Run the Jewels
Make Detroit Great Again
Yzerman inherited Steven Stamkos, Victor Hedman, Martin St Louis, Vinny LeCavalier and Alex Killorn when he became GM In Tampa. He drafted Kucherov, Point, Valislevskiy and Palat and it still took Tampa 10 years to win a Cup.You're the one who said 20 years. None of the guys you mentioned were in the system for 20 years, obviously. Ekblad is grossly overpaid and doesn't even crack the top ten most valuable players on the team. Bob's been here a whopping five years, came as a UFA with a bank-breaking contract.
I maintain that in any sport with free agency, the idea that you need to spend five-plus years 'rebuilding' is a farce. Good teams can be assembled very quickly in hockey, in football, in other sports. I'm not saying this is the case here -- I think Detroit is in good hands overall -- but many GMs use this as an excuse for being bad at their jobs.
You can say whatever you like, but even if you win the lottery in a draft where there is a good but not generational player it takes a long time to build a winner. Let's look at Edmonton's recent #1 overall picks, a luxury Detroit hasn't had for nearly 40 years (1986).
2010: Taylor Hall
2011: Ryan Nugent-Hopkins
2012: Nail Yakupov
2015: Connor McDavid
So over a 6 year period, the Oilers not only had to be one of the absolute worst teams in the league, they also had to win the draft lottery (easier to do prior to 2013) and then were at the mercy of the draft class. Twice the #1 pick returned really good NHL players, once it returned what most would classify as a bust, and once it returned a truly generational player.
It's been 14 years since Edmonton got the first of their 4 #1 overall picks! They've had six top 5 picks over that time. And while the Oilers are close to winning a Cup, there's a good chance the cap crunch results in key players being moved in the very near future. Or draft capital being traded away to lose a bad contract or two.
Then there's the fact the NHL changed the draft lottery structure to prevent another team from doing what Edmonton did in accumulating so much draft capital at the top of the draft. When Edmonton drafted Taylor Hall they had a 48.2% chance at winning the top pick. When Detroit was by far the worst team in the league in 2019-20, they had an 18.5% chance at the #1 pick.
So no, it's not easy to build a winner. Edmonton is the poster child for what most think is the 'easy' path to building a Cup Contender. They are in year 14 and while they have a couple truly elite players, they are also close to being in cap hell.