The 2019 NHL Draft has come and gone and some Detroit Red Wings‘ fans are scratching their heads.
With the No. 6 pick in the draft, Red Wings’ new GM Steve Yzerman announced the team was selecting defenseman Moritz Seider.
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The problem (for many fans and so-called experts) was not that Yzerman went with defense in opening round, it was the fact he selected a defenseman who was not projected anywhere to go in the top 10-15.
On Monday, Yzerman joined the Jamie and Stoney Show on 97.1 The Ticket and his thought is that the Red Wings got the highest ranked player left on their draft board.
From 97.1 The Ticket:
“I don’t pay attention to the mock drafts at all. We can’t. We have to do our jobs and hopefully do them well and kind of tune out the noise, so to speak,” Yzerman told the Jamie and Stoney Show on 97.1 The Ticket. “But we had him right at six on our draft list. I wasn’t sure where he was going to go. I know there was a lot of interest in him from a lot of teams.
“I actually looked at the options of trading back and trying to get an extra pick and keeping my fingers crossed that he would be there, or we had a plan B in the event that he wasn’t. Trading back didn’t prove to be an option, so we were comfortable selecting him at that spot. I know he was surprised. But we felt he was going to go if not to us, potentially Buffalo who was picking right after us, and by probably the 12th or 13th pick he would be gone.”
Moritz may or may not turn into a great player but that is something we will not know for years down the road.
“We’re going to take it a step at a time,” Yzerman said. “He’s here for our development camp starting (Tuesday) and we’ll get through that and kind of make sure he’s set up for a good summer of training and skating, and then bring him back in for our rookie tournament and into the main camp and then we’ll really decide from there. We have good options. We have all of the options actually.”
Nation, do you trust Yzerman as much as you did when he was initially hired?
