Here’s why I gave the Detroit Red Wings this grade for their 2021 draft haul

Detroit Free Press

The highlights from the Detroit Red Wings’ 2021 draft: Having a kid from Detroit tee up the first pick, making the best of the first pick after the top-rated centers were off the board and, finally, adding a potential franchise goaltender to the farm system.

Whether any of the eight prospects the Wings selected over the weekend will have an impact on the rebuild won’t be known for years.  However, in the immediate aftermath of the draft, general manager Steve Yzerman and his hockey operations staff deserve an A for how they used the picks.

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The best moment of the first round for the Wings came when the TV feed cut to Little Caesars Arena, where Yzerman stood next to Harold Washington, Jr., a 10-year-old from Detroit who had won the draw to announce the No. 6 pick. Yzerman gave Washington a gentle cue, whispering “Harold,” and Washington smiled and leaned into the microphone. “With the sixth pick in the 2021 NHL draft, the Detroit Red Wings are proud to select.” Yzerman then announced the name, Simon Edvinsson, and Washington followed up with a joyous, “Go, Red Wings!” How could anyone not like the pick after that setup?

By the time the Wings were on the board, centers Matty Beniers, Mason McTavish and Kent Johnson had been drafted. At that point, Edvinsson was the best prospect available that fit the Wings’ needs: A 6-foot-4 (and a half, according to director of amateur scouting Kris Draper) left-shot defenseman whose assets include skating, being good at both ends of the ice, and physicality.

The boldest moment of the first round came when Yzerman packaged the Nos. 23, 48 and 138 picks to move up to No. 15, where he selected goaltender Sebastian Cossa. Jesper Wallstedt was projected to be the first goalie taken, but Cossa’s performance (17-1-1 with a .57 GAA and .941 save percentage in 19 games with the Edmonton Oil Kings in the Western Hockey League), size (6-6, 210 pounds) and demeanor (calm, confident, determined) persuaded the Wings he was the best choice.

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“It’s imperative to have a good defense to win championships,” Yzerman said. “You’re not winning without a good goalie, you’re not winning without a good ‘D’ corps. Once you are a solid defensive hockey team, you’re going to be competitive and you can win a lot of nights. Over time, we’ll be able to add to the offense.”

Adding skilled defensemen such as Edvinsson and Shai Buium, the No. 36 pick, is adding to the offense. Defenseman Moritz Seider, Yzerman’s pick at No. 6 in 2019, recorded 28 points in 41 games in Sweden last season and 22 points in 49 games in the AHL in 2019-20. When a team has a defenseman who can handle the puck, get a shot through from the blue line and make good passes, that creates more scoring opportunities for his teammates.

More: How Shai Buium, son of Israeli immigrants, became Detroit Red Wings’ draft pick

Yzerman did draft four forwards: Carter Mazur at No. 70, Red Savage at No. 114, Liam Dower Nilsson at No. 134, and Pasquale Zito at No. 166. Squeezed in among those picks was a right-shot defenseman, Oscar Plandowski, at No. 155.

My sleeper pick in the Wings’ haul is Nilsson; a 6-foot center who has reluctantly played wing and worked on his defense after a national team coach brought it up. Nilsson has a particular set of skills, but he is adding to them.

“It started last year when I was moved from center to the wing with the national team, U17,” Nilsson said. “I was told I had to be more defensive as a center, be stronger in the defensive zone. So I worked really hard with my coach in Frölunda and also my teammates.

“I’ve got the mindset that no coach should tell me after this year that I am not good enough defensively to be a center. I kept working and it worked. I got the results.”

It speaks volumes that Nilsson was the choice of the Wings’ top European scout, Swede Hakan Andersson.

“That was a name Hakan was pounding the table for,” Draper said. “He was another captain of a national team, wore the ‘C’ in Texas for the U18s.

“As we interview a lot of Swedish prospects, we always talk to the prospects on your team at the U18s. Who would you want to take to the NHL to be a teammate? The majority of players on that team said Liam Dower Nilsson. That’s something that stuck out with us.”

At one point, Yzerman had 12 picks in the draft. It’s an obvious advantage, like buying tickets for the lottery. The Wings have an incredible history of finding gems in later rounds: Nicklas Lidstrom (third, 1989), Sergei Fedorov (fourth, 1989), Vladimir Konstantinov (11th, 1989), Pavel Datsyuk (sixth, 1998), Henrik Zetterberg (seventh, 1999) and Tomas Holmstrom (10th, 1994). But this year, it made sense to use four of them as trade chips to add prospects in Cossa and Buium and established players in Nick Leddy and Alex Nedeljkovic.

Ultimately, whether Yzerman made the right choices in this draft will be determined down the road.  However, it looks like he added players who have the promise to help shape the Wings into a competitive team.

Contact Helene St. James at hstjames@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @helenestjames. Read more on the Detroit Red Wings and sign up for our Red Wings newsletter. Her book, The Big 50: The Detroit Red Wings is available from AmazonBarnes & Noble and Triumph Books. Personalized copies available via her e-mail. 

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