Most of Detroit's top picks never make it. It's picks from the late rounds, usually from Europe, that have saved the organization's bacon for the past 10-15 years.
You have posted this same
fiction many times in the past and each time I have given the FACTS to prove that it is completely incorrect.
I guess it's time (sigh) to do it yet again...so here are the FACTS:
The FACT is that Detroit, due to its consistently fine performances, has had virtually NO "top picks" in the time frame you mentioned. Let's look at the period 2000 to 2014 and compare Detroit's top two draft pick positions to Toronto's:
2000 - DET 29 and 38, TO 24 and 51
2001 - DET 62 and 121, TO 17 and 39
2002 - DET 58 and 63, TO 24 and 57
2003 - DET 64 and 132, TO 57 and 91
2004 - DET 97 and 128, TO 90 and 113
2005 - DET 19 and 42, TO 21 and 82
2006 - DET 41 and 47, TO 13 and 44
2007 - DET 27 and 88, TO 74 and 99
2008 - DET 30 and 91, TO 5 and 60
2009 - DET 32 and 60, TO 7 AND 50
2010 - DET 21 and 51, TO 43 and 62
2011 - DET 35 and 48, TO 22 and 25
2012 - DET 49 and 80, TO 5 and 35
2013 - DET 20 and 48, TO 21 and 82
2014 - DET 15 and 63, TO 8 and 68
Detroit has had a mere 7 picks from the top 30 since 2000. Of those 7, ZERO were in the top 10, and only 3 were in the top 20. Its HIGHEST pick was 15.
Compare to Toronto, which had 12 picks from the top 30, including FOUR from the top 10 and another and another 2 in the top 20. And this DESPITE the fact that Toronto also GAVE AWAY several high draft picks. For example in 2010 number TWO (!) Tyler Seguin, #32 (Jared Knight) and in 2011 number NINE (Dougie Hamilton) all in the Kessel trade.
By the way, of all the picks for Detroit and Toronto in the first 2 rounds since 2000, Detroit has taken exactly ONE more player from European leagues than Toronto has (9 versus 8).
Oh and by the way is there something WRONG with taking topnotch European talent? Maybe the Leafs would KILL to have had "Eurodudes" (thanks EB:thumb
like Datsyuk, Zetterberg, Lidstrom, Kronwall, Fedorov, Holmstrom, etc., etc, over the years. Maybe the Leafs might even have made the playoffs more than ONCE in the past decade with some of those "Eurodudes"!
Here are just SOME of Detroit's brilliant draft picks and their point of selection:
Mrazek 141, Tatar 60, Nyquist 121 (!!!!), Abdelkader 42, Helm 132, Franzen 97, Howard 64, Quincey 132, Kronwall 29, Zetterberg 210 (!!!!!!!!!!), Datsyuk 171 (!!!!!!!!!!!), Holmstrom 257 (!!!).
And Toronto? Glad you asked:
Luke Schenn 5 (how'd that work out?), Jiri Tlusty 13 (
Claude Giroux went 21st that year - could the Leafs have perhaps chosen better?), Kadri 7, Morgan Rielly 5. They DID get Tuukka Rask at 21...and that DID work out very well...for the BRUINS, that is, after the Leafs traded him for (drum roll please) Andrew Freakin' Raycroft!
Case closed.