Detroit Red Wings Draft Preview

Ahhh, the NHL Draft. Is there a more exciting time in sports for a team that didn’t win the championship? Well maybe there is, but the draft is high on my list. Over the course of the next few days we get to see young players across the world start their NHL journey. Sure, many won’t ever end up playing in the NHL, but at the same time we see which teams draft tomorrow’s superstars. We also get to see a glimpse of what the future of the Red Wings might look like.

This year, the Red Wings will be drafting 18^th overall in the 1^st round. This is the highest draft position they have had since 1991 when they drafted Martin Lapointe 10^th overall. It’s probably worth mentioning that they did have the 19^th pick in 2005 which they used to draft Jakub Kindl too. Regardless, it’s easy to say this draft could be very exciting. To add to the excitement, it has been said by many scouts that this draft is very deep with talent. In other words, players who may have been top 10 picks in other years can be picked up throughout the top 20-25 picks this year because there are that many good players. The Red Wings have a chance to land a heck of a talent this year. There has to be something good that comes from losing to the Blackhawks right? Had we won that game 7, we would be drafting no earlier than 27^th overall. By losing, we gained at least 9 spots in the draft. I’m not saying I’m glad we lost, but I do like to find positives in in negatives, and the higher draft position is definitely a good thing.

I’m not going to lie, I’m the person who loves looking at mock drafts. I’ve been looking at them since before the season started. The problem is, they change so much, and they are so inconsistent that there is no way to believe any of them are accurate beyond the first few picks (even those are shaky). However, there are some general consistencies, and it’s from those that I present to you some options of who I would like to see the Red Wings draft.

1^st round options:

Valentin Zykov 6’ 210 lbs – Goal scoring left winger with some good size. He uses his size well too and plays a power forward style game. He Is very good down low, and is a good passer.

Alexander Wennberg 6’ 1.5” 186 lbs – Above average skater with excellent vision who plays well in all three zones. Already polished with a developing finishing ability. He can play all three forward spots with equal ability. Outstanding hockey sense, and a hard worker who likes to control the puck.

Max Domi 5’ 9” 175 lbs – Small, but tenacious center who is a pure offensive weapon. Son of former NHLer Tie Domi, Max has a lot more speed and skill, yet he still plays a physical style. A leader with an edge, if Max falls to us, he will be a good pick despite his size.

Andre Burakowsky 6’ 1” 177 lbs – Speedy left winger who needs to add weight, but can score goals. Will go to the dirty areas to get the puck, but needs to work on trusting others and passing a bit more. He also has outstanding stickhandling abilities, and can beat defenders 1 on 1.

Hunter Shinkaruk 5’ 10” 178 lbs – Hunter is a bit of a longshot to fall this far, but if he does it would be very hard not to take him. He’s got it all except size. He has a 6^th sense in the offensive zone and knows where to go to score goals and who to pass to in order to set up goals. He is quick, and he plays the role of an agitator despite not being overly physical. If not for his small size, would be a top 5 pick.

There are more options in the first round that would be good (remember I said this was a deep draft?), but I listed my favorites.

Post 1^st round:

Pavel Buchnevich 6’ 1” 170 lbs – Probably first round talent, but this winger could drop to the second round due to the Russian Factor. For those of you who don’t know what the Russian Factor is, it’s the possibility that the player never plays in the NHL because they decide to stay in Russia and play in their league, the KHL. They can often get more money there, and it is almost as competitive as the NHL. Buchnevich is a goal scorer who is quick, creative with the puck, and has an excellent release on his shot.

Artturi Lehkonen 5’ 10” 163 lbs – Another smaller winger who can score, and put up points. Great skater, passer and finisher.

Hunter Fasching 6’ 3” 204 lbs – A less polished right wing prospect who has a lot of tools including size, a good shot, and excellent hockey IQ.

Anton Slepyshev 6’ 160 lbs – A second year eligible left winger who went undrafted last year again due to the Russian Factor. He is too good to ignore though, and it’s worth a shot if he is there in the 3^rd round or later. He doesn’t excel at any one part of the game, but instead is good at everything including the powerplay and penalty kill.

Bogdan Yakimov 6’ 4” 200 lbs – Big center who has a great shot. He can also play in front of the net in the offensive zone. Another longer term prospect, he has the tools to be a good player down the road, but needs to improve his puck handling while skating.

Markus Söberg 6’ 165 lbs – Fast, fast, fast. He can flat out skate. He is starting to put up some better offensive numbers, and he could be a bit of a sleeper pick.

Teemu Kivihalme 6’ 165 lbs – I thought I would put a pair of defensemen on this list, and I’ll start with Teemu. He is a long term prospect which is ideal for the Red Wings because they have a lot of defenseman who are 1-2 years away from being ready for NHL duty. He is very mobile in all four directions with a good shot, and has a tendency to play with aggression. Physical despite his size, if he fills out a bit more, he could become quite a player down the road.

