Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman appeared on this morning’s Jamie and Stoney Show on 97.1 the Ticket (audio will be coming along shortly), and Yzerman discussed the team’s decision to draft defenseman Moritz Seider 6th overall:
Most projections had the 6’4 defenseman from Germany going somewhere in the middle of the first round. But Steve Yzerman and the Red Wings had him ranked higher, and they knew Seider would be off the board if they waited until their second pick. So in his first major decision as Detroit’s general manager, Yzerman trusted his instincts.
“I don’t pay attention to the mock drafts at all. We can’t. We have to do our jobs and hopefully do them well and kind of tune out the noise, so to speak,” Yzerman told the Jamie and Stoney Show on 97.1 The Ticket. “But we had him right at six on our draft list. I wasn’t sure where he was going to go. I know there was a lot of interest in him from a lot of teams.
“I actually looked at the options of trading back and trying to get an extra pick and keeping my fingers crossed that he would be there, or we had a plan B in the event that he wasn’t. Trading back didn’t prove to be an option, so we were comfortable selecting him at that spot. I know he was surprised. But we felt he was going to go if not to us, potentially Buffalo who was picking right after us, and by probably the 12th or 13th pick he would be gone.”
Interesting that he said they had him at 6th on their list. That means they would have taken Dach, Turcotte or Byram if they had slid to 6.