Its really hard to rebuild in this league, people who clamor for it don't understand how hard it is to get back into being a continual 'playoff team' let alone contender.
You need to draft no-doubt-about-it corner stones then hope you totally nailed atleast a few picks you made around them. Then go balls to the wall building around that group, making atleast a few A level trades, hoping signings exceed expectations, exc..
Its very difficult. As a Canucks fan I feel lucky to have gotten Hughes+Petey, Demko in the 2nd round, then getting Miller & having him so far exceed expectations is an example (+ Hronek). Its just hard.
I think for Detroit they haven't gotten the necessary corner stones (Seider is one, Raymond is fantastic but not a center, Edvinsson is a great top 4D but not #1).
And they haven't made great moves outside the drafting. Trading Hronek (though ASP looks great), + some of the big signings of mid players to significant contracts.
They just didn't grab another corner stone (ideally a C), perhaps rushed that 'bottom-out' part of the process, then signed mid free agents to significant $$$ and now find themselves stuck in the middle.
