Atlantic Rivals Moved Ahead of Detroit With Better Drafting (+)

The bad news for the Detroit Red Wings is that their drafting performance in the five years before the Yzerplan began was poor. The worse news for Detroit is that every Atlantic Division rival had more drafting success from 2014-18.

The Red Wings  saw 32% of their draft picks (from 2014-18) play at least one NHL game. By contrast, the Boston Bruins had almost 66% (21-for-32) of their draftees play at least one game, while the Tampa Bay Lightning were at 47%, followed by the Buffalo Sabres (46%) and the Toronto Maple Leafs (44%).

That’s the same Bruins who set a new record last season on for wins and points in a season, and the same Lightning team that made three consecutive trips to the Stanley Cup Final. They won back-to-back Cups.