The Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan filed a late-night article which discusses the Red Wings’ drafting of Carter Bear with the 13th overall pick in the 2025 NHL Draft, and he offers perspectives on Bear from both GM Steve Yzerman and assistant GM/director of amateur scouting Kris Draper:
“We had a couple of teams call us as our pick was coming near, to see if we would move back,” Yzerman said. “As long as Carter was on the board, we stayed there. There were a couple other players as well that we would have been comfortable in selecting. (Wings fans) are getting a very intelligent player, extremely competitive, he can really score at the junior level, and we think all of his game translates to the NHL.”
Bear scored 40 goals before suffering an Achilles injury in March that ended his season. Bear is expected to be ready for training camp.
“We were aware of that, examined it fully and we expect it to heal,” Yzerman said. “He didn’t tear it but had a cut with a skate and partial tear that our doctors feel will heal 100 percent. It wasn’t a concern for us at all.”
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Draper was impressed with Bear’s tenacity, competitiveness and offensive skills while scouting Bear’s Everett team in the WHL. Draper was thrilled Bear was available when the Wings picked 13th.
“Very skilled, very tenacious, we like the way he thinks the game,” Draper said. “He’s a player that played in all situations. He can play up and down the lineup. He’s the type of player when you go watch him play, you walk out of the rink and really appreciate the effort he gave. We added a real big piece to our prospect pool.”
Draper also told Kulfan that the 2nd through 7th rounds, in which the Red Wings have 8 picks later today during the second day of the 2025 NHL Draft (12 PM EDT start on the NHL Network and Sportsnet), should provide some value:
“There’s some good hockey players that’ll come out of this draft,” Draper said. “You saw a lot of forwards, a lot of centermen who got drafted early. This is a really good group. There are some names, certainly in our second-round pick (Saturday), we’re excited to have an opportunity to draft them but like tonight, we have to wait. We go down our list and make our decision from there. It’s wait and see.”
For better or worse, the Red Wings are doggedly faithful to their list of players to target, so we’ll see some “off the board” picks for sure on Saturday afternoon, but that’s to be expected.
Also: the Wings posted a late-night montage of Bear’s better goals from the 2024-2025 season, in which he played for the WHL’s Everett Silvertips:
Round 1. ✔️ pic.twitter.com/0FgkfND6BN
— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) June 28, 2025
