I just think at the end of the day you are making gambles and you have to live with that.
Some kids will be able to add 25 lbs of muscle to their frame or add 25% to their skating and some won’t. What org they develop in wouldn’t change that. And you don’t know who can do what over the next 2-3 years when you are drafting 17 years old.
I was thinking more along the way of skill development and not so much physical development. I think the Wings organization is on par with the rest of the league as far as being able to bulk up prospects. Ray, Joey, Burger, and even Mazur (this one surprised me) put on some weight.
In terms of skill, I'm talking about even simple stuff like stick handling, defending the puck, shooting, reading defensive coverage and finding soft spots, etc. The team couldn't fix Zadina's timing issue on his one timer, Raz' skating still isn't fixed, Kasper's shooting leaves a lot to be desired, and Joey hasn't learned a damn thing in the past 2 seasons. Zadina looks better in Switzerland because he's using the whole ice and not doing that one move where he tries to split the defender in the middle. So there's an issue with teaching hockey IQ as well.
Blash and Fester were both collegiate goalies, Watson was an ECHL defenseman. Not really the kind of guys you would want teaching offensive skills. Lashoff is Watson assistant along with a former DEL player. If the coaches can't get it done then Dan Cleary and Dwayne Blais
need to do more than what they're doing.
Anyways, I'm surprised at how much better Brandt Clarke's skating looks now, and I'm pretty sure that wouldn't have happened with the Wings.