You could be prone to a myriad of reactions to the class of 2017 selected by the Detroit Red Wings in this weekend’s NHL entry draft.
Head scratching would be one appropriate response. With 11 selections at their disposal, the Wings frequently reached further down the draft board, picking up projects and selecting players rated well below the station where the Wings opted to pick them up.
Do they know something everyone else doesn’t? Are their scouts smarter than the average bird dog? Time will tell, but already, that clock is ticking.
The skinny on the players the Wings selected in Saturday’s second day of the NHL entry draft:
38. Gustav Lindstrom, D, Almtuna U18 (Sweden) There’s bloodlines at work here. Lindstrom’s uncle Marcus Ragnarsson played defense in the NHL for 632 games.
Lindstrom shows an offensive upside, posting 6-4-10 numbers in six games for Almtuna in the Swedish Under-20 League. Moving up to Almtuna’s club in the Allsvenskan, the Swedish second division, Lindstrom put up 2-7-9 numbers from 48 games in his first experience playing against men.
“When I saw him a couple of times before Christmas, I was thinking, ‘I wonder how he fits in the draft? How strong is he?’” Detroit European scout Hakan Andersson said. “And then by February/March, we were like, ‘I want him. I want him.’ He took big steps during the season for sure.
“He’s six-foot-two and just a good all-around defenseman. He competes well, he has a good first pass, a good shot.”
In his inaugural international experience, Lindstrom collected 1-6-7 numbers in four games skating for Sweden in an under-19 five-nation tournament against Switzerland, Finland, Germany and the Czech Republic in February, finishing third in tournament scoring. He will be in Plymouth, Mich. later this summer playing for Sweden in a world junior preliminary tournament.
71. Kasper Kotkansalo, D, Sioux Falls (USHL) Like Vili Saarijarvi two years ago, the Wings grabbed a Finnish defenseman who had opted to play in North America. The difference is that at 6-2 and 195 pounds, Kotkansalo isn’t undersized like Saarijarvi.
“He seems to compete well,” Andersson said. “He was a captain on the (Finland under-19) team I saw him with. Just a good all-around player.
“I can’t tell you again that he’s got (Nicklas) Lidstrom/Erik Karlsson upside, but just a good all-arounder with size who competes. Looks like a solid player.”
Considered a steady, two-way defender, strong skater and someone with potential for an offensive upside, Kotkansalo played in the USHL Top Prospects Game and in a pair of under-20 tournaments for Finland last season. He’s been slowed by injuries but displays plenty of potential at both ends of the rink. He can work a power play, has a potent one-timer and plays with a nasty streak in his own end. Kotkansalo is destined to play NCAA hockey for the Boston Terriers.
79. Lane Zablocki, RW, Red Deer (WHL) Zablocki scored 12 goals in 20 games for Red Deer playing on the Rebels’ top line after he was traded there by Regina, but he has his doubters. “Every goal we’ve ever seen him score was a generic backdoor, weak side tap in generated by the hard work of his linemates,” noted RedLine Report. “Never gets his own hands dirty. We’ve seen road kill that fared better in traffic.”
The Wings, naturally, disagree. “He’s a hard kid to play against,” Detroit director of amateur scouting Tyler Wright said. “He’s played (18) playoff games in the Western Hockey League. He’s got 13 goals. He just comes at that time. He’s hard. He competes. He’s got good sense.
“If he’s not factoring in on the scoresheet, he’s factoring in on the penalty side in that he’s a hard player to play against.”
83. Zach Gallant, C, Peterborough (OHL) Gallant was selected fifth overall in his OHL draft year, and then didn’t score a single goal as a rookie with the Petes, finishing with four points in 51 games. He rebounded strongly in 2016-17, netting 21 goals and was named OHL player of the month in December.
“I play a lot like Ryan Kesler,” Gallant said. “He’s a good two-way guy who’s real competitive and goes to the dirty areas and plays hard. I like to model my game after him.”
Gallant, who played for Team Ontario in the 2015 Canada Games, finished second overall in pull ups at the NHL Combine, and among the top 10 in six of the physical tests the players were put through.
“I’ve got great hockey smarts,” Gallant said. “I’ve got to work on my skating a lot just to play at the next level, and I’ve got to work on shooting the puck more, too.”
