from Ansar Khan of Mlive,

“They’re not pretty and they’re not fun and we’re at rock bottom,” Red Wings senior vice president Jimmy Devellano said of rebuilds....

“How it happened was when we decided, Kenny and I, three years ago, to start to acquire draft picks, we traded (Tomas) Tatar, (Gustav) Nyquist, (Nick) Jensen, (Petr) Mrazek, (Tomas) Jurco, (Riley) Sheahan,” Devellano said. “When you do that you weaken the team because all those players are NHL players. Now we’re at rock bottom.

“We would do it all over again. We couldn’t make the playoffs with those players, but they wouldn’t have us in last place either. It’s something we had to do, but it really makes this year very painful....

“There is no doubt (Hronek) is going to be a top-four defenseman,” Devellano said. “Right now, he’s probably our best defenseman. Filip Zadina has eight goals, that projects him to probably be a 25-goal scorer, so he appears to be ready.”

“Steve Yzerman, with his first pick, it appears it’s going to be very, very good,” Devellano said. “Seider is going to be a top-four defenseman. The only thing we can’t tell you about him is how much offensive upside he’s got. But he’s 18 years old and is performing very well in Grand Rapids. It looks like he’s a good, sure-fire piece on defense.

“Veleno could have been in junior hockey, but we advanced him at age 19. I would say this time next year he’ll be scoring goals in the American League.

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