Two problems:
1. Drafting has been going after high character, high floor, low ceiling players that leave the forward core to be severely untalented.
2. Trying to sign players who overachieved in their FA year on more talented teams to fill larger roles on a less talented Red Wings team hoping it would take them to the next level.
If Detroit had a couple more high impact kids bringing on Compher/Copp/Holl like players would be not great but not bad. But these two things combined leaves Detroit in the position to be too good to get high impact players in the draft and too bad to realistically make the playoffs in their current configuration.