NHL Draft: With the No. 4 Pick, the Detroit Red Wings Select…
Making the No. 4 overall selection for the Detroit Red Wings in the 2020 NHL Draft.
As you read yesterday, the Detroit Red Wings landed the No. 4 overall pick thanks to Tankathon.com and my made up 10-round simulation data pull.
This doesn’t mean the Red Wings will be drafting No. 4, but because that’s what happened in this simulated scenario, I’ll now be making the pick at this position, whether you like it or not!
As mentioned in the article yesterday, let’s assume forwards Alexis Lafreniere (Rimouski Océanic), Quinton Byfield (Sudbury) and Tim Stuetzle (Mannheim in Germany) are off the board.
That likely leaves me selecting from a crop of forwards Alexander Holtz (Djurgardens), Lucas Rayond (Frolunda) or Cole Perfetti (Saginaw), defenseman Jamie Drysdale (Erie) or goalie Yaroslav Askarov (SKA Saint Petersburg).
I’m not here to bore you with details on all of these guys. You clicked on this story because you want to know who the Red Wings will select with the No. 4 pick in the 2020 NHL Draft, and that’s what will be done. If you want to know more about the prospects, ask Alexa.
With that said, with the fourth pick in the 2020 NHL Draft, the Detroit Red Wings select, Jamie Drysdale, Erie Otters, Ontario Hockey League (OHL).
This is a no-brainer selection for me. He’s the only reasonable defenseman to take at No. 4, and it’s a position of need. I’d go as far as saying if Detroit isn’t No. 1 and have the clear shot at taking Lafreniere, they’ll take Drysdale over Byfield or Stuetzle, contrary to popular demand.
Even though now the Red Wings can’t score goals consistently, the big-league club and farm system is filled with forwards. Dylan Larkin, Anthony Mantha, Tyler Bertuzzi, Robby Fabbri, Filip Zadina, Evgeny Svechnikov, Michael Rasmussen, Joseph Veleno and a roster you’ll need to pepper in with a couple grinders and/or veterans.
Meanwhile, the defense needs a retool.
The future features Moritz Seider, Filip Hronek and then some maybes such as Gustav Lindstrom, Dennis Cholowski, Jared McIsaac and others.
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Get Drysdale on this roster, outside of Lafreiere. Drysdale isn’t a big people-moving defenseman like Seider, but his savvy mind is doing quite fine at 5-foot-11, 180 pounds.
Drysdale played well on a rebuilding team, which will suit him well once he arrives in Detroit. Last season for the Otters, he scored nine goals with 37 assists in 49 games.
According to Otters coach Chris Hartsburg in a recent Detroit News article, “he’s a new-age defender who skates extremely well and thinks the game extremely well. His edge work allows him to pick up speed out of corners and turn up ice quick.
I’ll take some of that, and apparently the Maple Leafs fan Drysdale would welcome a move to Detroit.
“The Yzermans and (Nicklas) Lidstroms are names you can’t miss,” Drysdale said in the Detroit News article. “They’re definitely special players that made a name for themselves and helped make a name for the organization.”