The Athletic’s Max Bultman flexes his creative instincts this morning, applying lessons which the Red Wings can learn from each and every one of the NHL’s Conference Final teams. Of Bultman’s four applicable lessons learned, his assessment of the Dallas Stars’ complementary “cores” will most likely apply to the Red Wings’ present and future generations of star players:
[The Stars’] standard bearers, Tyler Seguin and Jamie Benn, are either deep into (or past) what most would consider to be their “peak” prime. Seguin is likely still there, although approaching the tail end, at 28. Benn is 31. Their running mate, Alexander Radulov, is 34. Heck, John Klingberg and Joe Pavelski are 28 and 36, respectively, too.
But it’s just the beginning for 21-year-old Miro Heiskanen, who has been a dominant force in this year’s playoffs and may well have a Norris Trophy in his future. Denis Gurianov, Dallas’ 23-year-old former first-round pick, is second only to Heiskanen in scoring for Dallas during these playoffs. Roope Hintz is 23.
Neither of those two cores, without the other, is likely still standing at this stage. One would likely be easing out of its window, another just entering the picture. Instead, the windows have merged, allowing Dallas to weather a slow restart by Benn and Seguin and pull the upset over an Avalanche team that could have very plausibly won it all.
Bultman continues (paywall)
One of my concerns is that by the time the Wings have built up the team enough to be relevant again, members of the current core will be on the downswing of their careers. I feel like they may have to inject talent from other sources, via trade or free agency, otherwise we may find the team constantly centered around the primes of two or three quality players, but without enough talent to actually make anything of it.
Of course, if Stevie can draft really well, it might not be so bad. It might be interesting to compare his drafts in Tampa, to the choices made here in Detroit during the same time, and see if there is enough of talent gap between selected draft picks to be noteworthy.