If you hadn’t heard, the Edmonton Oilers replaced Tyler Wright as their director of amateur scouting this past week, bringing in Avs head scout Rick Pracey as their new director of amateur scouting.
Wright was replaced by Kris Draper after Steve Yzerman’s first draft with the Red Wings, and, as Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen discusses today (in a subscriber-only article), the final years of GM Ken Holland’s administration included more than a few whiffs at the draft table:
A review of the last five seasons of Ken Holland regime drafts shows Detroit made 46 draft picks and managed to find 11 players who have logged 67 or more NHL games.
Joe Veleno (2018), Jonathan Berggren (2018), Michael Rasmussen (2017) and Dylan Larkin (2014) are the only four players drafted by the Red Wings from 2014-2018 that are still on the roster.
The 11-for-46 success rate for draft picks during that period represents a .239 batting average for hitting on a draft pick. If you lower the success standard to any draftee who played at least one game, the Red Wings improve to 12-for-46 for 2014-2018 drafts. (Chase Pearson played three NHL games). That’s a 26% success rate.
The league success rate for that period is roughly 45 percent (with success defined as a draftee playing only one NHL game). The Red Wings were well below the league average.
Continued (paywall); for better or worse, Yzerman came to Detroit with all but an empty cupboard in terms of the prospect department, and his administration, under Kris Draper’s leadership, has built up a very solid stable of prospect players.
It is, of course, the job of both those players, and the Wings’ player development staff, to ensure that Draper’s faith in those players is proved correct.
