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With the rumors flying about Sundin possibly being dealt to the Detroit Red Wings, I felt it would be a good time to do an analysis of the team composition of a current serial-winner, the Red Wings, vs. a perennial loser, the Toronto Maple Leafs. The analysis will concentrate on salaries dispersed between team draft picks and non-draft picks, and shows a stark difference between the composition of these two teams.

Detroit Red Wings:

The Wings totally salary commitment for the 07/08 season is $42,280,833. Out of that entire salary commitment, here is a list of players drafted by the Detroit Red Wings and their contribution to the overall number (in descending order, only players who have exclusively played for Detroit):

• Niklas Lidstrom - $7,600,000
• Pavel Datsyuk - $6,700,000
• Niklas Kronwall - $3,000,000
• Henrik Zetterberg - $2,650,000
• Tomas Holmstrom - $2,250,000
• Jiri Hudler - $1,015,000
• Johan Franzen - $942,000
• Valeterri Filppula - $850,000
• Brett Lebda* - $650,000
• Tomas Kopecky - $500,000

Add up those players salaries and you’ll find the Wings pay their hand picked talent $26,157,000, equalling 61.9% of their total salaries. Notice their recipe for long term success? The majority of the team is made up from picks that are then groomed and grown internally. Then, the Wings bring in outside talent to fill in needed the remaining gaps, in their case, namely goaltending.
The number would be even higher if we included guys like Chris Osgood and Dallas Drake who were drafted by Detroit but left for signifcant time and came back. This would skew the point of the analysis though, which is that Detroit’s current success is built upon a majority of players they’ve brought up through their own system. Not only has this provided long term success, but it also leaves Detroit almost $8,000,000 below the cap ceiling.

*Lebda was not drafted but was signed to Grand Rapids, Detroit’s AHL affiliate, and then brought up.

Toronto Maple Leafs:

The Toronto Maple Leafs 07/08 cap commitment is $48, 038, 100. Here is a list of Toronto Maple Leafs who were drafted and developed by the Leafs, and their current cap contribution.

• Tomas Kaberle - $4,250,000
• Alexei Ponikarovsky - $2,105,000
• Nik Antropov - $2,050,000
• Carlo Colaiacovo - $1,283,333
• Alexander Steen - $900,600
• Kyle Wellwood - $875,000
• Matt Stajan - $875,000
• Ian White - $850,000

Adding up those salaries gives you $13 ,188,933 for 27.5% of their total cap commitment. I think the numbers speak for themselves. The difference is clear. Whereas Detroit builds a team by smart drafting and good player development, the Leafs build a team by trying to bring in talent over and over again, and then using guys from their own system to fill in the gaps. It clearly hasn’t been working. Not surprising considering on the list above, only one Leaf would be considered a consistantly good player.

Another interesting point is that while Detroit is far more successful than the Leafs, by having almost 70% of their roster developed internally, they avoid having to shell out a lot of huge contracts to entice outside talent, leaving them far more cap room for additions than the Leafs have.

I think the demonstration is pretty clear, and hopefully this comparison will help convince anyone out there who still doesn’t think the Leafs need to clean house and start rethinking the way they build teams.

Source for Data:
Detroit Red Wings Salaries
Toronto Maple Leafs Salaries

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