Red Wings director of amateur scouting Kris Draper spoke with 97.1 the Ticket’s Stoney in the Morning show today, and 97.1’s Will Burchfield noted that Draper’s pretty impressed by the Wings’ two-sport star:
“I would probably say the one intriguing name for me is Sam Stange,” Draper told 97.1 The Ticket on Thursday. “This kid is a phenomenal athlete.”
No kidding. Before he was a fourth-round pick of the Wings, Stange was a two-time Player of the Year in Wisconsin — not in different years, but in different sports. He won the award in hockey after putting up 67 points in 31 games as a senior, then won it that spring in baseball.
He capped off his career on the diamond by hitting the go-ahead homer that lifted Eau Claire North to the state title.
“I saw one of the home runs he hit,” said Draper, “and that thing was gone. He’s a phenomenal athlete, and you love drafting athletes. There were some people who said that if he chose, he could have been drafted in baseball as well. So that’s something that’s obviously pretty exciting.”
Despite pressure to ditch high school hockey for juniors, Stange followed the more traditional path to college — with a stop in-between in the USHL, where last season he put up 45 points in 49 games. Now he’s beginning his freshman season at Wisconsin under head coach Tony Granato.
Update: Here’s Stange on Zoom, from the Red Wings:
