Wings Select D William Wallinder at 32nd OVR

[ShanahanMan]

Big Rig before his hips went out was a useful NHL player at least. Wallinder hopefully will be better than him but any NHLer to emerge out of the 2nd round or later is a huge win, regardless of their ultimate role in the show.

Meh, late 2nd round I’d agree but first pick in the second round is basically a fringe 1st rounder (and as of next season will actually be a 1st rounder). I would hope they are at least NHL caliber.

 

[newfy]

Big Rig before his hips went out was a useful NHL player at least. Wallinder hopefully will be better than him but any NHLer to emerge out of the 2nd round or later is a huge win, regardless of their ultimate role in the show.

Ericsson before injuries was playing on the top pair of a pretty solid hockey team. I dont think he was a legit top pairing guy but he was deifnitely a top four dman that logged a lot of PK mins. Hes kinda like cleary where people shit on him because of what he became, not what he was at his best. Ericsson played some good hockey before injuries

 

[Mrpm]

In an interview with Hockeysverige.se today Håkan Andersson says they were really surprised he fell to the 2nd round, as they had him going in the first. He continues saying that if they had a pick somewhere around 20-31 he would've pursued Wallinder there too.

As a long time Modo fan i've been following Wallinder since he was around 15 and his development last year was crazy. He's still extremely raw though, and got some flaws in his own zone. But i think much of that will be sorted out when he gains some muscles. The sky is the limit with this kid as long as you have patience.

 

[Henkka]

Ericsson before injuries was playing on the top pair of a pretty solid hockey team. I dont think he was a legit top pairing guy but he was deifnitely a top four dman that logged a lot of PK mins. Hes kinda like cleary where people shit on him because of what he became, not what he was at his best. Ericsson played some good hockey before injuries

5 good years. From 2008-09 to 2012-13.

At 2014 Sochi olympics that movement was already gone. Something was there, and later it was told the hip is bothering him.

 

[warrenborner]

Ericsson was pretty good for a a decent stretch of time; especially for someone picked 291st overall.

 

[OgeeOgelthorpe]

Kindl was scared to touch people, much like Marchenko and Cholo. This kid does not have that problem. Not overly physical, but he will check.

Edit: It;s the pick I wanted

Kindl's problems were more than just a lack of physicality. The mental aspects of the game eluded him.

And I think i like that Wallinder could bust like Brendan Smith more than Kindl. They have overall very similar toolsets. Wallinder is a much better skater, though.

I think as long as we don't rehire Babcock to try and pound a round peg like wallinder into a square hole he'll be ok. I think he'll be a player just based on his skating alone. Wallinder's skating was easily top 10 in the draft.

Johansson/Seider
Wallinder/Hronek

That is a pretty mobile top 4, fellas.

 

[TCNorthstars]

Kindl's problems were more than just a lack of physicality. The mental aspects of the game eluded him.

And I think i like that Wallinder could bust like Brendan Smith more than Kindl. They have overall very similar toolsets. Wallinder is a much better skater, though.

I think as long as we don't rehire Babcock to try and pound a round peg like wallinder into a square hole he'll be ok. I think he'll be a player just based on his skating alone. Wallinder's skating was easily top 10 in the draft.

Johansson/Seider
Wallinder/Hronek

That is a pretty mobile top 4, fellas.

You can dog on Smith but you can’t call him a bust. He is closing in on 500 career games.

 

[lilidk]

Don't like this pick and didn't like our second pick from last year. Hope I am wrong

 

[Tetsuo]

You can dog on Smith but you can’t call him a bust. He is closing in on 500 career games.

Yup. Far, far from a bust. No one plays several hundred games in the NHL and is a bust. Could they have failed to live up to expectations? Sure, but that is an entirely different thing. Hell, anyone who sees the ice from the 2nd round or later is a successful pick.

 

[Kronwalled55]

I ****ing love this pick. The defense is the one part of this team that I feel like Steve is strategically putting together. If the projections check out, Seider and Wallinder would be quite a complimentary pairing.

 

[Dotter]

In an interview with Hockeysverige.se today Håkan Andersson says they were really surprised he fell to the 2nd round, as they had him going in the first. He continues saying that if they had a pick somewhere around 20-31 he would've pursued Wallinder there too.

As a long time Modo fan i've been following Wallinder since he was around 15 and his development last year was crazy. He's still extremely raw though, and got some flaws in his own zone. But i think much of that will be sorted out when he gains some muscles. The sky is the limit with this kid as long as you have patience.

