Red Wings 2019 Draft Report

July of 2019 was a big month for the Red Wings franchise. As covered in previous aticles Matt Murray was traded, Lias Andersson was acquired, the 3rd place lottery was won, and Brent Burns was acquired. In the aftermath of all this, the Wings were going into the draft with six draft picks: 3, 71, 74, 101, 131 and 133 overall. 

In the days leading up to the draft GM Evans explored trading a defenseman to free up a spot for PP specialist Erik Gustafsson. It was a tough seller's market with so many rebuilding teams but eventually a deal was struck with the Flyers sending top 3 pair defender Jared Spurgeon, young defender Dean Kukan, a 2020 4th, and young forwards CJ Suess, Jayden Halbgewachs, Victor Ejdsell, and Connor Chatham to the Flyers in exchange for the 16th overall pick and prospect Gabriel Fortier. 

When interviewed, GM Evans praised Spurgeon saying "I think the Flyers are getting a good defenseman in his prime. Jared was a good soldier for the Wings and he will be missed, but this opens up playing time for Ryan Pulock and Erik Gustafsson who are more than capable of shouldering the load. Just like when we moved Cam Fowler, we expect Jared to thrive with his new team. This move adds two exciting future pieces to our franchise and clears 6M in cap space in 2020-21 when it will really be needed. Gabriel Fortier is a promising young player with skill and a good work ethic. I hope he continues to improve and become and I expect him to be an impact NHLer within the next 3 years. 16 should be a good pick, there's bound to be some one with top line potential sitting there. I can't wait for draft day!"

After his rights were acquired in a mysterious deal, Semyon Varlamov agreed to a 4 year 5.6M contract with the Wings and was shipped back to Calgary for a 2020 2nd round pick. A win-win for both teams. This pick would prove to be an important trade chip on draft day.

In another pre-draft move the Wings added the rights to UFA Carl Soderberg for a conditional 2020 5th and young goalie Cam Johnson. If Soderberg refuses to sign, his rights will be returned to the Oilers and the pick will be returned to the Wings, but Johnson will stay with the Oilers no matter what happens with Soderberg. This low risk gamble has the potential to add a top 9 forward to the Wings for a low cost. It is currently unknown if Soderberg will be signing, stay tuned.

On draft day, the excitement was in the air. Many GMs showed up to talk trade and prepared to make the picks that will shape their teams in the future. GM Evans was busy as always, talking trade with many teams and exploring the costs and benefits of moving picks 3 and 16. 

According to the Red Wings' draft lists the players projected to be the best players available at 3 and 16 were likely to be defensemen, or even a goalie, so the Wings were very much interested in moving up with either pick and using the recently acquired 2020 2nd as tradebait. 

Eventually talks around moving up from 16 to a top 10 pick seemed to fizzle, however it became clear that the Ducks were listening to offers on the 2nd overall pick. Always an aggressive collector of top assets, GM Evans was intruiged. The talk this season about the 2019 draft has been mostly about 2 players: Jack Hughes and Kaapo Kakko. A few others like Bowen Byram, Alex Turcotte, Kirby Dach, Dylan Cozens, and Cole Caufield had fantastic seasons and showed high upside but Hughes and Kakko were the ones that wowed us the most. A chance to land one of the top two talents in this draft was too much to turn down, and GM Evans put together a huge offer for the Ducks: 3rd overall, top prospects Ian Mitchell and Antoine Morand, a 2020 2nd, and a 2021 2nd in exchange for the 2nd overall pick. At the 11th hour, the Ducks accepted and the Red Wings front office celebrated.

When the draft began, Carolina decided to go with consensus and took Jack Hughes 1st overall. The ultra-skilled, undersized, American center has insane puck skills, speed, playmaking ability, and hockey sense. He's been compared most closely to a smaller McDavid or a center version of Patrick Kane. 

This made the Wings' decision at 2nd overall pretty simple. Right winger Kaapo Kakko was selected, to the delight of fans watching back at home in Little Caesars Arena. The Wings fans have reason to be excited: Kakko is highly skilled two-way winger with an NHL-ready playing style. He has elite hockey sense and puck skills, great speed, work ethic, playmaking ability, and a great shot, along with a willingness to go into the corners and muck it up. Kakko can do it all and showcased his impressive skills by setting the scoring record for a U18 player in Liiga, leading his team to a World Junior gold medal, and then leading a team of Liiga and KHL players to a World Championship gold medal, including a 2 goal performance against team Canada.

GM Evans: "Kakko is a stud. The only way to get this type of potential superstar talent is through the draft. He's proven he can play against NHL players and succeed, so I expect him to have a smooth transition to the NHL this season and contend for a Calder trophy. Our staff is beyond excited to add him to our team, and we have high hopes for this kid moving forward. Finnish hockey just keeps getting stronger these past few years, and Kakko has the potential to be the best Finnish player in the league. We hope one day he's playing on the right wing next to McDavid and lighting it up. We paid a high price to move up: 3rd overall we would've taken Bowen Byram who we see as a potential #1 defenseman with superstar upside, a pair of 2nd round picks, a probable #4/5 puck-moving defenseman in prospect Ian Mitchell, and a probable top 9 two-way forward in prospect Antoine Morand. Kakko's upside was enticing enough to make the deal make sense for us. 

