Jonathan Ericsson

Wings swing for fences in annual NHL Entry Draft, hope for franchise player

Published Jun. 26, 2015 10:01 a.m. ET

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The Red Wings head into this weekend's NHL Entry Draft facing the grim reality that time is running out for two of the brightest stars in franchise history.

"We're trying to be ready for the day when Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg aren't quite Datsyuk and Zetterberg anymore," General Manager Ken Holland said.

Yes, the Euro Twins are in the twilight of their brilliant career. Who will take their places? That's what keeps Holland awake at night.

"It's why this weekend is really important," he said, noting that the hope is that just one of the 18-year-olds the team stockpiles this weekend might be in the mix to help fill the gaping holes left by Datsyuk and Zetterberg in coming years.

Not that the cupboard of young talent is bare, mind you. It's just those two have some awfully big skates to fill -- not unlike Steve Yzerman and Nick Lidstrom a generation before them.

"The question is, how good can Dylan Larkin be? Or (Tomas) Tatar, (Gus) Nyquist and (Riley) Sheahan? That's where we've got to be in three years. Is (Anthony) Mantha going to be the player we thought he was when we drafted him?

"The point is, if we're going anywhere, someone is going to have to step up."

Can the Wings find such a candidate with the 19th pick in Friday's first round? Or will they manage, as they've so often done over the past two decades, to find a diamond in the later rounds like Datsyuk (sixth round, 171st overall in 1998), Zetterberg (seventh round, 210th overall in 1999) and Jonathan Ericsson (ninth round, 291st overall) in 2002.

Or, more recently, defenseman Alexey Marchenko (seventh round, 205th overall in 2011) and forward Axel Holmstrom, this season's Swedish Junior Player of the Year, (seventh round, 196th overall in 2014).

"All the (external) focus is on the 19th pick," said Holland, who met with his scouts the past two days in Sunrise, Florida, the site of the draft, to pregame the draft. "But we know there will be players in the fourth, fifth and sixth rounds who will play in the NHL. We've got to get our share."

Prevailing wisdom through the NHL is that a draft is successful if a team gets two players who wind up taking a regular shift in the league for 2 1/2 years or so. The Wings historically have done better than that, thanks in large part to an experienced 14-man scouting staff that includes five full-timers combing Europe for talent.

The Wings rarely discuss "needs" at the draft table because it's as difficult to project needs four or five years down the line as it is to project what kind of player a teenager will be when he's in his early 20s.

"Always, it's the best player available," Holland said when asked his draft philosophy. "We're looking at 18-year-old players and trying to determine which of them, five years from now when they're 23, will have the most impact.

"It's important that we pick a player that somewhere down the road plays for the Detroit Red Wings."

It's perilous to try to predict whom the Wings might draft in the first round, especially when Holland has made no secret he'd be willing to trade down a few slots in an effort to add a second-round pick he gave up to acquire Erik Cole from Dallas at the trade deadline.

This is considered a draft deep in talent, and this is the wrong year to be missing a pick that, in recent years, has enabled the Wings to draft Jimmy Howard, Justin Abdelkader, Tomas Tatar, Tomas Jurco, Xavier Ouellet and Tyler Bertuzzi -- all of whom could be part of the nucleus of the team in a few years.

"That's the only thing Kenny and I regret about the draft," Wings Senior Vice President Jim Devellano said about swapping draft picks for players at the trade deadline. "We vacillate. We wish we could have all our picks every year. But you tend to do things when you think you have a chance for a long playoff run. And for a couple of years we were competing just to make the playoffs.

"At the deadline, you sort of get sucked in, and it's usually been that way. Most years, we're missing a pick or two."

If you're into trends, you already have an idea what kind of player Detroit likes. Everybody in hockey knows.

"To us, skill has always been very important," Devellano said. "We like smart players. We like skilled players."

Traditionally, those players have come on the smallish side -- until recently. With the league getting bigger from the goal crease out, Holland knows his team needs to get bigger, noting that in recent years he's drafted Sheahan, a 6-foot-2 center, Mantha, a 6-5 Winger, and Larkin, a 6-1 center.

"We're even looking for size in net," he said. "Teams are drafting bigger and bigger in net. But just because I'm talking about size doesn't mean we wouldn't draft a 5-9 defenseman if we think he can have some impact down the road."

Bottom line: The Red Wings know they need another home run in this draft, so with every selection they'll be swinging for the fences.

A future Red Wing?

Here are a few names that have surfaced frequently in the widely popular, though largely meaningless, mock drafts around the league in recent weeks:

Center Joel Eriksson-Ek, 6-2, 187, a two-way center, persistent, tenacious, tough to play against. Projects as a second-line center for a contending team. Comparable: Jacob de la Rose, Montreal.

Defenseman Thomas Chabot, 6-2, 180, an outstanding puck-handler already capable of making pro-style passes through neutral zone. Projects as a top-three, puck-moving defenseman. Comparable: Jeff Petry, Montreal.

Center Alexander Dergachev, 6-4, 200, a beast of a power center who plays with intelligence and has a bullet of a wrist shot. Projects as a prototypical third-line center for a championship-caliber club. Comparable: Martin Hanzal, Arizona.

Center Nick Merkley, 5-11, 187, one of the best playmakers available in the draft who combines great talent with great desire. Projects as a second-line, playmaking center for a top-tier team. Comparable: Ryan Kessler, Anaheim.

Left wing Evgeni Svechnikov, 6-2, 195, a physically imposing winger with soft, quick hands who can play in traffic and along the boards. Projects as a first-line winger on a middle-tier team. Comparable: James van Riemsdyk, Toronto.