I voted bust because of the philosophy that the team took in this draft, but it is still too early to tell. While I don't believe it likely, it is still possible someone like Ras evolves into a top player and Lindstrom becomes a top 4 D. If those 2 things occur, then you could at least squint and see it being average or above average depending on their impact. Given that the other 5 CHLer drafted players are unlikely to receive contracts, the draft is definitely not trending in the right direction but I'm holding out hope that the others can develop into role players.
Here are some quotes from Wright after the draft:
Tyler Wright said:
"We put an emphasis on size, defense," Tyler Wright, the Red Wings director of amateur scouting, said. "I thought we filled a lot of holes."
"We wanted to get bigger and still kind of keep the identity of what we're known for and that's skill and sense," Wright said in a phone interview with MLive. "We wanted to become a harder team to play against."
"The need to improve their skating was a common theme for many of these selections."
"I believe that skating can improve and you can get faster," Wright said. "But you have to have the heart. The people that have that commitment to put that time and effort in, they're the ones that get better."
https://www.mlive.com/redwings/index.ssf/2017/06/nhl_draft_17_detroit_red_wings_1.html
Tyler Wright said:
"I'm actually thinking about what we have to draft next year. We're going to get a little bit more of an emphasis on higher-end skill, maybe get a little bit riskier in the forward position," Wright said. "We wanted to address it. We addressed defense this year because we deemed as a staff to be a fairly deep defense draft.
"Next year we got to add some skill set guys that are going to be able to work the half-wall on the power play, guys that are going to be the pure goal scorers. When you take a little bit more of a calculated risk, you got to give something up sometimes.
Tyler Wright on creating a Red Wings culture
The biggest issue I have with this draft is the team focused on skill sets that you can find in FA every year for peanuts and wasted valuable picks in our rebuild on guys that have limited value in today's NHL. They decided to go after guys that are big, have gumption, and are hard to play against instead of trying to draft the BPA or the player that has the most upside. He even came out said that they'll focus on getting those skilled guys next year as if there's some limit to the number of skilled guys a team can have.
Even though there has been limited research completed on the topic to be a scorer at the NHL level you need to
have scored at previous levels. In the event you draft someone with an offensive profile they can always learn to defend at the pro level should their offense not develop. The Wings have had a multitude of high scoring Jr. players make that transition: Draper, Maltby, Cleary, Lapointe, and Helm were good Jr. players that had to develop defensive games to stay in the NHL. When an offensive player has other attributes that provide value they can reshape their game should the offence not develop at the pro level.
I guess how you view the draft may change depending on what you consider a good draft to be. Is it getting 3 or 4 NHLers, though they're all playing in lower line roles, or is getting a good top 6 forward with a lower line player too. I'm of the opinion a team should target players that have the skills that are hard to find and more expensive to attain. In my opinion, there should be a clear focus on highly skilled players/High IQ, whatever one determines that is, as that is where the premium is paid in both trades and FA. Should you hit on one of your picks you'll be creating massive amounts of excess value while that player is in his RFA years.