Over the years, the Detroit Red Wings have been criticized, often by fans of small market teams, as a team that “buys” its Stanley Cups. But it’s a scurrilous argument, one based more on envy than fact.

In fact, with the exception, perhaps, of the 2002 Stanley Cup, recently acquired big-name free agents haven’t played a very big role in the Wings cups.

That 2002 Stanley Cup was, more than the others, a Stanley Cup won with the help of owner Mike Illitch’s wallet. The Wings signed all-time greats Luc Robitaille and Brett Hull prior to winning that year. The cup was also made possible by Dominik Hasek’s decision to force Buffalo to trade him to Detroit.

But otherwise, these teams were built the old fashioned way. Steve Yzerman? Sergei Fedorov? Nick Lidstrom? The draft. Brendan Shanahan? Kirk Maltby? Kris Draper? Trades.

The 2008 Stanley Cup winning team is yet another example of a team built by the draft. Pavel Datsyuk, Henrik Zetterberg, Niklas Kronwall, Nick Lidstrom, Johan Franzen, Valtteri Filppula, Jiri Hudler … The list goes on and on.  The Wings also made shrewd signings after the lockout, getting Chris Osgood back for a song. They also signed Mikael Samuelsson, Dan Cleary and Andreas Lilja for next to nothing. Veteran Dallas Drake was signed in the most recent off-season. The only big name free agent was Brian Rafalski — and he was brought in after Matt Schneider left for Anaheim.

And it’s also unfair to say the Wings have enjoyed feasting on other team’s salary dumps at the trade deadline. While the Wings have made many of these trades, rarely to they result in instant post-season success. The biggest trades made by the Wings (Chris Chelios, Robert Lang, Matthieu Schneider) didn’t bring instant success. In fact, only Chelios ever won a Cup with Detroit. The more cautious trades (A second rounder for Brad Stuart, future considerations for Larry Murphy, etc) seem to fit better with the team.

The Globe and Mail recently printed an interesting feature on the 1998 draft.  In the article, the Globe prints the players taken in round 1 that year, and then, based on a survey of five scouts who worked during that draft, the 30 best players available from that draft were ranked.

Here’s the original draft.

1	1	Tampa Bay	Vincent Lecavalier	C	Rimouski Oceanic [QMJHL]	710	273	329	602	507
1	2	Nashville	David Legwand	C	Plymouth Whalers [OHL]	549	121	206	327	318
1	3	San Jose	Brad Stuart	D	Regina Pats [WHL]	579	59	170	229	372
1	4	Vancouver	Bryan Allen	D	Oshawa Generals [OHL]	371	20	53	73	467
1	5	Anaheim	Vitaly Vishnevsky	D	Torpedo-2 Yaroslavl (Russia)	552	16	52	68	494
1	6	Calgary	Rico Fata	R	London Knights [OHL]	230	27	36	63	104
1	7	NY Rangers	Manny Malhotra	C	Guelph Storm [OHL]	557	65	97	162	316
1	8	Chicago	Mark Bell	C	Ottawa 67’s [OHL]	445	87	95	182	597
1	9	NY Islanders	Michael Rupp	L	Erie Otters [OHL]	263	24	20	44	276
1	10	Toronto	Nikolai Antropov	C	Torpedo UST-Kamengorsk (Russia)	446	104	141	245	453
1	11	Carolina	Jeff Heerema	R	Sarnia Sting [OHL]	32	4	2	6	6
1	12	Colorado	Alex Tanguay	C	Halifax Mooseheads [QMJHL]	609	177	362	539	311
1	13	Edmonton	Michael Henrich	R	Barrie Colts [OHL]
1	14	Phoenix	Patrick DesRochers	G	Sarnia Sting [OHL]	11	0	0	0	2
1	15	Ottawa	Mathieu Chouinard	G	Shawinigan Cataractes [QMJHL]	1	0	0	0	0
1	16	Mtl. Canadiens	Eric Chouinard	C	Quebec Remparts [QMJHL]	90	11	11	22	16
1	17	Colorado	Martin Skoula	D	Barrie Colts [OHL]	643	37	132	169	308
1	18	Buffalo	Dmitri Kalinin	D	Traktor Chelyabinsk (Russia)	466	34	111	145	289
1	19	Colorado	Robyn Regehr	D	Kamloops Blazers [WHL]	592	25	96	121	591
1	20	Colorado	Scott Parker	R	Kelowna Rockets [WHL]	308	7	14	21	699
1	21	Los Angeles	Mathieu Biron	D	Shawinigan Cataractes [QMJHL]	253	12	32	44	177
1	22	Philadelphia	Simon Gagne	L	Quebec Remparts [QMJHL]	527	208	202	410	189
1	23	Pittsburgh	Milan Kraft	C	Keramika Plzen (Czech.)	207	41	41	82	52
1	24	St. Louis	Christian Backman	D	Vastra Frolunda [Sweden]	246	21	51	72	150
1	25	Detroit	Jiri Fischer	D	Hull Olympiques [QMJHL]	305	11	49	60	295
1	26	New Jersey	Mike Van Ryn	D	U. of Michigan [NCAA]	326	27	91	118	246
1	27	New Jersey	Scott Gomez	C	Tri-City Americans [WHL]	629	132	388	520	398

