With the way things are going with the Detroit Red Wings, hardcore fans and media pundits alike have their own ideas on what the team should do. Some want the team to try and seek immediate help to contend. Others have resigned to the idea of a retool.
An increasingly vocal group, however, believes it should be time for a full-blown rebuild.
This group views the current prospect pool as too barren to make a difference and the roster simply too weak to make any major impact. While they're certainly right on a few of those points, it's hard to believe that the Red Wings are in any sort of situation that warrants a full rebuild. The scope - and current status of the team - don't seem like the kind of team capable of rebuilding right now.
Red Wings would need massive dismantling to rebuild
The mere act of rebuilding a roster would mean selling off every player possible in order to accumulate draft picks. For a team like the Red Wings, that would likely involve trading everyone from Alex DeBrincat to Justin Faulk. It would mean the Red Wings would have to flip Dylan Larkin for futures in a trade while allowing the roster to completely collapse under itself.
To rebuild would mean to throw in the towel and accept that the current prospect pool just won't cut it. Accepting this fate would almost certainly extend the playoff drought longer than the 14-season streak the Buffalo Sabres just endured (and they had the luck of the draft lottery on their side).
Worst of all, it likely forces the hands of star players like Moritz Seider and Lucas Raymond. After all, why would these young players want to endure a second rebuild that may last well into their early 30s?
Once that happens, how can the Red Wings hope to sign big name free agents or trade for game-changers? Rebuilding the rebuild would only serve to kick the can down the road, putting the team right back at square one when so much work has already been done.
Current Red Wings too talented to tank
If the Red Wings were to resign themselves to a rebuild, it would be a fool's errand. The Red Wings are, simply put, just too talented to tank at this point in their juncture. Apart from Seider and Raymond, the team would need to move on from Simon Edvinsson, a handful of their top prospects and soon-to-be-former captain Dylan Larkin (which is inevitable already).
Until the Red Wings could accomplish a hypothetical tear down, a rebuild just isn't feasible. To top it all off, the team would still have Steve Yzerman as general manager. If critics of his work are unhappy with the current state of the team, would they trust him to do it all over again?
It just doesn't make sense to accept a full-blown rebuild at this point in time. A partial retool or "reboot" would be much more effective.
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