What should the Detroit Red Wings draft board look like?

The Detroit Red Wings and their fans are waiting anxiously to find out where they will pick in the upcoming 2019 NHL Entry Level Draft.  The draft lottery takes place tonight in Toronto, Ontario tonight at 8 pm.

With Jack Hughes and Kaapo Kakko on the line, franchise changing talent the Detroit Red Wings are hoping for some lottery luck tonight in Toronto.  It’s March Madness season, while Texas Tech and Virginia were anything but a pair of true Cinderella teams’ neither are named Duke or North Carolina.  The Wings are hoping for a Ping-Pong ball to bounce their way and provide a little Cinderella magic tonight.

Although the city of Toronto doesn’t necessarily owe Detroit anything they did take Mike Babcock and Brenden Shanahan from us so this would be the ideal time to repay the debt.  The Detroit Red Wings finished the season with a bang.  The team was blown out by the Buffalo Sabres to the tune of 7-1, but it pushed the Wings towards having the fourth-best odds at landing the top pick in the upcoming draft.  The Wings will have a 9.5% chance of acquiring the top pick in the draft while there bitter rivaled Colorado Avalanche own the top odds via the Ottawa Senators at 18.5%.

The Detroit Red Wings, although struggled for much of the year, played exceptionally well down the stretch to close out the season.  The teams top line of Dylan Larkin, Tyler Bertuzzi and Anthony Mantha dominated its competition and proved they can be a legit top line in the NHL for years to come.

Andreas Athanasiou will anchor the teams’ second line, and if all goes well, he will have the talented Filip Zadina and Taro Hirose who came on nicely for the Detroit Red Wings after joining the team out of college way of Michigan State.  When you mix those forwards with the potential of adding forwards; Joe Veleno, Evgeny Svechnikov, defencemen Filip Hronek, Dennis Cholowski, Jared McIsaac and whoever the team drafts this summer to the lineup, we start to once again see the sun begin to shine through the thick clouds over Detroit.

The Detroit Red Wings should be able to add an impact player through the draft, in this piece we take a look at the top five draft options, plus the ideal situation in the second round.

Spencer Knight -G

The Detroit Red Wings are extremely thin at goaltending prospects.  Their two best candidates are still in college, Filip Larsson has shown recently during his work in the Frozen Four he could translate into the top prospect for the Wings in a few years.

Spencer Knight is expected to be the first goaltender off the board and potentially the first goaltender since Jack Campbell to be drafted in the top ten of the NHL Entry Level Draft.  He’s 6’3 around 200 pounds.  That being said, various mock drafts have Knight anywhere from being selected as high as 8th overall and as low as an early second-round selection.

Knight is expected to attend Boston College next season; the 17-year-old is supposed to be an anchor to a franchise with the potential to be an elite starting NHL goaltender in his future.  He played 28 games with the US under 18 development team this year posting a 2.50 GAA|0.906 save percentage.

Knight has shown the ability to stay composed along with a will to fight through traffic to track the puck.  He has a powerful lower body which allows him to push quickly side to side in the crease.  His glove his above average and unlike many young goaltenders, he’s not fazed by the bright lights.

If the Detroit Red Wings can find a way to land Spencer Knight early in the second round it would be a steal and he would be a valuable piece to store away in the cupboard of prospects and insert into the lineup once Jimmy Howard and Jonathan Bernier finally run out of gas. The Detroit Red Wings own three second round picks in this draft and should use one on Knight if he happens to fall to them.

Dylan Cozens-C

Dylan Cozens is a big-time center with a tonne of upside.  There is a lot to like about this young 6’3 center.  He shoots right-handed, and the Detroit Red Wings could use a talented forward who is a right-handed shot. When he eventually makes the NHL, he will be only the third player to ever make the league from the Yukon.

Usually, teams pay more attention to the handedness of their defensemen, but the Wings are in need of a difference maker that indeed shots from the right side.  The big forward has the ability to play the wing and isn’t afraid to go down low and bang the body if the game dictates that style of play.

Cozens plays in the WHL for the Lethbridge Hurricanes where he enjoyed a career year in just his second season of junior hockey.  In 68 games he was able to record 34 goals and add 50 helpers to total 84 points on the season.

Cozens brings a mix of speed, and skill to the table.  He’s from Whitehorse, Yukon in Northern Canada, Kirby Dach, Trevor Zegras or Cozens will be the second center off the board in the upcoming draft in a tight race although I like Dach and Zegras a lot I prefer Cozens.

I believe he will be a capable NHL center, but I picture him playing as a winger with the Detroit Red Wings maybe with Joe Veleno playing as his center on the third line in a few seasons from now.  His flexibility would allow the Wings to move him around if injuries were to occur similar to Michael Rasmussen.

Rasmussen is a natural center, but my gut feeling is he may settle in most valuable on the wing.  Cozens is a much better skater than Rasmussen but not quite as gifted as Veleno at this point in his career.  He would be a valuable pick at five for the Detroit Red Wings.

