from Dan Rosen of NHL.com,
A lot of general managers will say they look at the Detroit Red Wings as the model for consistency as a franchise. As a younger GM with experience working in the League for several teams, does that play with you as well and do you want to model your team after the Red Wings?
"I think so, but it's a pretty tough path to duplicate their success. Their success has been phenomenal going back over two decades of just winning. But when you think of Detroit, you think of how well they draft and how well they develop. A lot of teams draft well, but not every team develops the players well after they draft them. The way Detroit develops players is tremendous. They don't rush their players. They make them take all the necessary steps to get to the NHL. You look every year, they have good young talent. It's just phenomenal.
"I don't think we're anywhere near what the Red Wings have done, but certainly that's what we're trying to do. In today's day and age you have to develop your own talent. It's just too hard to find top talent. I mean, we were fortunate to sign Parise and Suter, but you can't expect to go into the market and get the top players every summer; it just doesn't work that way -- so you really have to draft well and you have to develop your own talent. In a salary-cap system you have to make sure you have good young players that can contribute playing every year. It's just a necessity in the salary cap world."
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