88. Keith Petruzzelli, G, Muskegon (USHL) His style has been compared to Montreal’s Carey Price and Pittsburgh’s Matt Murray. In his first USHL season, the 6-5 Petruzelli led all rookies in wins (22) and save percentage (.918) and was named to the USHL All-Rookie Team.
“I love how calm and collected Carey Price is, so I kind of try to keep that as part of my game,” Petruzzelli said. “But I don’t try to model my game after anyone.
“I think I play an athletic butterfly, I rely on my size a bit, but still play athletically.”
Petruzzelli played for Team USA at the Ivan Hlinka Memorial under-18 tournament and in 2015-16 was named MVP and goaltender of the year while leading Selects Hockey Academy to the U.S. Premier League U18 championship. He’s headed to Quinnipiac, where he’ll play NCAA hockey alongside his older brother D.J.
100. Malte Setkov, D, Malmo (Sweden U18) A definite long-term project, Setkov followed a popular Danish trend by moving to Sweden to play for Malmo, the same path taken by Red Wings center Frans Nielsen.
“He has really started to improve,” Andersson said. “He’s been unbelievable in practices. It used to be, he was a young kid, he was immature and he was having a good time.
“Now it looks like he’s on a mission.”
The 6-4, 185-pounder was third among the team’s defensemen in scoring with 12 points in 38 games. He also played for Denmark’s under-17 team. Setkov needs to bulk up but appears to have some offensive upside. This pick could be a real reach in the fourth round. Most hockey people saw Setkov as a sixth or seventh rounder at best.
131. Cole Fraser, D, Peterborough (OHL) A junior teammate of Zach Gallant, Fraser is a physical presence who plays a hard game and is strong and competitive. He fought five times last season, which was second overall in the OHL.
“I was going to the washroom when I got picked,” Fraser sheepishly admitted. “I thought because they took a timeout, I’d have some time to go to the washroom and run back really quick.
“As soon as I walked onto the steps I was about to walk back into my seat and I heard my name. I just heard my mom (Kathy) scream ‘Cole!’ I looked up to my left and ran up to see my parents and gave them a hug.”
Fraser is a right-hand shot and plays the game with an edge, and that sometimes gets him into penalty problems and discipline issues with the league. He doesn’t treat the puck like a hand grenade, but you won’t find him on the powerplay, either.
162. Jack Adams, RW, Fargo (USHL) A namesake of the man who ran Detroit’s franchise from 1927-62, Adams grew six inches over a two-year span and with it, his game blossomed as well. Adams finished as the USHL leader in goals (37) and power-play goals (16), and was fifth in scoring with 60 points, two points better than Muskegon’s Andrei Svechnikov, younger brother or Red Wings prospect Evgeni Svechnikov and the player projected to go first overall in the 2018 NHL entry draft.
“He’s a big guy, 6-foot-5, he can score in the USHL, and he’s a little bit older,” Wright said of Adams, who is 20. “He’s got to work on his foot speed and the skating a little bit.”
164. Reilly Webb, D, Hamilton (OHL) A stay-at-home defender who likes to dish out bodychecks, shoulder separations in consecutive seasons have limited Webb to just 20 regular-season and seven playoff games the last two OHL seasons. He wasn’t even rated by NHL Central Scouting.
“We were on him quite a bit,” Wright said. “He only played 10 or 12 games this year, and I think we were at about nine of the games. He’s a big guy who had a shoulder injury unfortunately. He had surgery.
“He’s a good skater, can move the puck, but obviously played a limited amount this year. Getting a healthy body, hopefully he can come in and surprise some people.”
193. Brady Gilmour, C, Saginaw (OHL) Gilmour, selected one pick after Gallant in the 2015 OHL Priority Selection Draft, potted 26 goals for the Spirit this season, where the Wings spent plenty of time watching 2016 draftee Filip Hronek in action.
“He’s a slight kid, he’s got to put on some weight,” Wright said of the 5-10, 170-pound Gilmour. “He had a pretty good year on a team that struggled for the most part. They got better as the year went on.
“You start getting into the seventh round, we want a good character kid. The kids that overachieve are the kids that show the most character.”
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