Checking in on the 2017 Red Wings Draft

[Redder Winger]

Are they making progress?
Note - Players are expected to progress.
Tremendous progress - A
Decent Progress - B
Lackluster progress - C
Slight regression - D
Significant regression

These are based on stats and not much else.

Michael Rasmussen - He's definitely improved his assists and points numbers. His goals per game has actually declined a little bit. He's improved, but I'm not sure his numbers have improved as much as you like. Didn't make Team Canada. - B

Gustav Lindstrom - His stats are up signiciantly, especially in goalscoring. Made the WJC team but didn't produce (1 assist in seven games. I still don't see much upside here, but he's shown progress - B+

Kasper Kotkansalo - Hard to judge his stats as he went from the USHL to Boston. DIdn't produce in Sioux Falls and didn't produce in Boston, either. Made the WJC team and produced zero points in five games. - C

Lane Zablocki - Last year: 28G-26-54 with 2 teams. This year.12-18-30 with three teams. He's definitely had a setback. He went from being assistant captain in Red Deer to 5 points in 21 games for Victoria. - F

Zach Gallant - Last year he went 21-26-47 in 60 games. This year through 53 games he's gone 16-15-31. He's wearing the A in Peterborough. Said to be a good player with consistency issues. Obviously, not solved. - F

Keith Petruzelli - He's another kid who has made the jump from the USHL to the NCAA. So stats are hard to compare. Floundered to start the year but he's made his numbers respectable as he backs up a 22 year old, undrafted sophomore. - C

Malte Setkov - The 6'6 Dane has improved his production, going from 2-10-12 in 38 games to 1-5-6 in 13 games. He also played in one SHL game. He's playing in the same league as Lindstrom now and has 2 assists in 24 games. Scored two assists in the WJC. - C

Cole Fraser - The 6'2 defenseman is watching his stats deteriorate for Peterborough. He went 6-13-19 in 61 games last year. This year he's at 2-3-5 in 42 games. - F

John Adams - The 6'5 21 year old (he could be 25 before the Red Wings sign him) tore up the USHL last year, scoring 37 goals out of nowhere (he had 8 the previous year). He's in college now and his numbers are nothing to write home about - 4-9-13 in 27 games. While you can't compare the USHL to the NCAA, it's fair to say that his goal scoring is disappointing. - D

Reilly Webb - The 6'4 defenseman didn't play much for Hamilton last year, scoring 1 assist in 12 games. This year he's played 58 games between Hamilton and Sagniaw and he has 1-1-2. - D-

Brady Gilmour - The undersized center for Saginaw has watched his production fall. Last year he went 26-21-47 in 41 games. THis year he's at 9-16-25 in 41 games. That's a decline. - F

The important picks have showed some progress. Nothing spectacular. But reassuring progress. But so far, nothing from the 3rd round and beyond looks promising. Sure, some of these guys could still hit, but their progress is underwhelming, at best.

Most years, the Red Wings have a few later round picks who are absolutely lighting it up and giving us hope we drafted a steal.

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[Frk It]

Ripped my swag off, huh

 

[Redder Winger]

Ripped my swag off, huh

What's wrong with you?

 

[Frk It]

What's wrong with you?

That was mostly tongue in cheek, just funny to see this thread after I pointed most of this out earlier today.

I was actually going to make a thread looking at Tyler Wright’s entire body of work, still might do that.

 

[Redder Winger]

That was mostly tongue in cheek, just funny to see this thread after I pointed most of this out earlier today.

I was actually going to make a thread looking at Tyler Wright’s entire body of work, still might do that.

Yeah, I saw that post and decided to go through, pick by pick.

He's got some guys with potential beyond round 3 - Pearson, Holway, Saarijarvi, Sambrook, Larsson. But not that much.

If this were 2014, and we looked back on the last year of Nill, things weren't look much better.


Hopefully, these prospects improve next year. Or, hopefully, this was just a fluke.

 

[Frk It]

Yeah, I saw that post and decided to go through, pick by pick.

He's got some guys with potential beyond round 3 - Pearson, Holway, Saarijarvi, Sambrook, Larsson. But not that much.

If this were 2014, and we looked back on the last year of Nill, things weren't look much better.

Good points, and what I said was mostly in jest. Sorry if that got lost in translation.
I like Lindstrom, Kotkansalo, and Petruzelli better than their stats indicate.

The Gallant and Zablocki picks look kinda brutal. Especially the Zablocki pick, his production completely nosedived. And those were 3rd rounders.

I don’t even know what the point of drafting guys like Fraser or Webb is.

Rasmussen was in and out of the lineup for stretches, so it’s hard to know how healthy he was or not.

 

[Hatter of the Beach]

Looking like an absoloutely terrible draft a year later. And I like Rasmussen

 

[Unfriendly Ghost]

Yikes. I knew that some of those guys weren't having good years, but it ended up worse than I thought.

 

[OldnotDeadWings]

Nice job Redder. I agree with most of the grades.

A couple notes:

Petruzelli might be more of a co-starter now than a backup. He started Game 1 last night of Quinnipiac’s best-of-3 playoff series and stopped 21/22 shots.

Gallant IMO is actually a consistent and high-end defensive player, used a lot I think in a shutdown role. The decline in offense is obviously a bad sign but I’d give him a D instead of an F.

Fraser and Gilmour have had injuries. Webb just isn’t good enough but he was a huge hit or miss pick anyway because of previous injuries. I’d be tempted to give Zablocki a D just because changing teams as much as he has can’t be good for you, but he’s mostly sucked so it’s hard to give him the benefit of a doubt.

