There has been some grumbling around the Stars-osphere in the last year or two about the job that Jim Nill has done since he came to Dallas. There seems to be a perception that Nill and his Detroit cronies drafted and developed every player that made an impact during the Red Wings’ dynasty, but that isn’t quite true:
Yes, Detroit had several homegrown stars in Steve Yzerman, Pavel Datsyuk, and Nicklas Lidström. But the Red Wings weren’t a championship team in 1997 until after they acquired Brendan Shanahan and Larry Murphy — two eventual Hall of Famers — in the offseason.