2021 Draft Part 1: Acquire All the Picks!

The 2021 NHL Draft was always going to be an interesting one for the Red Wings organization. After the lottery the Red Wings held picks 8 and 13 in the first round, a pair of 3^rd rounders, and quite a few later round picks. With this haul of draft picks, GM Evans his scouting staff were expecting to land a couple impact players and a few interesting projects, but what transpired was even more impressive. The Red Wings were able to acquire 20 prospects throughout the draft, 2 via trades and 18 through draft picks. This was a franchise altering draft without a doubt, injecting an impressive amount of prospect talent into the already loaded Detroit Red Wings franchise.

 The first big move post lotto might end up being the most impactful for 21-22: the team acquired Jordan Binnington and re-acquired Chris Kreider in a deal with the Sabres that saw DET 22 2^nd, VAN 22 3^rd, Petr Mrazek, and prospects Thrun, Coe, and Pajuniemi headed back the other way.

GM Evans: “I think Binnington is the type of starting goalie our team needs to contend for a championship. He and Carter Hart should form a competitive duo for the next few years. I like Petr but he wasn’t going to be able to fill that #1 role we needed this season. It’s great to have Chris back in the mix as well, after we sent him to Florida in the recent Evander Kane deal. We moved 3 prospects and two good picks in this deal, so we turned some quantity into quality here.”

Next up Lias Andersson, another former Red Wing, was acquired from the Devils for Noah Gregor and prospects Nikolai Kovalenko and Sam Hentges. Lias is expected to fill a bottom 6 role and makes only 700k.

Brock Nelson was the Red Wings’ big trade deadline acquisition this year. He was acquired for then-starter Robin Lehner but failed to make the expected impact. In the playoffs he put up a dismal 0 points and a -6 rating. Given that stinker of a playoff performance and his pending UFA status in ‘22, it was no surprise to see him moved. Nelson was sent to the divisional rival Maple Leafs for prospects Rem Pitlick and Josh Brook plus a 22 2^nd round pick, two 21 4^th rounder picks, and a 22 4^th round pick. A pretty good haul of trade chips and extra ammo for the draft.

When draft night rolled around GM Evans was in a trading mood to say the least! He would go on to acquire 3 1^st round picks in the draft and a complete a number of additional draft day deals. The day kicked off with a small bang: a 22 4^th round pick and young defenseman Teemu Kivihalme were shipped off to LA for a pair of 21 5^th round picks. This was followed up with a swap of a 22 4^th round pick for a 21 4^th round pick with Arizona. This pair of deals netted the Wings 3 more picks in the upcoming draft.

This trend of acquiring picks continued, and next up were a trio of deals that saw the Red Wings net a 1^st round pick in each. The first big draft day deal leading up to the draft was another swap with Arizona: 28 overall and FLA 22 4^th round pick were acquired for prospects Emil Heineman, Thimo Nickl and recently acquired Josh Brook.

In the second big draft day deal Teuvo Teravainen and future considerations (rumoured to be a 2023 3^rd) were shipped off to Boston for 23 overall and prospect Tyson Foerster.

The last draft day blockbuster saw, for a 3^rd time in a month, the Red Wings send a good roster player to a divisional rival. Hampus Lindholm was sent back to the Lightning along with Patrick Marleau for 29 overall, 21 WAS 4^th, 21 TBL 5^th, and prospect Lucas Feuk.

GM Evans: “These three deals were all big for our franchise. We acquired 23, 28, and 29 in the draft along with a prospect and a trio of late picks and a 2020 1^st rounder in Tyson Foerster who had success in the AHL this season. Foerster looks like a potential top 6er to our scouts.”

Then, the Wings swapped 6^th rounders with Montreal to add another 2021 pick at the cost of a 2022 one.

In his last last pre-draft moves, GM Evans added a pair of 2^nd round picks in 2021 by first flipping the recently acquired 22 COL 2^nd along with 22 DET 5^th to Vancouver for 50 overall, and then flipping 75, 128, 149 and 184 to Ottawa in exchange for 41 overall.

At this point the Wings front office were frantically going over their draft lists and preparing for the upcoming 1^st round in which the team now held a ridiculous five 1^st round picks. The team held an absurd number of later picks as well, including 41, 50, 90, 95, 96, 107, 110, 111, 117, 124, 143, 152, 153, 160, 165, and 173 overall. These 16 late picks plus 5 firsts gave GM Evans a huge amount of flexibility and an opportunity to rebuild the prospect pool in one swoop.

In part 2 of this series, we will break down the actual draft selections and last few deals on draft night and the following few days of later round picks.

-Detroit Free Press