3 surefire steals the Red Wings must target in the NHL Draft
The Red Wings have plenty of mid-to-late-round picks in the 2024 NHL Draft, so which players could be surefire steals on Day 2?
It’s been a while since the Detroit Red Wings landed a draft steal of their own, as the only recent late-round pick, Elmer Soderblom (sixth-round, 2019), has seen NHL ice. He played in 21 games for the Red Wings during the 2022-23 season and put up eight points and five goals.
Before Soderblom, you would need to flash back to Alex Regula (third-round, 2018), who has played in 22 games with the Chicago Blackhawks. Between his debut in the 2020-21 season and 2022-23, he scored just one point, and the bulk of his basic statistics have come on defense, with 32 blocks and 28 hits.
Christoffer Ehn (fourth-round, 2014) is the last player the Red Wings drafted in the mid-to-late rounds to have seen ample playing time, which occurred between the 2018-19 and 2019-20 seasons when he added 114 games and 13 points to his resume.
So it’s safe to say that the Red Wings have primarily benefited from the first two rounds of the NHL Draft. But will they land any future steals this season with six draft picks between the third and seventh rounds? Maybe, and there will be some surefire steals available on Day 2 on Saturday, June 29th.
William McIsaac, D/Spokane Chiefs
William McIsaac may look like a “defensive defenseman,” but I wouldn’t claim that’s all he will be if he makes it to the NHL just yet. Looking at the imposing blueliner’s numbers in the WHL between 2021-22 and 2023-24, he went from zero points in just five games to 11 points and two goals across 66 contests in 2022-23.
Finally, McIsaac more than doubled that total to 27 points and six goals in 67 regular season games this past year, leaving us wondering if there will be an encore in store for 2024-25. If so, we may swap the “defensive defenseman” label out for “two-way defenseman,” and from there, this projected mid-to-late-round pick should draw a lot of interest among fans if Steve Yzerman drafted him.
We know McIsaac will keep up a physical game and break up plays to return puck possession back to his team. But we don’t know if he’ll keep trending upward when his team has the puck, and that’s a burning question he will answer regardless of which system he’s playing in.
AJ Spellacy, C/Windsor Spitfires
If there is one common denominator between AJ Spellacy and William McIsaac, plus the No. 3 and my favorite prospect in this article, it’s that they all carry sensational size. Spellacy is currently 6’3 and 190 pounds, so naturally, he will hold the edge in strength.
But you may not know that Spellacy is a speedy skater, and that’s something he will continue to use to his advantage over his next two seasons in the OHL. And if his upward trend from 2022-23 into 2023-24 continues across 2024-25 and 2025-26, he could transform into a player that puts up over a point per game, something that isn’t farfetched when you look at his increase in point totals from the previous two seasons.
In 2022-23, he scored just seven goals and 17 points across 47 contests, but that number improved to 21 goals and 38 points in 67 games. Yeah, he tripled his goal total, and both his speed and knack for scoring are two reasons Steve Yzerman should put this prospect onto his shortlist.
Another enticing point about Spellacy is that he’s a pure athlete, having spent time playing football besides hockey. So his overall athletic ability stands out alongside his size and speed, and yes, he’s also someone who can hit and play a solid game on both sides of the ice. No, Spellacy isn’t someone I would take in the first two rounds of the NHL Draft, but if he’s there starting in the third round, I’m at least considering this exciting hockey player.
Miroslav Satan, C/Slovakia
Imposing may be an understatement when you describe Miroslav Satan’s size, as he’s one of just a few prospects in the 2024 draft class to have already reached the 6’7 threshold. At a bodyweight of just 190 pounds, he will spend at least a few years putting on muscle. But he’s also about a half-decade away from being NHL-ready, so he doesn’t need to pack on size quickly.
Anyway, for a player with so much length to be projected to fall into the late rounds, Satan can be a steal if he uses that length to play a solid defensive game. Someone of his size could be, in a worst-case scenario, a sound defensive forward who would double up as an excellent asset on the penalty kill simply because he would have a long range to get his stick onto an opponent’s puck and knock it free.
Further, the more size and strength he builds, the easier it will be for him to outmuscle opponents by the net when his team has the puck and stop sequences before they begin when his team is not in possession. Forechecking and physical play will be his strong suit, but Satan has also shown us enough to at least consider he could be good with evolving into a supplementary scorer.
For HC Slovan Bratislava U20, Satan found the net 14 times and recorded 30 points, and he also averaged over a point per game in U18 in 2022-23 and in U16 in 2021-22. That said, Satan is one of those potential-laden prospects you can’t help but keep a close watch on if he’s drafted into the Red Wings system.
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(Statistics powered by Hockey Reference and Elite Prospects)