The Detroit Red Wings are preparing for the NHL Draft, which will take place on June 28th and June 29th. The Red Wings have nine picks in the draft, with 9 and 17 being their first-round picks. The Red Wings were able to be a part of the playoff chase towards the later part of the season. It is no secret that Detroit needs a goal scorer to help them make it back to the Stanley Cup playoffs for the first time since the 2015-16 season.
Key Points:
- NHL Draft takes place June 28th and 29th.
- The Detroit Red Wings hold the ninth and 17th pick in the first round of the draft.
- The Red Wings have a total of nine overall picks
- The Red Wings are looking to add pieces to get them back to the playoffs for the first time since 2015-16.
The Player the Red Wings need
The Red Wings need to do everything they can to trade up and take 18-year-old forward Leo Carlsson of Orebro HK of the Swedish Hockey League. Carlsson is currently rated as the third overall prospect in this draft. Last season in the SHL, Carlsson played in 44 games registering 25 points coming off ten goals and 15 assists. Carlsson has also played in multiple tournaments for Sweden; in 26 games through three tournaments, Carlsson scored 14 goals and 11 assists.
Carlsson is now playing in the Ice Hockey World Championship on Team Sweden, which also has Red Wings players Jonatan Berggren and Lucas Raymond on its roster. Today in a game against Hungary, team Sweden matchup up Berggren and Raymond with Carlsson, and Sweden won the game 7-1.
The three of them finished the game combining for two goals and three assists with Carlsson assisting on a Raymond goal. If you watched the game, the three of them seemed to gel really well together, with Carlsson being the Center on that line, and it got the idea that this is what the Red Wings need for the future and can be the missing piece to get them back to the playoffs and make a deep run.
Wrap Up
So far during this tournament team Sweden is 3-1-0-0 (Wins, OT Wins, OT losses, Losses) with the trio of Carlsson, Raymond, and Berggren combining for ten points in the tournament, with Carlsson having two and Raymond and Berggren having four points each. I would expect it to cost the Detroit Red Wings the 9th and 17th pick to move up to either three or four to take Carlsson, but it’s a trade that should be done and pair these three back up in a Winged Wheel sweater. The next chance to see these three together will be Saturday when Sweden takes on France.
