The Detroit Red Wings missed out on landing the first overall NHL Draft pick in 2020, despite owning the NHL’s worst record by a large margin. The New York Rangers ultimately won the 1st overall selection, and they’ll be the ones to be able to have a chance to draft phenom forward Alexis Lafreniere.
Nevertheless, the Red Wings will still have plenty of options when it comes time to make their earliest draft selection since 1983 when they took 18 year old Steve Yzerman.
Draft website TheDraftAnalyst.com has compiled their latest mock draft, and they’re predicting the Red Wings to stick with offense, selecting center Marco Rossi from the Ottawa 67’s of the OHL.
Their reasoning:
“It was unfortunate that the Red Wings lost out on a top-three pick despite owning the league’s worst record by a significant margin. Nonetheless, they are far from settling by drafting Rossi — an Austrian-born scoring machine who finished as the OHL’s leading scorer and won the top player award. Rossi’s vision and IQ are off the charts, but he also owns a deadly shot and was one of the leagues better two-way centers. The size thing may seem like a turn off but watch him play and it becomes completely irrelevant.”
Despite his small frame (5’9, 187 lbs.), Rossi led the OHL in scoring in 2019-20 with 120 points in 56 games.
Red Wings fans, how would you like Rossi being drafted by Detroit?
– – Quotes via Steve Kournianos of TheDraftAnalyst.com Link – –
BONUS CONTENT: NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman says Draft Lottery process “was fair”
NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman decided to pour a little salt in the wounds of Detroit Red Wings fans everywhere when he offered his thoughts on the 2020 NHL Draft Lottery process.
To put it simply, he believes that the process was “fair”, saying that the eight teams that were in the expanded playoffs would have had a chance to win the lottery if the pandemic didn’t alter the season.
The League’s worst seven teams (with Detroit being a whopping 23 points behind the 2nd worst team, Ottawa) had their seasons end upon the pausing of the year thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic. The NHL Draft Lottery drawing in late June saw the Red Wings land the No. 4 overall pick behind the Senators and Kings – with a yet-to-be-determined team being awarded the 1st pick.
