But given how hard it is to trade for players of the caliber the Red Wings lack, the draft-and-develop route may well be the one the Red Wings continue to take with their premium assets. … If you can get a player, as opposed to using the draft (pick) - and it’s got to be a player you like - I think we would all do that, right? It’s a known quantity.”Īll that really means, for the between-the-lines readers, is what we’ve already written in this space: the added picks give Detroit options. … All the shows hyping up these kids, ‘they’re going to be this, they’re going to be that.’ And then go back, if you could replay that, and then five years later or 10 years later see: it’s a daunting task, doing it through the draft. “But you’ve got to turn them into players. “We all love trading for first-round picks, trading for second-round picks, it’s great,” Yzerman said. Or, to try and deal some of those picks for more of a sure thing. But as Yzerman alluded, it doesn’t have much recourse but to keep trying. He could just as easily have cited his former team in Tampa Bay, with Nikita Kucherov and Brayden Point being drafted in the second and third rounds, respectively.ĭetroit hasn’t found that kind of player yet. Yzerman on Friday referenced the NHL-leading Bruins, who got David Pastrnak in the late first round and Brad Marchand in the third. They won’t likely be early enough to turn into a projected superstar, but if Detroit keeps those picks, they will give director of amateur scouting Kris Draper and company more chances to find one. 23 pick in 2021 being the current leader. Given the age and outlook of those two teams, it’s entirely possible those become the two earliest picks Yzerman has acquired at a deadline in Detroit, with Washington’s No. If either pick falls within that protected range, it would instead convey the following season with no protection. That brings us to the two big assets the Red Wings acquired this week: the Islanders’ 2023 first-round pick (top-12 protected) and Boston’s 2024 first-rounder (top-10 protected). But how often do top young players get traded?” “We’ve got to get them through the draft, or somehow (if for) some reason a team has too many of them and wants to trade one of them, we’re happy to talk about it. “Obviously we want great, young players,” Yzerman said. The “plan,” in so far as these things can be planned, is the same as ever. Louis for a seventh-round pick and an AHLer, ending a disappointing saga for all sides.Īs for where the Red Wings go from here, it’s not as though this is a change in direction. And, the team goes on without Jakub Vrana, traded to St. It will also be without Oskar Sundqvist, who had carved out a role on both special teams units, sent to Minnesota for a fourth-round pick. “I think there’s obviously a long-term plan in place here, and Steve’s just sticking to it.” ĭetroit is now going forward without Filip Hronek and Tyler Bertuzzi, shipped off in the two blockbusters. But even through that, the big picture won out This week’s trade flurry carried an emotional sting, even from those know who know how this all works. Even in making that comparison to the Senators and Sabres, Yzerman said: “I like the nucleus that we have.”īut the honest appraisal of where the Red Wings stand compared to the clubs seen as parallel rebuilders, timeline-wise, is the latest harsh reality check in a week full of them. The prospect pipeline the Red Wings are working with today is substantially ahead of the one Yzerman inherited in 2019, and the NHL team is indeed getting better too. Now, that doesn’t mean Detroit is in the same place as it’s been in years past. Translation: This season’s excitement be damned, the Red Wings’ rebuild is alive and well. We need these picks to either try and trade for a star player - which, it just doesn’t happen that often - or we’ve got to continue to draft, and regardless of where we’re picking, find a player who is an impact guy.” “Doesn’t necessarily heighten my urgency, because I just can’t come up with first-round picks. “Now, having said that, they’ve probably been drafting higher and longer than we have, so I expect them to be ahead of us,” Yzerman said of the Senators and Sabres. That may seem obvious, given the Senators and Sabres are literally ahead of the Red Wings in the standings - and Ottawa in particular just dealt Detroit two humbling losses in what Yzerman called “the closest we’ve had to playoff games.” But in terms of the overall building process, that’s a telling statement for a franchise that just a week ago was threatening its first playoff push since 2016.
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