Vasili Podkolzin -RW

Vasili Podkolzin is shaping up to be a prolific scoring prospect who reminds me of Filip Zadina.  He plays the game with a little bit of ego, remember when Zadina was drafted by the Wings at six and immediately said the Canadiens would regret that as he filled their net with goals?

I am not saying Podkolzin will say something like that, but he visually plays with a little bit of swagger.  He’s deemed an elite scoring talent off of the wing.  He works hard in all three zones, his work ethic is contagious, and his talent spews out.

He’s 6’1 just shy of 200 pounds; he can win tough board battles and projects to be a top line NHL winger.  Could he possibly be a Kucherov clone? I was thrilled with the Detroit Red Wings when they drafted Zadina; I would be similarly excited if the team could land Podkolzin.

Ryan Kennedy of The Hockey News said: “His work ethic, aggression and two-way play are all fantastic traits, but he can also kill you on the scoresheet thanks to his skills and puck-protection ability.”

The talented Russian would certainly look unique playing alongside the Wings future captain Dylan Larkin.  Larkin has the ability to make anyone who plays with him better, although Anthony Mantha has the sniper abilities Podkolzin is projected to be an elite scorer and could have the ability to unseat Mantha who loves to play his off-wing to the right of Larkin.

He’s a prospect that will need to be treated like a fine wine; he isn’t expected to play in the NHL for a couple of seasons as he’s going to be spending a couple of years in Russia’s KHL.  There is always a chance he won’t ever come to play in North America, and that’s why I have him ranked fourth rather than at third like many others.  He will probably join the NHL, but there is a small risk, a great reward for drafting him.

He’s played 3 KHL games and has yet to record a point.  In eight world junior tournament games earlier this Winter, he scored 10 goals and added 5 points in 8 games.

Bowen Byram-D

Bowen Byram is by far the top defenseman in this draft and on some draft boards he isn’t a top-five choice, but in others, he’s a top three pick.  Byram is a gifted offensive defenseman, and that’s just what the doctor ordered for the Detroit Red Wings.

Bob McKenzie of TSN said: “He plays a strong two-way game and has a healthy amount of grit in his game, but his strength is skating and passing the puck up the ice, creating offence for others or himself with a good shot from the point. He can also quarterback a power play.”

Byram plays his junior hockey with the Vancouver Giants in the Western Hockey League.  Over 67 games this season he’s enjoyed 26 goals and 45 assists to total 71 points.  He’s a 6′ foot, the left-handed defenseman that could be paired with Filip Hronek working the top Detroit Red Wings power-play in the future.

His mobility intrigues me along with the fact that the draft not being precisely a deep top-end defensive draft.  In fact, in many instances, Byram is the only defenseman listed in the top fifteen picks.

The only reason I would select Byram over Podkolzin, Dach, Zegras, and Cozens is because the Detroit Red Wings seem to have a stable of young budding star forwards and desperately need to add some young talented defensemen to their cupboard of prospects.  His offensive abilities drive his stock up, especially in the way the league is headed being much more wide open allowing skilled players to blossom, Byram would be an excellent pick for the Detroit Red Wings.

Kaapo Kakko -RW

One of the main reasons I have Kaapo Kakko ranked second rather than first is because he’s primarily an NHL winger.  If he were an elite center, Kakko would have the opportunity to unseat Jack Hughes to be the primary target in the draft.

That says a lot, Hughes is expected to be a franchise changing talent, but Kakko is no slouch, the Finnish winger will have an opportunity at some point throughout his NHL career to transition into a top center, but at this point, he is better-suited playing on the wing.

Kakko is currently playing professional hockey in Finland which makes him the most NHL ready prospect in the draft.  Kakko is 6’2, 180 pounds and has achieved 22 goals and 38 points in 45 games this season with TPS Turku in the Finish SM-liiga league.

Dobber Prospects had some interesting observations on Kakko:

After impressing everyone at the World Juniors and scoring the golden goal for Team Finland, Kakko was one of the best players in the league for the second half where he put up 13 goals and 18 points in 18 games. It appeared like he realized his linemates are unable to finish the scoring chances he created for them, so he decided to take matters into his own hands and be more aggressive in finishing the plays himself. Kakko’s strong season at the pro level has made it a two-horse race for the first overall selection in the summer.

Kakko is a unique talent and his needle points towards being a superstar caliber player.  If the Detroit Red Wings happen to land the second spot in the NHL draft, they will select Kaapo, and it will be the easiest decision to make.

The second pick is the most comfortable position to pick in this draft.  The team who lands the first spot will need to choose between Kakko and Hughes, and it is anything but an easy choice.  The team who selects second will already have their decision made for them.

I would be thrilled if the Wings found themselves in a position to add Kakko to the Detroit Red Wings and I would expect him to play on the second line immediately next season possibly moving Hirose down the depth chart playing with Athanasiou and Zadina.