Anthony Mantha Henrik Zetterberg 3-21-17

Henrik Zetterberg (left) was a star for the Red Wings, who have high hopes for Anthony Mantha.

(The Associated Press)

TAMPA, Fla. - Jimmy Devellano, who has been in the NHL for half a century, confidently proclaimed the league will never witness another run like the one the Detroit Red Wings just completed.

The franchise's 25-season playoff streak officially ended Tuesday.

It was the longest active run in the four major sports and tied for the third-longest in NHL history.

It began in 1991 and featured four Stanley Cup championships, six Cup finals appearances, a half-dozen Presidents' Trophies, 33 playoff series victories and 190 playoff wins.

"Here's sort of how I look at it, it's a quarter of a century and the next-best team is Pittsburgh with 10 years (now 11)," Devellano, the club's senior vice president, said. "I think that states how phenomenal our run has been. Nobody is close to it.

"I would also say under a hard-cap system and a draft, I don't believe anybody will make the playoffs 25 consecutive years again.

"I look it and reflect on what a great run that it's been. I think the most important thing is how we were able to extend it as far as we did."

General manager Ken Holland said: "What the 25-year streak did was provide opportunities. Some years we took advantage of the opportunity and some years we didn't."

Holland said the organization takes pride in being the last team to miss the playoffs in the salary-cap era.

"That speaks to the competitive balance," Holland said. "The system is designed for parity. It's certainly made it much more difficult to separate yourself from the pack."

Many forecast the franchise's demise years ago - when coach Scotty Bowman stepped down in 2002, when the cap was implemented in 2005, when Steve Yzerman retired in 2006 and again when Nicklas Lidstrom hung up his skates in 2012.

But they continued to find a way to get in. Eventually, years of drafting low caught up with them.

"We haven't picked in the top 15 for a quarter of a century and what happens when you don't pick early for so many years, you have no stars on your team," Devellano, the Red Wings GM from 1982-1990, said. "For many years, Lidstrom held us up and then it was (Henrik) Zetterberg and (Pavel) Datsyuk, then Lidstrom retired, Datsyuk left. We couldn't replace those kinds of players through the draft because of where we were drafting.

"And try as we might with unrestricted agents, you don't get that caliber of player. We tried to patch and keep it going, whether it be Brad Richards, Mike Green or Frans Nielsen, and I could go on and on, we've done a lot of that over the years to try to keep the team competitive. They're all good, hard-working pieces, but they aren't superstars, and the only way you get superstars is by drafting early."

The Red Wings weren't Cup contenders the last few years of the streak, when they squeaked into the playoffs the final week of the season. They were eliminated in the first round each of the past three years.

Many had been clamoring to start the rebuild sooner.

"For some time now, some people have been bugging us to rebuild," Devellano said. "Kenny Holland and I together, as long as we thought we could keep the streak going, make the playoffs, we were going to continue to do that. We just felt we owed it to a lot of people to try to be in the top half of the league. But the truth of the matter is it finally bit us in the (rear) this year.

"The rebuild is on. You saw the first part of that at the (trade) deadline when Kenny wheeled four players for draft picks (the Red Wings have 11 selections in the 2017 draft and nine in 2018).

"To our coaches' credit and Zetterberg's credit and (Niklas) Kronwall's credit, they're still trying hard to keep us respectable. And I think we have been. We've won a few games and when we lose it's usually pretty close. The culture is still there, but we lack star players and we have to go forward now and look for an opportunity to draft those kinds of people."

The Red Wings likely will be drafting in the top 10 in June, the first time since 1991. How long will the rebuild take? When will they reach the postseason again?

"I like what Brendan Shanahan (Maple Leafs president and former Red Wing) said a year ago," Devellano said. "Somebody asked him, when they were plummeting to the bottom, 'How long is this rebuild going to take?' He said 'As long as it takes.' He wouldn't put a year or time on it. He was smart. Who the hell knows? It's impossible (to predict)."

The Red Wings have a good nucleus of young forwards to build around in Dylan Larkin, Anthony Mantha, Andreas Athanasiou and Evgeny Svechnikov, their top prospect with the Grand Rapids Griffins.

They hope goaltender Petr Mrazek, who's been inconsistent the past year-and-a-half but showed star qualities prior to that, can fulfill his potential.

Their biggest need is a top-pair defenseman. They probably don't have anyone in their system who projects to fill that capacity, and that type of player is difficult to obtain through free agency or a trade.

"When it comes to Larkin, Mantha, Athanasiou, based upon what they've accomplished, it gives us hope and belief they're going to be good players in the National Hockey League," Holland said. "How good are they going to be? That's got to play itself out.

"They are three important players, but we're hoping that's just the start."

Devellano said there are no guarantees in rebuilding. Edmonton just clinched its first playoff spot in 11 years. Despite having a bevy of high draft picks, it took a generational player, Connor McDavid, to put the Oilers over the top.

"To some degree, when I arrived in 1982 to a bad franchise, when I got Yzerman in '83 in my first draft, it was night and day," Devellano said. "He made a big impact right away -- 39 goals as an 18-year-old. I don't think you can put time (frame) on things. There's some luck involved. By luck, I mean the ability to get that kind of franchise player - (Sidney) Crosby, McDavid, Yzerman, (Mario) Lemieux. You get that type of player and the rebuild moves quickly.

"But I'm told that player isn't in the draft this year. There are good players, but (not) the guy that moves the needle -- Sidney Crosby, Patrick Kane and (Jonathan) Toews coming in and all the sudden the team that was bad got good in a hurry.

"Truthfully, and I said I wouldn't put a time (frame) on it, it would be nice if you could accomplish something in three years. But you're going to need some luck."