That totally contradicts what Yzerman just said yesterday during the live stream. He said everyone went where they projected other than a few players they really wanted got snagged up just before their selection. He said they lost out on some players they really wanted.

But he said, in no uncertain terms, nobody fell. Maybe he and Hakan have different lists/opinions?

 

[NickH8]

I said can skate

 

[Gniwder]

Yup. Far, far from a bust. No one plays several hundred games in the NHL and is a bust. Could they have failed to live up to expectations? Sure, but that is an entirely different thing. Hell, anyone who sees the ice from the 2nd round or later is a successful pick.

He was late 1st, 27th OA.

2007 wasn't a good draft though, the next 15 layers picked after Smith and 8 of them before him didn't wind up being full time players. The next player picked to have an NHL career was PK Subban at #43.

So we could have done much worse than Smith.

 

[The Zetterberg Era]

I said can skate

Skated in the 6th most games by a Detroit Red Wings d-man in the history of the franchise. He could skate for a while there.

Broken/injured Ericsson that everyone talks about a ton isn't really the guy we are talking about here. I don't think Ericsson is a good comparison. Wallinder's skating is pretty high end, to me a better comparison recently would be K'Andre Miller.

 

[Tetsuo]

He was late 1st, 27th OA.

2007 wasn't a good draft though, the next 15 layers picked after Smith and 8 of them before him didn't wind up being full time players. The next player picked to have an NHL career was PK Subban at #43.

So we could have done much worse than Smith.

Wasn't disputing that, just the notion that he was a bust. Smith playing in nearly 500 games is a success, albeit not the level he was projected at by us back when Lidstrom was still playing. He's one of the biggest victim's of Red Wings poor defensive development, if only because he could have been so much more.

 

[Retire91]

that is pretty cool to hear that we would have considereed him in the 20's that means in a manor of looking at things we got two first round picks based on our own rankings.

 

[Gniwder]

Wasn't disputing that, just the notion that he was a bust. Smith playing in nearly 500 games is a success, albeit not the level he was projected at by us back when Lidstrom was still playing. He's one of the biggest victim's of Red Wings poor defensive development, if only because he could have been so much more.

He's not a victim of anything besides his own lack of intelligence. Smith did some of the dumbest things I can ever remember seeing a hockey player do, including taking a bench penalty for hitting a puck with his hand from the bench.

 

[ArmChairGM89]

That totally contradicts what Yzerman just said yesterday during the live stream. He said everyone went where they projected other than a few players they really wanted got snagged up just before their selection. He said they lost out on some players they really wanted.

But he said, in no uncertain terms, nobody fell. Maybe he and Hakan have different lists/opinions?

I’m convinced Yzerman speaks words that mean literally nothing to him but sound like they fit.

 

[Tetsuo]

He's not a victim of anything besides his own lack of intelligence. Smith did some of the dumbest things I can ever remember seeing a hockey player do, including taking a bench penalty for hitting a puck with his hand from the bench.

A lot of that is coaching. There's a lot of great players across sports who were complete basket cases, both while playing and away from their game. A good coach, at the right time, can make a huge difference in their ultimate performance. It's well known that Babcock is a douche of epic proportions, I'm not surprised that he never got through to someone like Smith. On top of that, our defensive development was notoriously awful for years. We produced no high end to borderline elite defensemen from 2000 (Kronwall) to 2016 (Hronek). That is a pretty glaring indictment of our ability to develop talent on the back end during that time period. This doesn't absolve Smith of not meeting his potential, there certainly was work to be done, but I don't think blaming a player is entirely correct either.

 

[Dotter]

I’m convinced Yzerman speaks words that mean literally nothing to him but sound like they fit.

Yzerman is a straight shooter/no BSer straight to the point kinda guy.

 

[ArmChairGM89]

Yzerman is a straight shooter/no BSer straight to the point kinda guy.

Lmao

 

[mikerooooose]

His skating is unreal. He looks like a dragonfly out there how he can move in almost any direction while maintaining a good speed. Once he gets stronger he's going to be really hard to beat 1 on 1 with his size/reach and skating ability.

 

[Filppula]

I feel like I should be more excited about this guy than I am. The combination of size and skating is excellent but defenceman with those tools don’t slide to where he did without major question marks imo. Hope he develops well.

 

[FabricDetails]

I’m convinced Yzerman speaks words that mean literally nothing to him but sound like they fit.

I don't know if people really understand that's part of the job. This belief that "He doesn't BS people" is naive. You want your GM to be among the best at that and to tell the media nothing beyond what you want them to know.

(I'm agreeing with you, in case that's not clear)

 

[Christien]

Check out around 12:30 in this video: