Gregg Krupa

The Detroit News

Detroit – How do you define rebuild?

There is a strong argument the Red Wings started to rebuild when Nicklas Lidstrom skated in solitude back to the bench door on April 20, 2012, and looked up at the scoreboard after the clock expired in the fifth and final game against the Predators, knowing his career was likely done.

In the wake of Steve Yzerman, Scotty Bowman, Brendan Shanahan and Sergei Fedorov, the Wings were due a little refurbishing.

When they did not sign the next big free agents, Ryan Suter, a sensible replacement for Lidstrom, or Zach Parise, both of who chose the comforts of kin over the courtship of the Red Wings brass, the need grew.

The Wings never announced it, of course. But general manager Ken Holland eventually adopted the description “rebuild on the fly.”

It became more urgent in the passing seasons as attractive free agents chose the Capitals and others in succession, and Red Wings would call Mike Babcock from around North America and Europe in the summer to confirm the unhappy prospect of no help arriving.

Johan Franzen got hurt. Pavel Datsyuk got unhappy. Niklas Kronwall’s knee betrayed evidence of its circumstances.

That is the cursed thing about rebuilds of any variety. They can alter their own course.

Krupa: Red Wings place their future in draft's 'crapshoot'

And mistakes were made. Fans have different lists of them, and they are fodder for social media and barrooms.

The result is that, last season and this, the engines propelling the flight have sputtered. The rebuild on the fly is arguably grounded. Leading the NHL in man-games lost to injury for most of the season did not help, but the roster is plainly unsound.

Changing course

Holland said he believes the team can take off again, soon, sustain flight and eventually contend.

Others voices counsel risking additional time on the ground for a more drastic overhaul, asserting it would result in a quicker return to contention.

They are both rebuilds. One is more severe and provides the comfort of further action taken.

But Holland points to the Oilers, 10 years out of the playoffs, the Hurricanes headed to eight and the Sabres to six, as reason enough to prevent the Red Wings from hitting bottom, let alone purposefully clinging to it for the sake of rebuilding.

All along the way much of the reconstruction has been, and will continue to be, from within.

Holland asserts repeatedly that the core of the next Stanley Cup winner will be a product of organizational development, just as it was for the Red Wings from 1997-2008 and other Stanley Cup winners of an era in which free agency has run headlong into a hard salary cap.

But, with the partial rebuild gasping, he has altered course.

He traded Brendan Smith, Thomas Vanek, Tomas Jurco and Steve Ott for five draft choices. The Red Wings now have 11 picks in seven rounds in June's NHL draft and nine in 2018.

Bacon: Red Wings' remarkable streak of excellence nears end

Holland says he wants more, to either draft or trade.

He vows the Wings will not tank. But when a general manager trades his leading goal scorer from a team in last place in the conference with 21 games left, his intent is clear.

Will he trade the rest of the roster beyond the only star, Henrik Zetterberg, and the potential stars, Andreas Athanasiou, Dylan Larkin and Anthony Mantha? If Holland were to get a return that would allow the Red Wings to skate a winning team next season while maintaining the new course of the rebuild, he likely would.

More moves ahead

The far greater likelihood, however, is a couple of trades in June that help revitalize the struggling defensive pairings, provide more draft choices, or both.

What is utterly improbable is 16 new faces on the roster when the puck drops in Little Caesars Arena, and courting 30th place in the league standings for a couple of seasons for the sake of prime draft picks.

They are 26th entering play Friday, regardless.

Not by design, they already have decent odds in the 2017 entry draft lottery.

Encouraging Holland’s new path is the opportunity provided by the expansion draft.

It has been a while since the league held one.

The rules require exposing some players, through one of several methods, to the expansion team. All 30 general managers have strong encouragement to work those rules, their rosters and the salary cap for the best possible outcome. It often means trades.

Accelerating the rebuild by gathering draft picks this week, Holland better positioned the Red Wings to trade, despite a host of long-term, expensive contracts for several players who have not performed to expectations for two seasons.

He also has improved the chances of dumping one or two of those salaries, perhaps by wrapping one around a couple of attractive draft choices in a trade.

The Wings would benefit from some subtraction, so they can do more addition.

Nonetheless, they are rebuilding. The earnestness of the effort grows.

The Red Wings are five years into a rebuilding process, in the second, third or fourth phase, depending on who is counting.

Such descriptions are, frankly, immaterial.

Of consequence is the product of the work. To date, it is lacking.

But the rebuild changed this week in ways that signal a significant recalculation, with the intent of more to come.

gregg.krupa@detroitnews.com

Twitter: @greggkrupa