Red Wings stock up well with draft picks
The Detroit Red Wings are getting rave reviews for the team’s performance at the 2018 NHL Draft in Dallas.
Detroit went into the draft looking to focus on defencemen, but couldn’t pass when Czech winger Filip Zadina slipped to No. 6 overall and centre Joe Veleno, who was granted exceptional status to play in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League at the age of 15, was available at No. 30 in the first round. “We kind of tried to target a little bit of defence going into this draft and things just kind of happened as we went in,” Red Wings director of amateur scouting Tyler Wright said. Most thought Zadina would go to Montreal, which had the No. 3 pick. Instead, the Canadiens passed, as did Ottawa at No. 4 and Arizona at No. 5.
“I’m telling my agent if they will pass on me, I will fill their net with the puck,” said Zadina, who scored 44 goals and had 82 points in 57 games with Halifax in the QMJHL. “Yeah, it’s just I want to prove (to) them that they have done, like, bad decision. But I’m so glad that I am in Detroit right now. So, I just want to prove to Detroit that they made a pretty good decision.” Veleno, who played in the Memorial Cup in Windsor a year ago for Saint John, gave Detroit the scoring forward it was seeking. “We had a pretty good shift,” Wright said of Detroit’s first-round picks. It wasn’t until Detroit’s fourth selection that the Red Wings finally took a defenceman. With the second pick in the second round on Saturday, the club opted for Swedish winger Jonatan Berggren. He helped Sweden to a bronze medal at the world under-18 championship and tied for third in tournament scoring with five goals and 10 points in seven games.
“We had Berggren high on our list and couldn’t pass on the skill,” Wright said.
Three picks after Berggren, the Wings finally got to defence and got a solid prospect in Jared McIsaac, who played with Zadina in Halifax. NHL Central Scouting ranked him No. 13 among North American
skaters and several scouting services had the six-foot-one, 189-pound McIsaac going in the first round. “Hard-nosed player, plays in all situations, good penalty killer, plays against the best players (and) plays physical,” Wright said. “We liked a lot about his game.”
In the third round, the club picked up London Knight six-footthree, 203-pound defenceman Alec Regula, whose dad used to be the Red Wings’ dentist, along with sixfoot-two, 174-pound defenceman Seth Barton, who is headed to the NCAA.
“We were confident, with three thirds, we would be able to target some guys,” Wright said. Detroit used its other thirdround pick on Swedish goalie Jesper Eliasson. The club went back to Sweden in the fifth round to grab goalie Victor Brattstrom.
“We have a goalie scout in Sweden as well,” Wright said. “Goaltending is a crapshoot a lot of times. We like these guys. Get them in the pool and hopefully someone will start separating themselves.” Detroit rounded out its picks by taking NCAA-bound winger Ryan O’Reilly in the fourth round and finishing things off with diminutive Finnish centre Otto Kivenmaki in the seventh round.