from Kevin McGran of the Toronto Star,

“When you look (at) any team that has any kind of long-term sustained success, it’s really true home-grown talent,” says Lightning GM Steve Yzerman. “It’s just impossible, even more so with the salary cap, to try to build a team to be successful over a period of time just through free agency and through trades.

“You need the assets to build the team.”

Yzerman’s Lightning featured 14 players this season who were drafted by Tampa. The Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks had 15 home-grown players play for them.

The most important date — for a lot of teams — used to be July 1, when free agents became available. But game-changing free agents are rarely available on Canada Day now. The big stars sign long term. In a salary cap world, teams need young players who can contribute a lot while their salaries remain relatively low. Those players come from the draft.

“The days of anybody going on the free agent market on July 1, buying this guy, buying that guy, those days aren’t available any more,” said Ken Holland, GM of the Detroit Red Wings. “You’ve got to draft. You’ve got to develop.”

read on includes graphs and stats...