In that first round, the Wings had one draft pick in the first round, way down at #25.

But according to the Globe and Mail, the Wings have cornered the market on players from that draft. Tampa’s Vinny Lacavalier is still ranked #1. But who’s ranked #2? Non other than the Red Wings’ Pavel Datsyuk, who was drafted 170 picks later. Big defenseman Jiri Fischer, drafted 25th that year, moved up 10 spots to 15. Brad Stuart, who was drafted 3rd overall, was ranked 16th (I am a big Jiri Fischer fan, but I can’t support Stuart ranking lower than Fischer). Mikael Samuelsson, drafted 145th overall by the Sharks, ranks 21st on the list. And playoff stud Johan Franzen, who was eligible but went undrafted until six years later, when the Wings selected him 97th overall, was ranked 25th overall for 1998.

So the Wings had 2 of the top 15 draft picks that year. And, had Jiri Fischer’s career not ended prematurely, the might have had five of the top 25 players from that draft on their roster. Stuart, they paid for, by trade. Samuelsson came as a dirt cheap unrestricted free agent from Sweden after the lockout. That is simply amazing.

Here are other drafts in which Detroit’s picks/players would be in the first round, if redone.

• 1989 — Lidstrom, Fedorov, Konstantinov, Sillinger, Drake, Boughner (later round)
•  1990 —Kozlov, Primeau, (Jason York in later rounds)
• 1991 — Lapointe, Osgood, Knuble
• 1992 — Neither McCarty or McGillis are worth a first, but are notable

Here come the lean years

• 1993 — Ugh, Anders Ericsson
• 1994 — Tomas Holmstrom, Matthieu Dandenault (on the edge)
• 1995 — Nothing
• 1996 — Nothing
• 1997 — Nothing
• 1998 — Datsyuk, Fischer
• 1999 — Zetterberg
• 2000 — Niklas Kronwall
• 2001 — None (Grigorenko likely would have been were in not for the car crash)
• 2002 — Filppula, Hudler (And I think Ericsson will be on the list before long

So, from 1989 to 1992, the Wings built their franchise through the draft. And then, in 1998, the restocking began. Amazingly, of the 16 players I listed as first round caliber, only Fischer, Kronwall (late first rounders), Primeau, Lapointe and Sillinger were first rounders. Plus, there were busts (Bowen, Ericsson, Wallin, Golubovsky, etc). But the Wings had 9 first round draft picks in this 13 year span, and came out with 15 first rounders.

That’s not supposed to happen to a team always ranked near the top of the standings every year. Then again, maybe that’s the reason why the team is always ranked high in the standings every year.