Bill Clement

The Penguins crave winning a Stanley Cup. They’re taking another shot at beating the Red Wings to do so, but they can also learn from the experience. Detroit provides the perfect blueprint for championship success.

Pittsburgh should start imitating Detroit in how it plays. For all of the reputation of high skill, puck possession, passing, and balance, the Red Wings get pucks and players to the net better than any team in the NHL. The Penguins have to do the same.

Detroit doing so is part of the philosophy of its coach, Mike Babcock. And the way this is achieved is taking players with white-collar capabilities and turning them into blue-collar pit bulls.

Many of the players on the Detroit roster were noted earlier in their careers mostly for their skill. What Babcock has been able to do is combine the skill of these players with an extremely aggressive, physical, sacrificial approach. It’s hard to play the way the Red Wings play, but the Penguins have shown they can do it. But currently, no one in the league does it as well as the Red Wings. So the Penguins have the challenge of matching that.

Moving forward, Pittsburgh should use the Detroit organization as a model. The Penguins window to win the Stanley Cup should be there for at least another four seasons because that is how long they have under contract young stars like Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Jordan Staal, and Marc-Andre Fleury. And if they re-sign this core, the window will extend beyond four years.

One of the reasons Detroit is a dynasty is good scouting. Their top European scout, Hakan Andersson, is responsible for finding Nicklas Lidstrom, Pavel Datsyuk,  Henrik Zetterberg, Johan Franzen, Jiri Hudler, and Niklas Kronwall. Pittsburgh should make sure the quality of its scouting staff is second to none, and that obviously includes the personnel doing the team’s scouting in Europe.

The Penguins should spend as much money as is needed to hire the right people to make sure their draft picks are solid, even those in the lower rounds because those players have potential. What Detroit has done better than anyone in the NHL is it has grown its own talent.

Detroit believes in letting players spend at least two seasons in the minors, and Pittsburgh should do the same. A case in point is going to be Eric Tangradi, who came to the Penguins in the deal that sent Ryan Whitney to Anaheim. Tangradi is done with juniors this year, and he should spend at least a season and possibly two in the minor leagues. The Penguins need to have some patience with Tangradi, and they can afford to because they have their big four under contract for four more years.

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Another part of the Detroit blueprint that Pittsburgh must adopt is to create a culture and a quality of life for the players so that when free agents think of the Penguins, it’s synonymous with terrific treatment, terrific culture, and a terrific quality of life.

Pittsburgh must do what the Detroit organization does, and that is treat its players with incredible high regard. Make life easy for them, make transitions easy for them when they arrive.

Everything has to be state of the art, and once that’s the case, along with a culture of quality from top to bottom, free agents will understand that they have a great chance to win a Stanley Cup with the Penguins.

There are three considerations that free agents look at when deciding their future. First, is the money being offered, and the term of the contract. Second, is the chance to win, not only games but a Stanley Cup as well. And finally is the quality of the culture that surrounds the players on a given team.

The money it takes to sign a free agent can lessen to a decent degree if an organization is one that competes for a Stanley Cup, and treats its players extremely well. No player wants to go to a loser, and none wants to go to an organization that has a reputation of not treating its players well.

In Pittsburgh, the chance to win the Stanley Cup isn’t going away after this year. But if the Penguins constantly monitor and improve the quality of the culture that they create for their players, their chances at a championship grow even greater. They’ll find it easier to add a piece or two if needed, just like Detroit did this summer when Marian Hossa turned down a lucrative, multi-year deal with the Penguins to sign for $7 million for one year with the Red Wings.

Simply put, Hossa felt his chances of winning a Stanley Cup were better with the Detroit organization than they were with Pittsburgh. The Penguins have to work on changing that.

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