The Detroit Red Wings have missed the playoffs 10 straight seasons, the longest active drought in the NHL. Detroit came close again last year, finishing sixth in the Atlantic Division at 41-31-10 with 92 points. The club wants to end that streak in 2026-27, and one national bold prediction has a Red Wings top five pick in play instead.
Dylan Larkin has requested a trade and lost the captaincy, and he opened training camp sidelined by an upper-body injury he picked up in an off-ice workout, so it remains to be seen whether he will be in uniform when the season starts. Will the Red Wings finally make the playoffs? Or is this the season Detroit lands a top-five selection in the 2027 NHL Draft?
Max Bultman Sees a Red Wings Top Five Pick in 2027
Max Bultman of The Athletic gave one bold prediction for the Red Wings as the 2026-27 season approaches: a top-five selection in the 2027 NHL Draft. Bultman wrote:
After a chaotic summer, so many unanswered questions are still hanging over the Red Wings. Chief among them: Who will score goals for this team? That question gets harder to answer the less Dylan Larkin plays (and especially if he’s traded). That could leave the Red Wings at the bottom of the Atlantic Division and picking in the top five of the draft for just the second time in this rebuild.
Detroit’s only top-five pick of the rebuild so far came in 2020, when the Red Wings took Lucas Raymond fourth overall. If Detroit is picking that high again, the 2027 class has a prize sitting at the top of it.
Landon DuPont Is Projected as the Top Pick in 2027
Landon DuPont is projected as the No. 1 selection in the 2027 NHL Draft, and he is doing his development in state. The 17-year-old defenseman plays for the Michigan Wolverines this season after two years with the Everett Silvertips of the WHL, where he was the first defenseman granted exceptional status to play as a 15-year-old.
DuPont put up 18 goals and 55 assists with a plus-59 rating in 63 regular-season games last year, career highs across the board. He added 23 points in 18 playoff games as Everett won the Ed Chynoweth Cup and reached the Memorial Cup final.
A DuPont and Seider Pairing Is a Long Way Off
It might be way too early to dream about DuPont and Moritz Seider on the same blue line in Detroit. Red Wings fans want to talk playoffs, not lottery odds. But if this team gets off to a rocky start, the 2027 draft is going to be hard to ignore.
