The homegrown trend actually extends beyond goalies for the last 10 Cup winners, 29 out of 30 #1D + #1C +#1G have been drafted and developed:
And yes, every one of these involved a top 4 pick.
Now, the issue isn't really
how you get the player, but getting an elite* player at each of these positions seems nearly impossible without breaking your cap via UFA, or giving up too many assets in a trade.
*my definition of elite is any player that would very likely make a Team Canada roster (regardless of their actual nationality) on their own merit (not a Kunitz or Muzzin) - I'd argue that applies to all 30, with Carlson/Letang/Murray being the only borderline cases)
For Calgary, we haven't necessarily broken the bank or asset base (more debatable) to acquire ours, but they probably just aren't quite good enough:
Lindholm (trade) - as much as I love him, I don't think he outranks any of the above (but maybe not too far off ROR or Backstrom)
Markstrom (UFA) - he's certainly got the potential to be as good as almost anyone on that list...but he certainly didn't last week...
#1D by committee = 1 drafted/1 trade/1 UFA. None of these are as good as Letang or Carlson (arguably the 'worst' guys above). Even with a healthy Tanev, our #1-3 D don't compete with TBL, CHI, or STL. The others:
Doughty/Mitchell/Scuderi
Doughty/Muzzin/Voynov or Mitchell
Letang/Daley/Dumoulin
**Dumoulin/Hainsey/Maatta or J Schultz
Carlson/Niskanen/Orlov
IMO the Flames three are only really in the mix with PIT 2 and maybe WAS...
**too lazy to edit above but I forgot Letang was injured for the repeat. The Pens acquired Dumoulin before he played any NHL games in the J Staal trade.