It's no secret that the Red Wings, like every team in the NHL, have drafted a lot of players. A lot of those players have been excellent. Players like Dylan Larkin, Lucas Raymond, and Moritz Seider have all lived up to their draft stock and even surpassed it.
There are also players who were drafted in later rounds who have made their way into being considered "draft steals". Players like Elmer Soderblom, Gustav Nyquist, and Filip Hronek have seemingly raised their draft stock.
So, because it's the off-season and I'm currently looking into the deep, dark parts of my brain to come up with things to write about. So, I've decided to go through the Red Wings' recent draft history and see who the Red Wings' worst draft picks in recent memory are.
I'm not going to go through and list every fifth, sixth, and seventh round pick that the Red Wings have ever drafted. So I included only first and second-round draft picks.
Filip Zadina is quite possibly the most disappointing Red Wings draft pick ever
Well, this one just seemed obvious, so I decided to get it out of the way early. Around this time last year, I wrote about how Filip Zadina might be the worst draft pick in Red Wings history. This notion has only been proved even more in the time since that was written.
When Zadina was drafted at 6th overall in 2018, He instantly became the most hyped and anticipated Red Wings draft pick in years. He was never able to come close to the hype and expectations he and the organization had set for him.
Even so, general manager Steve Yzerman saw his potential to be something and gave him a three-year contract in 2022. He floundered while largely playing on the Red Wings' third and fourth lines, scoring just three goals and seven points in 30 games with a few injuries keeping him from playing the full season.
In the end, he and the organization decided to mutually terminate his contract so he could test the free agent market, eventually getting signed by the San Jose Sharks on a one-year deal for the 2023-24 season, in which he recorded 13 goals and 23 points, good enough to set him seventh in scoring for San Jose that season.
During the 2024-25 off-season, a team never offered him a contract in free agency, and he ended up signing with Davos HC in the Swiss league, where he seems to be thriving, scoring 21 goals and 34 points in 43 games.
He wasn't helped by the fact that he was taken one pick before Quinn Hughes, who has gone on to be one of the league's best defensemen. But in my opinion, it's unfair to judge a player based off how other players drafted around them have performed, as a prospect from any round can turn out to be a star.
Givani Smith was probably a waste of a second round pick
This is a bit of a shocker choice, but I do believe it's appropriate. Givani Smith was drafted 46th overall in 2016 and has reached the heights of a player taken in the sixth or seventh round, recording nine goals and 22 points in 168 career games.
Although it is important to note that he has spent significant time in the AHL since being drafted, and wasn't a big stretch to be taken in the second round. He scored 23 goals and 42 points in 65 games in the OHL in his draft year. Unfortunately for Smith, his OHL numbers didn't come anywhere close to translating in the NHL or even really the AHL.
That didn't stop him from getting a shot with the Red Wings, however, as in the year of anguish that was the 2019-20 season, He was given a 21-game stint with the Red Wings where he would score two goals and three points.
In the following years, he would bounce back and forth between the Grand Rapids Griffins and the Red Wings, where he would play largely in a fourth-line capacity and gradually became an enforcer and energy guy for the team. But then you see the likes of Samuel Girard and Ryan Lindgren.
Eventually, the Red Wings would trade him to the Florida Panthers for Michael Del Zotto where he would play 34 games and score one goal and four points in the 2022-23 season. He would then be signed by San Jose on a two-year contract in the 2023-24 off-season, where he would spend a season and a half scoring one goal and four points in 42 games before being traded to the Colorado Avalanche in a trade where Colorado acquired Makenzie Blackwood from San Jose.
He played six games with the Colorado Eagles, recording one assist, before being traded to the Philadelphia Flyers, where he would play 10 games for the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, recording one goal and two points. As of writing this, he has not signed with any team.
The Gustav Lindström pick will always loom in Red Wings fans heads
Drafting Gustav Lindström at 38th overall is a pick that's just kinda stuck in the minds of Red Wings fans and is always brought up when discussing Ken Holland's final seasons as Red Wings GM. "Why is this such a hot topic pick?"
You might ask. Well, that's largely due to the Dallas Stars taking Jason Robertson one pick after. While that may be unfair to Lindström, it's just the reality of sports fandom.
Lindström played for the Red Wings from 2019-2023, where he recorded two goals and 25 points in 128 games. He largely played on the team's third pair as a steady defensive defenseman, and he fared well in the role even during the darkest days of the Red Wings' rebuild.
Unfortunately, during the 2022-23 season, he struggled a lot, and during the off-season before the 2023-24 season, he was traded to the Montreal Canadiens in a package for Jeff Petry.
Since being traded, he played 14 games for Montreal, where he recorded three goals and four points while bouncing back and forth between Montreal and the Laval Rockets in the AHL. During one of these transactions, he was claimed off waivers by the Anaheim Ducks, where he would play 32 games for the remainder of the 2023-24 season, recording six assists.
Surprisingly, he was re-signed by Montreal for the 2024-25 season, although he would not record a game played with the team; instead, he would play 42 games in the AHL for the Laval Rocket, recording four goals and 11 points. As of writing this, he has not been signed by a team.
Michael Rasmussen has become a useful player, but not first-round worthy
This one hurts to put on the list, but it does need to be discussed. Drafting Michael Rasmussen ninth overall was undoubtedly the wrong choice. While he's become a useful player for the Red Wings, he hasn't lived up to his ninth overall draft stock. Especially when you look at the four players drafted immediately after him (don't do this, it will make you sad).
In his defense, Rasmussen was put in a bad situation right after being drafted. Since he was drafted out of the CHL, he was only allowed to play with the Red Wings or go back to the OHL.
The team opted to send him back to the OHL, a decision that would be one of the likely reasons Rasmussen never developed properly. In another confusing decision by Ken Holland, he was thrown directly into the NHL in the 2018-19 season, playing 62 games for the Red Wings, recording eight goals and 18 points.
This was likely another cause of his development being stunted. When he was finally able to play a full season for the Grand Rapids Griffins, he recorded seven goals and 22 points.
Just when we thought we'd see Rasmussen finally get on the right development path, the entire sports world shut down. Like a lot of players, Rasmussen went over to Europe to play during the pandemic and played 18 games in Austria.
When the NHL resumed play, Rasmussen was placed on the Red Wings roster and has remained there ever since (besides a short seven-game stint in Grand Rapids in 2020-21). He has played for the Red Wings for the last four seasons straight, and while he has become a useful player, he hasn't come close to living up to his draft stock.
Steve Yzerman clearly sees his usefulness because he gave Rasmussen a four-year contract extension in the 2023-24 season.
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