Tonight Can Change Everything

The Draft Lottery is known to change the outlook of the modern NHL. If the lottery balls go the way of the Red Wings, this team is looking like a team with a much shorter rebuild.

As mentioned by multiple analysts and writers, getting Rasmus Dahlin or even other top-prospects Andrei Svechnikov and Filip Zadina, won’t change everything. One of those players now within the winged wheel, will not make this team a contender – but it will shorten the process to eventually become one.

The Red Wings had arguably the worst blueline in the entire NHL last season, so Dahlin won’t make this team surge into a powerhouse among the Calgary Flames and Nashville Predators for best defensive group in the league. But him as your #1 LHD will not hurt your chances of creating a good group of young defenseman behind him.

Suddenly the Filip Hroneks and Dennis Cholowskis of the world become your second options for young blueliners and they are pretty damn good options.

Also, the shift in mindset will happen too if the Red Wings win the first overall pick tonight. Not only does this team become more exciting to watch, but fans and management alike can start thinking of when this team is expected to be competitive again.

Now I’m not saying to go sign John Tavares and try to make the playoffs next year – that’s not realistic with this roster, yet.

What I am saying is that a definite timeline starts to take shape if the Red Wings are able to land the best defensive prospect in a decade. A chance for the upcoming years to take a serious look at some young UFAs that will want to play with Dahlin and the rest of this (hopefully) young Red Wings team.

It’s not often that a team that gets the first overall pick is looking towards another draft lottery the year after. We will not have to endure a terrible and meaningless season again, but would rather look for the progress of those young players. If that means leading the team in points, or leading this team to an expectation-less first round of the playoffs. But please don’t get your hopes up for those playoffs, at least for a couple more years.

Suddenly, the Wings will have a brighter future than they currently have – the oldest team in hockey becomes one with a couple of the most-talented under-23 players in the league. The two hardest positions to fill historically have been one of the top center spots on your forward group, and a puck-moving defenseman on the blueline. In Dylan Larkin and potentially Rasmus Dahlin, the Red Wings will have those spots filled and will be looking our for young players already within the system, or at the draft in June. To surround those players with the right amount of skill to make this a successful franchise again, will be an easier rebuild than most teams have had to go through.

To go from a team that have been in the playoffs for 25 years straight, albeit struggling, to then in just 2-3 years out and draft well enough to get back into the postseason with a good, young, and skilled team – will be incredible for this franchise.

The possibility of having a player with the potential to be the best in his position at his peak, will be extremely lucky for the Red Wings but also a sigh of relief from everyone that had to watch the team this season.

The Red Wings will get lucky to have a top-3 pick in this year’s draft, but that is not to say that if they pick anywhere from 5th-8th overall, that is not a desired place to be in. There are still plenty of impact players available in those slots – but would not be as impactful sooner than being the team that gets the honor to call Rasmus Dahlin’s name from the podium on June 23rd.

Let’s all cross every single finger and limb we have so that Dahlin will follow the right path and be another elite Swedish defenseman on the Detroit Red Wings.

In Lidstrom We Trust.