develop.

If they fail a year then we get a great pick again.

I like our Team being put forward. I dont mind suckin for a year or 2...heck, Ive been witness to longggg stretches of suck but I and Im sure many fans feel better when there is "Concrete Hope"

What I wont stand for is to shell out $700 to bring my family to a game and watch "has been" players that shouldnt be on this team anymore and the postgame interviews in wondering what the heck happened from game to game

so if I understand what you are saying is, you don't want to fork out your hard earned dollars to see an inferior product, yet you want to trade the core all away for picks. So how good will the team be with all these young guys, with no core to teach and help them to be pros?? Are you going to shell out $700 to go see a team full of rookies, with no idea how to be pros? Keeping a few good core guys is very important to the developmen of the young guys.....Ask the Oilers how that's working out for them

[Baggins]

They didn't luck out on drafting, I have to disagree. They have a history of drafting NHL players in the later rounds, if it was luck eventually the Canucks should get one of those players and we haven't had on of those in a while now.

Since 1999 when Zetterberg was drafted, they've had 3 players drafted 4th round or later who have played a significant number of games. The same number as us.