As the draft approached the 16th pick, 3 incredibly interesting names remained on the Wings' draft board. The Wings explored moving up a few picks to get their #7 ranked player but weren't willing to pay the price it would take. This may have turned out to be a blessing in disguise because when 16 came up, the Wings' 10th ranked player was still on the board: left winger Matthew Boldy. Boldy played with the USDP and put up 33 goals and 81 points in 64 games while wearing an "A", and then added 12 points in 7 games at the U18s while again wearing an "A." 

GM Evans: "Boldy has great puck skills, hockey sense, work ethic, playmaking ability, and a great shot. He has the potential to be a top line winger at the NHL level and put up points. This is the exact type of player our farm system needed, and I really didn't expect a player with this type of offensive ceiling to be around at 16. I see him as a player that hopefully puts up around 60 points per year, maybe even more."

As the draft continued the Wings again tried to move up, this time hoping to add a late 2nd round pick, but no dice. The Wings anxiously waited for the 71st and 74th picks to come around and hoped a few of their 2nd round rated players would still be available. Somehow, only two were still around by the time the Red Wings picked but they were a pretty impressive two: Emil Bemstrom and Domink Kahun. Bemstrom, the Wings' 31st rated player, is a 20 year old winger out of the SHL. Bemstrom scored a league-leading 23 goals as rookie and added 35 points to lead all rookie skaters. He also led the Swedish team at the World Junior Championships with 6 points. Kahun is a 24 year old NHL player coming off a 37 point rookie season on the Blackhawks after lighting up DEL for 3 seasons. The Pittsburgh Penguins were impressed enough with Kahun's play that they sent Olli Maatta to the Hawks to acquire him.

GM Evans: "Bemstrom is a small, speedy feisty scorer with big upside. You don't see a lot of 19 year olds leading the SHL in socring as a rookie. I think he could end up being a Viktor Arvidsson or Brendan Gallagher type player. Kahun is a smart two-way player with great speed, puck skills, and playmaking ability; he's not very physical but he can rack up points. He's a safe pick with a high floor and upside for 50 or even 60 points in the right situation, but probably a 40 point player like a playmaking, smaller version of Craig Smith. We were excited to add these two impactful young players with our 3rd round picks."

With pick 101 the Wings were planning on selecting another overaged player but when the pick came around the Wings' 76th ranked player Henry Thrun was available, and the Wings jumped on the opportunity to add a solid defensive prospect to the team after shipping out Ian Mitchell in the deal for Kakko. Thrun is a smart two-way defender that fits the modern game; he skates well, defends well, he's got a good shot, good size, and he can make a pass. He projects as a number 4 defenseman, and heads to Harvard in the fall to begin his NCAA career.

The Wings tried to add another 5th but couldn't convince anyone to part with a pick. With the 131st pick the Wings had an opportunity to trade for recent 3rd round prospect Hugo Alnefelt, but passed up this opportunity to take the player ranked 1 ahead of him on their draft list: overage goalie Samuel Ersson. The Wings need a goalie prospect in the system to replace the graduating Carter Hart, and Ersson fits the bill perfectly. This season the 19 year posted an impressive 0.933 save percent in 33 starts in Sweden's 2nd tier league, where he won rookie of the year, and he started for Sweden at the World Junior Championships. He appears to have NHL starter potential, but he's still a long way off.

With their final pick of the draft, the 133rd pick, the Wings took winger Ethan Keppen. Keppen played on a dismal Flint team in the OHL but managed 30 goals and 59 points, four behind 2018 13th overall pick Ty Dellandrea. Keppen is a scoring winger with great size at 6'2" 212lbs, a great shot, good passing, good hockey sense, and good physical game. He will need to improve his skating to reach his ceiling as a 20+ goal scorer at the NHL level.

In total the Wings added 7 prospects in the draft, 1 G, 2 RW, 2 LW, 1C and 1 D, plus center Gabriel Fortier via trade.

After the draft GM Evans was asked how he thought his organization performed on draft night. "I think we added a potential star in Kakko, some high end skill in Boldy and Bemstrom, a sure thing in Dominik Kahun, and some young guys with raw talent and long road ahead in Ersson, Thrun and Keppen. Adding a player at each position was a happy coincidence. I expect a few players from this draft to make our team as early as 2020-21, and Kahun will play this season, so I gotta say; it was a pretty damn good draft for us."
 

The Wings Top 10 Prospects:
1) Kaapo Kakko, RW- 9.0B+ (very likely elite TWF)
2) Matthew Boldy, LW- 8.5C (potential top line scorer)
3) Emil Bemstrom, RW- 8.0B+ (very likely top 6 scorer)
4) Gabriel Fortier, C/LW- 7.5C+ (safe-ish top 9 TWF)
5) Mattias Samuelsson, D- 7.5C (potential top 4 DFD)
6) Adam Ginning, D- 7.5C- (mildly risky top 4 DFD)
7) David Gustafsson, C/RW- 7.0B (likely middle 6 TWF)
8) Niklas Nordgren, RW- 7.5D (risky top 6 scorer)
9) Henry Thrun, D- 7.5D (risky top 4 TWD)
10) Adam Keppen, LW- 7.5D (risky top 9 scorer)

-Detroit Free Press