Detroit’s Draft Philosophy: How Chicago & Tampa Built Cup Contenders

As we watch Chicago and Tampa Bay face off in the Stanley Cup Final, much has been discussed about how these teams were built using the Red Wing blueprint. Like the Red Wings, both teams have excelled by finding game changing players in the later rounds of the NHL draft. Many critics would suggest finding these diamonds in the rough is lucky and unsustainable, however the teams get these players due to their willingness to gamble at the draft table.

Every team has a different philosophy on how to build an team and these difference create the excitement of the NHL Entry Draft. Nowhere are the differences clearer than in the continued debate regarding Lawson Crouse. Six foot four, with elite strength and speed, scouts everywhere are drooling over his raw abilities. With his size, speed and compete level there is little doubt that Crouse will becomes a useful player in the NHL. However his lack of scoring, only 51 points in 56 games, raises doubts about his ability to become an elite scoring forward.

When talking to a lottery team’s amateur scout this past week, Crouse was the 4^th ranked player on his board. Today the godfather Bob McKenzie ranked Crouse as #7 overall on TSN's final NHL draft ranking. Later he mentioned on twitter that Crouse would be drafted “between 5 and 10 and is unlikely to fall out of Top 10.”  This extremely high view of Crouse is where the Detroit philosophy deviates from the norm.

Scouts love Crouse’s ability but they also value the fact that the team is guaranteed a useful NHL player. His size and speed suggests that even if he is unable to be a productive offensive player he can be a useful depth forward. While some teams value this guarantee, the low probability of Crouse becoming an elite offensive player leads Detroit to rank him lower on their draft board. Rather than taking a guarantee with a low ceiling like Crouse, Detroit, Chicago and Tampa elect to draft skilled players who have the potential to become game changers but are also more likely to never play in the NHL. The teams go for the home run and accept the risk of a strikeout instead of hitting an easy single or double. While outsiders see the team’s ability to get Mrazek, Nyquist, Saad, Kucherov or Palat, they do not see the early picks that never made it to the NHL.

You can say these teams were lucky to get these players and for the most part, they were. It’s often said that if Detroit knew how good Datsyuk and Zetterberg were going to be they never would have waited so long to take them. However, lets not lose sight of the fact that these teams also earned the reward by having the courage to gamble on the future. By never straying from this philosophy, Detroit has bee able to maintain an impressive playoff streak while Chicago and Tampa have built themselves into NHL powerhouses.