TAMPA — Mike Babcock wants to win the Stanley Cup. He does not want to fight to make the playoffs, give a good effort as an underdog and bow out early. So now he needs to make a decision: Can the Detroit Red Wings contend again in the coming years? Or with his contract expiring and several coaching jobs available, is it time to go elsewhere?

Only he knows what he’s thinking, and he declined to discuss his future Wednesday night after the Wings were eliminated with a 2-0 loss in Game 7 of their first-round series with the Tampa Bay Lightning. But he might have dropped some hints.

“Our team’s not as good as it was,” he said. “It’s very evident. We battled our butt off to get into the playoffs.”

He pointed out how some had picked the Wings to miss the playoffs and many had picked them to lose in the first round. He said the Wings had given the Bolts “a real run for their money to say the least,” but the Bolts had been “bad here long enough that they were able to reload.” They drafted center Steven Stamkos first overall in 2008 and defenseman Victor Hedman second overall in 2009. Now Stamkos is 25, and Hedman is 24.

View photos Babcock led the Wings to back-to-back appearances in the Cup final, winning in '08 and losing in '09. (Getty) More

“Three of our best players are 34, 35, 37,” said Babcock, referring to Niklas Kronwall, Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk, who will be those ages next season (not that it’s been on his mind). “So when you look at it, we’re a team that has changed a ton of players, and we’re a team that’s added a lot of youth to our lineup. But right now on the outside, they don’t pick us as a Stanley Cup contender.”

The Wings have made the playoffs for 24 consecutive seasons, by far the longest active streak in the NHL. That is an incredible accomplishment, especially considering it started before the salary cap and continued despite it. No other team has made the playoffs every year since the NHL introduced the cap in 2005-06.

Thanks to success and trades, they have not drafted in the top 10 since 1991. Their average first pick has been 39th overall in that time. They have restocked their talent with good scouting, good management and good luck, and they have gotten the most out of it with good coaching.

But since winning the Cup in 2008 and going to Game 7 of the final in 2009, they have not been past the second round. They have lost in the first round three of the past four seasons and each of the last two. They have barely made the playoffs three years in a row. They have added players like Petr Mrazek, Gustav Nyquist, Riley Sheahan and Tomas Tatar, and they have prospects like Dylan Larkin and Anthony Mantha. But what about elite talent?

“We’ve got lots of good young players, no question about it, and ideally we’ve got some good ones coming,” Babcock said. “But who’s going to replace Pav? I don’t think Pav’s going anywhere right way. But I mean, that’s what you’ve got to do. In the end, you’ve got to have big-time players up the middle and on the back to be successful. So those are questions in our organization that we work towards, drafting good and developing good, but we've been winning too much. That’s the facts.”

The Wings want Babcock back. They offered to make him the highest-paid coach in the NHL – a multi-year deal worth more than $3 million a season. General manager Ken Holland has a good relationship with him. For all the talk about power, Babcock has had lots of influence in personnel decisions.

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