 

[Unfriendly Ghost]

I wonder what on Earth they were thinking with Reilly Webb. Not only is he not a good NHL prospect, he's not even a good OHL prospect. Across the last 4 years, he's scored 27 points—across all leagues, including some time in Junior B. As far as I can tell, the last time he performed well was in Minor Midget, when he was 15. I hope they didn't draft him just on that, but it sorta looks like they did.

 

[OldnotDeadWings]

The thinking with Webb was that he actually had been a good OHL prospect (2nd Round pick) but injuries put him two years behind his age group. They probably checked out the medical reports and thought it was worth giving him two years to try to catch up before having to make a decision to sign him. Not the worst idea for a pick in the sixth round and I’m sure their expectations for him this year were low, but there are more skillful guys in the OHL who did not even get drafted.

 

[Martinez]

A+ character tho

 

[Pavels Dog]

Lindstrom didn't produce at the WJC? Liljegren, who is generally considered a top ~20 prospect in the world and one of the top D prospects had 1 more point...

Ras is doing fine (a little slower lately but still a good year imo), Lindstrom is doing fine, Kotkansalo is hard to judge but okay I'd say, and Setkov also is progressing nicely for a late rounder. And isn't 0,5PPG solid production for a 6th round drafted NCAA rookie in a d+1 year which is what John Adams is?

Quite a few picks that look bad so far too, but it's also super, super early to judge. Not everyone develops linearly. I'd give pretty much any prospects at least until their d+2 year before making any judgement. 2 bad years in a row after being drafted and they're probably a bust.

 

[Spitfire11]

To be fair, who are the promising prospects from rounds 3-7 last year? No names stand out other than the overage Steenbergen. Looks like a bad draft in general.

 

[RedWingzz]

Yeah, terrible draft. Ras will play in the NHL, Lindstrom should get a shot as well. Petruzelli is a wildcard as is Setkov. Kotkansalo may be a stay at home D with limited offense, but I wouldn't be shocked if he never makes the NHL.

Overall, for the amount of picks we had, we get a D for lat year's draft. Ras is the only guarantee to play in the NHL. They say they are all in for skill this year, I'll believe it when I see it. We do need to gamble on some very skilled guys though, and there are tons of Russians projected to go in the 3rd/4th rounds and later. Just pick supper skilled Russians in the later rounds and hope to hit a home-run.

 

[RedWingzz]

To be fair, who are the promising prospects from rounds 3-7 last year? No names stand out other than the overage Steenbergen. Looks like a bad draft in general.

Just by doing a quick glance: Zetterlund, Geekie, Mattheos, Lipanov, Lodnia, Matt Strome, Safin, Batherson, Rymsha. I probably missed a few others. I am biased towards the CHL though, as I don't pay much attention to NCAA and European junior leagues.

THN future watch magazine, all about the prospects comes out soon, so that's where I do a bunch of my research on prospects. You do have a valid point though, doesn't look like there is a lot of talent in the later rounds.

 

[Frk It]

To be fair, who are the promising prospects from rounds 3-7 last year? No names stand out other than the overage Steenbergen. Looks like a bad draft in general.

Stelio Mattheos, Adam Ruzicka, Drake Batherson, Jack Dugan, Reilly Walsh

Round 2 guys that look good: Aleksi Heponiemi, Dylan Samberg, Ian Mitchell

 

[Frk It]

Lindstrom didn't produce at the WJC? Liljegren, who is generally considered a top ~20 prospect in the world and one of the top D prospects had 1 more point...

Ras is doing fine (a little slower lately but still a good year imo), Lindstrom is doing fine, Kotkansalo is hard to judge but okay I'd say, and Setkov also is progressing nicely for a late rounder. And isn't 0,5PPG solid production for a 6th round drafted NCAA rookie in a d+1 year which is what John Adams is?

Quite a few picks that look bad so far too, but it's also super, super early to judge. Not everyone develops linearly. I'd give pretty much any prospects at least until their d+2 year before making any judgement. 2 bad years in a row after being drafted and they're probably a bust.

Regarding Adams... it would be good if he was 18/19 and not 21. He’s actually older than Pearson.

 

[Pavels Dog]

Regarding Adams... it would be good if he was 18/19 and not 21. He’s actually older than Pearson.

Sure but it’s not like he’s a 21 year old coming from years in the NCAA. Seems like a decent gamble on a late bloomer.

 

[Frk It]

Sure but it’s not like he’s a 21 year old coming from years in the NCAA. Seems like a decent gamble on a late bloomer.

Yeah, that pick made more sense to me than some of the others. Maybe he has big seasons at 22/23 like David Pope.

 

[Redder Winger]

Sure but it’s not like he’s a 21 year old coming from years in the NCAA. Seems like a decent gamble on a late bloomer.

Sure, seems like a decent gamble. But so far it's not paying off. It's not like Adams is 18.
Makes you wonder how much of his 37 goals was just being 20 and 6'5 in a kids league.
Because he'd never done it before.

 

[lilidk]

we need new scouts

 

[Pavels Dog]

Sure, seems like a decent gamble. But so far it's not paying off. It's not like Adams is 18.
Makes you wonder how much of his 37 goals was just being 20 and 6'5 in a kids league.
Because he'd never done it before.

0,5PPG in the NCAA still isn’t bad enough to be that down on him imo. Can’t only look at age, some guys simply develop later. Don’t know what size he was as a 19-20 year old but I doubt he was so small that size is the only explanation for a massive increase in production.

I bet you would have given Franzen an F in his d+1.

 

[Dotter]

I can't grade players I don't get to watch. Stat watching doesn't tell the story.

 

[Bench]

Ripped my swag off, huh