By Zackery Robert
Moving on to Motown and to the Detroit Red Wings. The Wings have had a storied franchise to date with countless great players and picks. They have drafted and developed well in the past and present. The Wings have had much team success and look to continue that in the future with great players, picks and development.
To begin we will start in the 1983 draft where the Red Wings made possibly their most franchise defining pick when they selected Steve Yzerman with the fourth overall selection. Yzerman spent his entire 22 year career with the Red Wings winning three Stanley cups during that time. Yzerman has a Conn Smythe, a Lester B. Pearson (currently a Ted Lindsay trophy), and a Frank J. Selke trophy to his name to go along with 1755 points in 1514, to say this pick was a winner is an understatement, Yzerman is an all time great NHL player and easily winds up on this list as one of the best picks Detroit has ever made in their history.
Detroit has had many great picks and they have come from all over the draft not just in the first or second round. For this pick we will move to the 1989 draft in round three pick number 53 and see Nicklas Lidstrom chosen with this pick. Lidstrom is a hall of fame defenseman holding a ridiculous seven Norris trophies and one Conn Smythe. He has over 1100 points in over 1500 games and was the Captain for many seasons after Yzerman.
Making a list of just a few of Detroit’s best draft picks is quite difficult when you take a look at their drafting history. You have Zetterberg in the seventh round, you have Fedorov in the fourth round, you have Chris Osgood in the third round and you have Pavel Datsyuk in round six. The Red Wings have one of the best drafting histories out of any team in the league so this choice is a hard one but nevertheless the choice is Pavel Datsyuk. Datsyuk was a career Red Wing with over 900 points in over 900 games, the accolades he won are enough to put him on this list, with three Selke trophies and four Lady Byng trophies in his showcase to go along with two Stanley cups, Datsyuk is a Red Wing legend and will most definitely have his number in the rafters of the Joe Louis arena in the not so distant future.
Moving on from the best of their picks to the picks that did not reach their potential. To start we will go back to the 1976 draft where the Red Wings held the fourth overall pick and selected Fred Williams. Williams was also a WHA pick the same year but never played in the WHA. For his NHL career Williams only played in one year during the 1976-1977 season playing 44 games. In those 44 games Williams held a stat line of two goals five assists for seven points. After that season he went and played down in the minors and other leagues until his retirement after the 1982 season. Only three picks later the Blues chose Bernie Federko who ended up with over a 1000 point career. Williams just did not pan out and with that he ended up on this list.
When doing these lists, the most important factors are, where were they drafted and how successful was that draft pick for the team. Nothing else goes into account when making up these lists of players. This next player was the number one overall pick back in 1986 and did not hit his stride until moving on to a different team. Joe Murphy was the first overall pick for the Red Wings back in 1986 and subsequently began playing for the organisation the following season. Murphy played a total of three and half seasons before moving to Edmonton. In that time he split games between the Red Wings and their affiliate, the Adirondack Red Wings. In his time with the big club Murphy’s totals were 90 games and 32 points. Upon leaving he was able to notch seven 40+ point seasons and seven 20 goal seasons, with two being 30+ goal seasons. However for the Red Wings this pick ended up being a bust as it was not the most productive tenure for a first overall pick that you would expect. For that reason Murphy winds up on this list.
Finally we end off this list at the 1985 draft with Detroit selecting Brent Fedyk eighth overall. Upon making his pro debut in 1987, Fedyk split five seasons between the Red Wings and their affiliate. In total Fedyk played 162 games for the Red Wings scoring 56 points before being traded away for a mid round draft pick. Fedyk would play a vast majority of his games in the minors before hanging it up after the 1999-2000 season, which he played in Germany, Fedyk did not pan out and struggled to stay in the NHL as a whole. For that reason Fedyk winds up as the third and final player to be on this list.
Currently in 2023 the Detroit Red Wings look poised to have a fairly nice future with some of their prospects developing well. Steve Yzerman their current gm has done a terrific job so far in terms of course correcting the Red Wings’ rebuild after their powerhouse team in the early 2000s. They have a very even mix of forward and defence prospects. Detroit was always known to favour European players and it looks like much is the same with the current day Red Wings as some of their most touted young guns and prospects are, Swedish defenseman Simon Edvinsson, German defence standout Moritz Seider, Swedish winger Lucas Raymond, Swedish defender William Wallinder and their most recent pick Austrian winger Marco Kasper. With five of their lost brightest young players being European it would make sense for Detroit to look more heavily and favourably at one of Europe’s best and brightest prospects.
They have a boat load of picks coming in this draft and many early round picks too, 1st, 1st (NYI), 2nd, 2nd (VAN), 2nd (STL), 3rd, 4th (MIN), 5th, 6th, 7th, with 10 total picks Detroit is armed for this upcoming draft. Right now Detroit lands at the ninth overall pick and can go no lower than 12th in the draft so if we look at the top 15 draft eligible prospects and given Detroit’s history of European player drafting one can see them targeting any of these next three players, Czech forward Eduard Sale, Austrian defender David Reinbacher, or Swedish defender Axel Sandin Pellikka. It would make more sense for them to draft a defenseman because there are plenty of higher quality forwards in the later rounds compared to higher quality defensemen and given their current defence core, bringing in a high grade defence prospect would bolster their potential blue line a few years down the road with players like Moritz Seider and Simon Edvinsson already there.
For more information on the 2023 NHL Draft class be sure to pick up your copy of the comprehensive DraftPro 2023 NHL Draft Guide.