Cool. Back to hockey!
Another good article on tsn.ca contrasting the Red Wings and Leafs.
http://www.tsn.ca/talent/shanahan-should-emulate-wings-in-rebuild-1.208987
Shanahan should emulate Wings in rebuild
By Jonas Siegel
TORONTO – Less than two weeks after and more than 400 kilometres from where Brendan Shanahan and the Detroit Red Wings were celebrating their 1998 Stanley Cup, the organization was quietly securing the next cornerstone of the future – Pavel Datsyuk – this with the third-to-last pick of the sixth round in Buffalo.
Like the New England Patriots in the NFL and the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA, the Red Wings remain the picture of sustainability in the NHL, always just a step (and sometimes two) ahead of the curve. If there's a model for Shanahan to follow in rebuilding the Toronto Maple Leafs it's that of his former team, the most successful and professional organization in hockey – one that prides itself on draft and development.
No team plays the system in that regard quite like the Red Wings – well on their way to a record 24th consecutive appearance in the playoffs. Eighteen of the 24 players currently on Detroit's roster – Johan Franzen is on injured reserve – were drafted and then developed by the organization. Fourteen of those 18 players were picked after the first round; 10 of them in the third round or beyond.
Toronto, by comparison, has just six of its own (drafted) players on a roster that will miss the playoffs for the ninth time in 10 years.
Deconstructing the Leaf roster – which seems to be the path of choice for Shanahan and his front office team – makes sense in theory, but it's not easy to accomplish in reality. For every Chicago, winner of two Cups in the past five seasons, there's an Edmonton, spinning wheels to nothing in recent years despite a truckload of high draft picks.
Detroit hasn't needed those high picks to replenish itself year after year after year. Not only have they found NHL talents in just about every draft – a testament to their scouting – but maybe more important than that is how they've developed those talents, emphasizing the long-term unflinchingly.
The Leafs drafted Luke Schenn with the fifth pick in the 2008 draft – trading up to do so – and had him in the NHL that fall as an 18-year-old. The Wings, by contrast, picked Gustav Nyquist with the 121st pick that year, making him a full-time player only this season.
"You see [Tomas] Tatar, [Gustav] Nyquist, they spend lot of time in the minors, they went in the minors, they paid their dues and they wait and they wait and now boom they're ready to come in," said Stephane Robidas, who contended with Detroit for years in the Western Conference. "It's not always their first rounders [either]."
Detroit believes in over-cooking its prospects. They would rather wait too long than move too quickly. Toronto hasn't shown near that kind of patience amid a revolving door of managers and strategies.
"I think sometimes you have to be patient," said Robidas. "You look at a team like Nashville; that's what they did for a long time. They said the road for Nashville is to Milwaukee [in the AHL]."
It will be imperative for the Leafs to follow suit with William Nylander and other prospects in the pipeline – such as Connor Brown, who is among the top-20 scorers in the AHL this season. Shortsightedness has mostly been the process in Toronto. Short-term thinking with regard to draft and development is partly why the club is in its current state.
It's why quality prospects drafted by the organization – Tuukka Rask, Alex Steen, Anton Stralman, Jiri Tlusty – were gone by the time they were ready to become capable NHL contributors. The Leafs had given up on them too soon for one reason or another.
Few know this rushed approach quite like the Oilers, who have dropped top (and mostly unprepared) picks into the NHL almost immediately after they were drafted. That's not only risked the development of those like Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Jordan Eberle, Taylor Hall and more recently, Leon Draisaitl, but forced the organization into difficult contract confines. They were forced to pay and overpay their young players when the jury was still out on exactly what those players were – think six years and $36 million for Eberle in 2012.
Detroit doesn't have that problem.
Their prospects don't get to the NHL until they're overly ready, by which point they're making next to nothing – essential in the cap era. Nyquist, who had 28 goals last season and 20 more already this season, is currently carrying a measly cap hit of $950,000.
Riley Sheahan, a 23-year-old playing more than 15 minutes per game for the Wings, is himself holding an annual cap hit of $950,000 and will play for just over $1 million next season.
The Red Wings just don't flinch in bringing their prospects along at a steady pace no matter the excitement those prospects may provide in Grand Rapids, their AHL affiliate. They'll wait, wait and then wait some more. Teemu Pulkkinen, a sixth-round pick from the 2010 draft, had 31 goals with the Griffins last year and has another 30 already this season. He scored in his sixth NHL game with the Wings last month and was promptly sent back down the next day.
Others in the system – Mitch Callahan, Landon Ferraro, Xavier Ouellet – are biding their time for another opportunity with tantalizing talents like Anthony Mantha and Dylan Larkin waiting beyond them.
Petr Mrazek, a fifth-round pick in 2010, played so well while Jimmy Howard was hurt that the club opted to keep him up with the big club even with Howard back and healthy these days.
It's this process of sustentation that has allowed Detroit to remain continually competitive. The organization continues to turn over quality players in waves. It's how they pivot from Yzerman to Lidstrom to Datsyuk and Zetterberg to the next wave soon perhaps to be fronted by Nyquist and Tatar among others.
Detroit, with the sport's utmost stability, also knows how it wants to play and drafts and develops players based on such a model. "It's all the same kind of players," said Robidas. "It's skill...if you play for Detroit you have to be able to move your feet and move the puck. That's the way they play."
With one model and belief in how the game should be played the Wings can scoop up players in Grand Rapids when injuries surface in Detroit and still function more than adequately. It's how the club managed to scratch into the playoffs last year despite an unthinkable run of injuries which included Datsyuk and Zetterberg and a whole host of others.
The Leafs have often talked about culture – outgoing MLSE President Tim Leiweke the most recent to do – but have never quite figured out what that culture is. Most often has the focus been on (inflated) elements like leadership, toughness and compete level.
Detroit prefers skill, patience, and of equal importance, stability.
Holland has run the team since 1997. Mike Babcock has coached the team since 2005. And the Illitch family has owned the team since 1982.
The Leafs, meanwhile, have run ragged through different owners, managers, coaches and strategies for how the team should play. Brian Burke, for example, wanted a rough and tough team and spent all seven picks in his first draft as the team's boss on North Americans.
One – Nazem Kadri – has made it to the league.
Toronto is also sitting on their fifth coach in the decade that Babcock has run Detroit's bench, and is likely to hire a sixth this summer.
The Leafs, under Shanahan's watch, need to establish who they are and what they are and build upon it – slowly.
Detroit built itself on skill. They have become the model of how to draft and develop in the cap era. Others, like Chicago and Los Angeles, have followed their lead to multiple Cups. Others like Dallas – helmed by former Wings assistant general manager, Jim Nill – are trying to steer their team in a similar direction.
Shanahan, who could be seen chatting with Holland when Detroit was in town earlier this season, knows as well as anyone how the Wings operate. He won three Cups with the organization while suiting up in more than 700 regular season games. He's seen the Red Wings way up close and should certainly follow suit in his rebuild attempt with the Leafs.
But it will take time and patience, just as Detroit would do it.