Conner Clifton 6’ 167 lbs – A proven winner, this defenseman is a small yet very physical presence on the ice. Loves to throw big hits, and he can skate very well. Still needs to bulk up a bit, but if he does, he could become the type of defenseman the NHL teams love.

Marcus Högberg 6’ 4” 196 lbs – I decided to put a later round goalie on this list too. He’s big, and does well under pressure. He takes away the lower half of the net well, and his size helps him take away the top of the net while he is covering the lower half.

Remember, there is no way the Red Wings will be able to draft all these players, because many of them are expected to be picked at similar times in the draft. As you can see by my picks, I want this team to focus on offense during this draft. I wouldn’t mind defenseman or a goalie, but I wouldn’t look in that direction until the 3^rd round. The only exception is if a defenseman that is rated way higher somehow falls to them. It’s possible, but I don’t see that happening.

Ken Holland has always stated in the past that the draft is like a crapshoot. You get roughly seven chances each year to find players that will contribute to your team in the future. If two of those players end up playing in the NHL, it was a successful draft. The best player available strategy is certainly one the Red Wings have embraced, and it has worked. That is perhaps the biggest difference between the NHL draft and the more highly publicized NFL and NBA drafts. Most of the players taken in the NHL draft are not expected to step in and contribute right away.

I look at things in a similar way to taking the absolute best player available, but my view is slightly different. Also, based on what Ken Holland has done in the draft over the past few years, he sees things similarly to me. I look at the system of prospects as a whole, and see what we need to fill there. Then I look at the Red Wings, and see what prospects will need to be graduating within the next year. Then, I would draft where we have and are going to have holes in our prospect pool. I would never try and draft for need based on what is currently happening in the NHL. Obviously by looking at the Red Wings right now you can say we have Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg, while there are guys like Gustav Nyqust and Tomas Tatar just getting their start on the team, so why do we need offense in the draft? Well looking at our pool of prospects, although we have a lot of good forward prospects not yet in the NHL, I’m not convinced that any of them will step up to be perennial all-stars like Datsyuk and Zetterberg. On the other hand, we do have a lot of defense prospects. In fact, I believe that we have too many NHL caliber defensemen based on the number of prospects we have, and how many spots there are on our roster. As far as goalies go, we have Howard locked down in the NHL, a solid prospect playing in the junior leagues, and a potential stud playing in the AHL. I suppose we could add one more goalie to the pool, but it’s not top priority in my opinion.

I don’t want to overanalyze who the Red Wings are going to pick the draft. Holland really is correct when he says it’s like a crapshoot. What teams are going to do is completely unexpected, and there could be a player available that we never dreamed of getting. It happens in every draft in every league. Luckily for the Red Wings, because they have done such a good job drafting over the past few years, they can afford to gamble on this pick a little bit. They can take a player with boom or bust potential, and not be set back too much if it is a bust. The guy I mentioned earlier that is probably the biggest boom or bust type player is Andre Burakowsky.

Another possibility I could see playing out is the Red Wings trading their 1^st round pick this year to trade down in the draft. If the Red Wings see about 5 players their scouts have rated equally when it’s their turn to pick, they might just trade down and get an extra draft pick from another team in the process. With this being a deep draft, there could be some very quality talent later in the 1^st round or even the early second round. Personally, I think with this draft the Red Wings should go for quality over quantity since they have traded away so many of their first round picks the past few years.

One thing I heard rumblings about, but do not see happening is the Red Wings making a trade to move up in the draft. That completely goes against Holland’s philosophy, and it will likely be expensive. As excited as I would be about a move like that, it would have to be a perfect scenario. I won’t completely rule it out though because we do have some pieces we can trade including some young promising defenseman in Brendan Smith and Jakub Kindl, a more veteran defenseman in Carlo Colaiacovo, some forward prospects in Gustav Nyquist and Tomas Tatar, a gritty veteran forward in Jordan Tootoo, and the rights to Valtteri Filppula. It really would come down to how high they would be trading up, and who is available at the pick they would be trading to. Like I said, although it’s a possibility, I still don’t see it happening. Realistically, I predict the Red Wings will keep their pick and draft at number 18 overall because it is a high pick for them. It just so happens that my prediction falls in line with what I want them to do.

All seven rounds of the draft are taking place this Sunday. Next week I plan to recap the Red Wings draft picks, and let you know what I think of them. One thing I’m sure of now is that I’m excited to see what happens.

What would you like to see the Red Wings do with this draft pick? Is there a certain player or position they should target? Should they trade the pick? Should they stay at 18^th overall? Why?