With the 2011 draft now in the books for the Wings, lets see how they fared with a number of draft picks at their disposal.

First it seems like who ever they wanted with the 24th pick was gone by the time they were originally scheduled to draft in the first round. A lot of experts believe the Wings may have been targeting either Oscar Klefbom who ended up going to Edmonton or Tyler Biggs who ended up going to Toronto at 22. It’s my belief though the player they wanted was Joseph Morrow who went to the Pittsburgh Penguins at 23 right before they were scheduled to pick in the first round.

Even with trading down to the 35th overall pick, the Wings still were able to get first round talent in RW Tomas Jurco who could potentially be the next Pavel Datsyuk for the Wings. The Wings were also able to get some very serviceable defenseman in Xavier Ouellet and Ryan Sproul all in the second round.

 

 

Rnd

 Pick Overall Team Player Pos Country Ht Wt Amateur League Amateur Team
2 5 35 DET TOMAS JURCO RW SVK 6′ 1″ 191 QMJHL SAINT JOHN
2 18 48 DET XAVIER OUELLET D FRA 6′ 0″ 179 QMJHL MONTREAL
2 25 55 DET RYAN SPROUL D CAN 6′ 3″ 185 OHL SAULT STE. MARIE
3 24 85 DET ALAN QUINE C CAN 5′ 11″ 184 OHL PETERBOROUGH
4 24 115 DET MAREK TVRDON RW SVK 6′ 2″ 210 WHL VANCOUVER
5 24 145 DET PHILIPPE HUDON C/RW CAN 6′ 0″ 197 HIGH-CT CHOATE-ROSEMARY
5 25 146 DET MATTIAS BACKMAN D SWE 6′ 2″ 169 SWE-JR. LINKOPING JR.
6 24 175 DET RICHARD NEDOMLEL D CZE 6′ 4″ 204 WHL SWIFT CURRENT
7 24 205 DET ALEXEI MARCHENKO D RUS 6′ 2″ 183 RUSSIA CSKA

The Wings went into this draft with a definite game plan which was to stock their system with good young defensive prospects. I thought they were very successful at doing this especially with the picks of Ouellet and Sproule who have good offensive upside as defensemen which should fit into the Wings’ system nicely. I also like the selection of C/RW Philippe Hudon in the 5th round who can hit with the best of them and I don’t think there is any denying the skill set of Tomas Jurco.

Overall Grade: A

Source: ESPN.com, TSN.ca, NHL.com

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