On Thursday afternoon, Inside the Rink’s Andrew Walsh discussed the Red Wings’ prospect pool as its rise will (hopefully) mirror its franchise’s slow but steady ascent:
The Detroit Red Wings drafted forward Michael Brandsegg-Nygård with the fifteenth overall pick in the first round of the 2024 NHL entry draft. The Oslo, Norway native has signed his entry-level contract with the Red Wings. MBN is the best wing prospect currently in the Red Wings’ prospect pool. I recently wrote that Brandsegg-Nygård was the latest in a long line of draft picks made by Red Wings’ general manager, Steve Yzerman, who all fit the same mold.
The Red Wings are widely regarded as having one of the best prospect systems currently in the NHL. The fact that the team has not made the Stanley Cup playoffs since the 2016-17 season is one of the main reasons for this. Drafting higher up in the draft allows teams to conceivably draft better players. However, this does not guarantee that the players that the team drafts will eventually make it to the NHL.
This ranking does not consider players that have made the Red Wings’ roster. Defenseman Simon Edvinsson is one example of this. After being drafted by the Red Wings with the sixth overall pick in the 2021 NHL draft, Edvinsson spent two seasons going back and forth from the Grand Rapids Griffins to the Red Wings. During the 2023-24 season, Edvinsson seems to have found his place on the Red Wings’ roster permanently. In 16 games played for the Red Wings Edvinsson was consistently deployed in high leverage situations on the Red Wings blueline.
Just because your team is making high draft picks doesn’t mean that you’re going to witness all of those players succeed in making the NHL, and that’s why I believe that the Red Wings’ scouts have chosen to draft a certain “type” of strong two-way center, power winger, or skating defenseman with their first-round picks.
Out of Lucas Raymond, Simon Edvinsson, Marco Kasper, Nate Danielson, Axel Sandin Pellikka and Michael Brandsegg-Nygard, you’re not going to see seven superstars, but you may see the foundation for the Red Wings franchise captained by 27-year-old Dylan Larkin into his 30’s. That’s the idea here.
