The Windsor Star’s Jim Parker spoke with Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman and director of amateur scouting Tyler Wright regarding the team’s 11 2019 draft picks. Wright told Parker that the Wings didn’t go into the draft emphasizing defensive additions, but that’s how things played out:
“As a staff, I thought we identified this as being a pretty deep draft defensively,” Red Wings director of amateur scouting Tyler Wright said. “I don’t think we’re quite in a position where we have to start really picking by position. It just happened to be that defence were kind of heavy in this draft.”
In the second round, the Red Wings added six-foot-four, 193-pound Finnish defenceman Antti Tuomisto.
“This is a guy that’s six-foot-(four) with real bite to his game,” Wright said. “We were ecstatic to leave with him.”
With the team’s third pick in the second round, Detroit added Swedish defenceman Albert Johansson, American defenceman Cooper Moore was taken in the fourth round and defenceman Gustav Berglund in the sixth round.
“At the end of the day, we just needed good players,” Wright said. “It just kind of happened it was defence (heavy).”
Parker continues. I understand the Wings scouting staff’s reticence to suggest that they picked a particular position and bolstered it, but that’s how it played out.
Yup, that’s ‘how it played out’ and that was good.
But why would Wright refute the obvious? Given who they selected at #6 relative to who they passed over (i.e., Zegras plus some other forwards) refutes Wright’s statement, at least per my thinking.
Oh well, I guess my question is rhetorical given the revised approach seemed necessary, at least for this year (and probably the next one or two).