Detroit Red Wings: Three Players to Target in the NHL Draft

With the National Hockey League Draft a day away and the Expansion Draft now behind us, it’s time to focus on what the Detroit Red Wings should do with their ninth overall pick on Friday. This will be the first time since 1990 that the Wings have drafted inside the top 10, an astounding tidbit relative to their success in the 27 years since then.

It’s pretty clear this organization needs some serious help in their prospect pool. It doesn’t seem at the moment there’s really much help coming anytime soon either. That’s certainly not a good sign when you’re a bottom dwelling team and look to be set on staying that way for the foreseeable future.

The Wings need help in two areas, puck moving defenseman and versatile forwards.

It wouldn’t be a stretch to say the blue line was one of the weakest in the league last season.

It’s either an over-the-hill defenseman or a former underachieving highly regarded prospect taking up most spots on the Wings top seven to eight blueliners. There are some prospects like Dennis Cholowski and Vili Saarijärvi who shed some light on the dull outlook, but they still need massive help.

It’s insane that an organization can lose Pavel Datsyuk, and soon to be followed by Henrik Zetterberg, yet the center position still is not your biggest gap in the roster. That being said, this is more of an indictment on how poor the defense is. The Wings are still in desperate need of a young, dynamic center to somehow enter into the picture.

Here are my choices for what I would do with the nine pick if I were Ken Holland.

Elias Pettersson

Pettersson would be my first choice with the ninth pick. The Swedish forward can play either up the middle as a center or on the left wing. At the moment his slight frame, 164 lbs., might force him onto the wing.

Pettersson is a high hockey IQ forward that has plenty of skill and finesse in his game. He seems to always make the right play and find himself in the right spots on the ice. The interesting comparison he occasionally gets should make Red Wings fans’ eyes light up, Pavel Datsyuk.

Like Datsyuk, Pettersson would come over to the NHL as a slight framed, average skating, and highly skilled European forward. I personally never really saw the comparison that was, until I saw a play he made in the U18 World Junior Championships in April 2016.

The puck was going into the left corner in his offensive zone and a defenseman had a few steps on him. Most forwards would slow up and tie up the defenseman on the boards until he kicks it out or help comes. Instead, Pettersson took a different route to the left of the defenseman, almost allowing him to pick up the puck and think he had a play around the boards.

Next thing you know Pettersson reaches around the defenseman lifts his stick and strips the puck. It was mesmerizing, immediately making me think of one player I had idolized as a child, Datsyuk.

Pettersson has played well the last two seasons for Timra IK out of the Allsvenskan League in Sweden. In comparison to other top forwards drafted recently that have played in the league, he fairs quite well.

To finish off, here is a brief summary of what EliteProspects.com has on him:

"A craft and agile two-way forward, Pettersson is consistently productive in all three zones. As he gets stronger, he’ll become even more physical and aggressive than he is now, and his creativity could definitely elevate his game to dominant levels. He can be described as a tenacious, jack-of-all-trades kind of player; he is well versed in all the important aspects of his own game. His speed and top-end acceleration continue to improve game by game, and his hard-nosedness shows through in his dogged pursuit of puck control. Elias Pettersson is a complete hockey player with exceptional hockey sense who brings intellect and youthful exuberance to a game that feeds on his kind of exciting athleticism."

Martin Necas

Necas is a right-handed forward from the Czech Republic that has a little bit of everything. He made a big decision last summer staying in his home country to play in the Czech pro league instead of coming over to play in the Canadian Hockey League.

He’s extremely quick with the puck on his stick but still plays in complete control. Playing with grown men for a year gave him a taste at an early age of what it’s like to not have much time and space on the puck. He has this determination and slight nastiness about him that works well for a European prospect trying to play center in the NHL.

He currently has 10 pounds on Pettersson, but he certainly still has room to put on muscle. Jeff Marek of Sportsnet said this in an article about him:

"“A slick and shifty skater who still needs to fill out his frame. When he does, watch out.” -Jeff Marek"

His numbers weren’t great this season, posting a 7-8-15 scoring line in 41 games, but for a first-year draft eligible player, it’s not all that bad. Jaromir Jagr had a 6-6-12 line in his first pro-Czech season, albeit he was a year younger than Necas was.

Admittedly I haven’t seen nearly as much of Necas as I have Pettersson, hard to find Czech pro league games. However, the performances I have seen in the Hlinka tournament, WJC U18 and U20’s last year were all very impressive. He isn’t scared of going to the front of the net and has incredible skill/hand-eye to be able to do damage when there. He still needs to work on his two-way game a bit, often times drifting when he should be backchecking.

All-in-all, he’s still a smooth skating European forward that would immediately become the Wings future first or second line center. We know what the Wings can do when they get a young European forward in their possession.

Timothy Liljegren

Coming into this season, Liljegren was mentioned in the same breath as Nolan Patrick, some even thought he had a chance to pass him and make a run as the top prospect in this class. But when the Swedish defensemen was diagnosed with mono before the season started, everything took a turn for the worse.

Liljegren missed nearly two months of game time and didn’t make his debut until Nov. 9.

After coming back, he didn’t quite look the same. He bounced around from league to league and in-turn team to team. He played for three different teams this season, only tallying 19 games in the SHL.

The big surprise came when he missed out on Sweden’s WJC roster, a missed chance for him to show he still had the skills that made him a preseason no. 2 ranked prospect by most scouting sites. Liljegren would have to wait till the WJC U18 in April to try and recreate the magic he displayed at the same tournament one year ago.

But again, his performance was underwhelming. What made scouts initially drool over Liljegren was his top-notch skating and edge work. His ability to carry the puck out on his own multiple times throughout a game was a treat to watch. He has a hard shot, especially wrist shot, but it doesn’t seem to have developed over the last 12 to 18 months. He has trouble hitting the net from the point, whether the shot missed wide on its own or the inability to navigate it through traffic. This isn’t a good thing when you shoot as much as he does.

He’s an above average passer but gets careless at times in his defensive zone. Countless times throughout the WJC U18 he tried to make an unnecessary stretch pass that led to a turnover or an icing.

The main problem I have with him is his hockey IQ. When he’s put under pressure by a tough forecheck or has to make a quick decision on the boards, he often makes the wrong play. He needs to slow down and let the game come to him like he did a year ago.

After reading all this you might wonder why I’d want the Wings to draft him, I mean I just essentially bashed him for four paragraphs. One reason: potential. This kid still has all the tools to be a top-four defenseman in the NHL one day. Elite skating with a strong shot and dynamic playmaking ability in the offensive zone doesn’t come around every day in a defenseman. Not to mention it’s a tough job to come back after having mono and immediately jump into a full hockey season.

If I’m Holland, realizing that this team desperately needs a top blue line prospect in the organization, I’d be willing to swing for the fences and take a guy that just 12 months ago looked like the top defensive prospect in the whole draft.

Next: Expansion Draft Results