Who Are the Best Draft Picks in Red Wings History?

Over the last week, my colleague Connor Earegood has been compiling a "Best of" Detroit Red Wings' draft history, going round-by-round through the best picks in franchise history from marquee first-rounders like Steve Yzerman through seventh round steals like Henrik Zetterberg.

Nov 25, 2002; Detroit, MI, USA; FILE PHOTO; Detroit Red Wings center Pavel Datsyuk (13) in action against Edmonton Oilers right wing Mike York (16) at Joe Louis Arena © Lou Capozzola-USA TODAY Sports

Here's the criteria that Connor used to evaluate the picks:

For the next six days, THN Detroit will release its All-Draft team for each round of the draft. The best Red Wing drafted at each position will be selected based on a variety of criteria including career accomplishments, point totals and comparisons against peers.

Some ground rules: First, each pick accounts for the quality of the player in their overall career, not just with the Red Wings. Inefficient roster management doesn’t mean a draft selection wasn’t wise.

Second, even though the rounds corresponding to each draft selection have changed with NHL expansion, these selections are still based on the round when the player was picked. More teams picking today means later round picks draw from a smaller talent pool, but retroactively assigning rounds to dozens of players changes history so much so as to lose its meaning. Different draft philosophies and risk assessments are at play with later round picks, and many of those early late round picks were less scouted than they are today with more robust scouting systems in the present. There’s too much nuance involved to contextualize every single draft pick, so for now we’ll stick with the actual draft round.

We discussed the first few rounds on the latest episode of The Silky Mitten State, with Connor explaining some of the highlights and surprises, which led him to the wonderful declaration that "diplomacy is a strength of the Detroit Red Wings" in reference to the savvy maneuvering around fraught geopolitical circumstances that brought the Russian Five to Hockeytown.

For a sample of our conversation, check out the clip featured above.  For the full episode, visit either Spotify or Apple Podcasts:

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The Best Red Wings Picks in Each Round of the NHL Draft: Fifth RoundDubois & Markstrom, Cup Final Tightens, and Best of the Best of Drafts: The Silky Mitten State Episode 31