The NHL Draft happens tonight at 7PM ET from St. Paul Minnesota. The 
Detroit Red Wings sit at the 24th spot in the first round and have all their picks in tact this year plus one extra that they received from the Flyers during the Ville Leino trade.
Most years the Wings may draft the best available player at their position however this year the Wings may go in with a different approach.
That approach? Replenish their system with good defensive prospects.
“It’s hard to find good defensemen,” Red Wings assistant general manager Jim Nill said. “Numbers-wise in the organization, you’d prefer a defenseman. You can never have enough defensemen. It’s a tough position to play.”
The Wings have a good group of young forwards in their system however when it comes to defense the Wings fall a little short.
According to Ansar Khan of Mlive.com, the defensemen currently in the Wings’ system include, Grand Rapids Griffins Brian Lashoff, Logan Pyett, Travis Ehrhardt, Gleason Fournier and Adam Almqvist as well as collegians Nick Jensen (St. Cloud State), Max Nicastro (Boston University) and Ben Marshall (Minnesota).
In terms of who may be available for the Wings on defense, Khan highlights Connor Murphy (U.S. Under 18), Jamie Oleksiak (Northeastern), Oscar Klefbom (Farjestad, Sweden), Joseph Morrow (Portland, WHL), David Musil (Vancouver, WHL), Jonas Brodin (Farjestad), Stuart Percy (Mississauga, OHL) and Scott Mayfield (Youngstown, USHL).
Now it’s no guarantee that the Wings draft a defenseman with their first pick, however there’s a good chance they use at least a couple of their picks on a defenseman. If they opt to go for a forward with that first pick Khan highlights these players, Tyler Biggs (U.S. Under 18), Rocco Grimaldi (U.S. Under 18), Rickard Rakell (Plymouth, OHL), Brandon Saad (Saginaw, OHL), Nicklas Jensen (Oshawa, OHL), Joel Armia (Assat, Finland), Boone Jenner (Oshawa, OHL) and Jonathan Miller (U.S. Under 18).
The Wings may also opt not to do something they tend to do in every draft, and that’s draft a goaltender.
“It’s not a strong draft for goaltending,” Nill said. “When we start getting into the sixth and seventh rounds, it depends on what’s sitting there. We got three goalies under the age of 23 (Thomas McCollum, Jordan Pearce and Petr Mrazek), so we got good enough depth.”
Khan does mention that the Wings made qualifying offers to restricted free agents to Pearce, Pyett and forward Francis Pare, retaining their rights.
Possible Trades?
Even though the Wings preferably like to make changes to their roster through free agency, the Wings may go a different route this year in tinkering with their roster. After being eliminated in the second round the past two seasons they Wings could look to make trades, something they haven’t done much of the past few years.
Going into this off-season the Wings still have a need on defense (even with the return of Lidstrom) as well as a scoring Winger. Players the Wings may look at moving this off-season are forwards Jiri Hudler and/or Valtteri Filppula.
Source: Mlive.com
