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Busy day lands eight picks |
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On the one hand, they didn’t address the team’s more pressing need - the requirement for a high-end, elite, puck-moving defenseman - but it would be wrong to say the Detroit Red Wings fared poorly in this weekend’s NHL entry draft.
They got themselves some players. They addressed needs in certain other areas, such as scoring and goaltending. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and all that ails this team wasn’t going to be fixed in one draft.
The Wings dealt the 159th pick to Columbus for a fifth-round pick in the 2019 draft, leaving them with eight selections on Saturday.
The skinny on the eight players taken by the Wings during Day 2 of the draft:
33. Jonatan Berggren, RW, Skelleftea Jr. (Sweden)
Gee, what a surprise. The Wings took a Swede. “It was a shock,” Berggren said. “It was so amazing. Detroit when I was younger was one of my favorite clubs.”
Considered to be equipped with silky smooth hands, Berggren recorded 5-5-10 totals at the recent World Under-18 Championship and was Sweden’s best and most dangerous forward. He’s got a quick release on his shot and doesn’t mind skating into traffic to make or finish a play.
“Speed and skills I think,” Berggren listed as his top assets. “I like much (Edmonton’s Connor) McDavid. Players who play with speed.”
The Wings envision a different player when they look at Berggren.
“The guy you could say he has a chance to become is Viktor Arvidsson in Nashville, a really speedy forward who plays with great intensity and has a good feel for the net,” Detroit’s director of European scouting Hakan Andersson said. “That’s what we see in him.”
36. Jared McIsaac, D, Halifax (QMJHL)
McIsaac will join first-round pick Filip Zadina as Mooseheads headed to Hockeytown. He’s been paralleled to Tampa Bay’s Ryan McDonough, a defense-first minded defenseman who can play against the other team’s top line but is equipped with the requisite skills to join the rush.
“One of my main strengths is my skating,” McIsaac said. “When I’m using it effectively, I’m able to jump into the rush and get back efficiently and able to defend the other team’s top lines. I want to keep working on everything possible about my game, but I think the biggest thing is probably my decision making with the puck and my shot.”
MacIsaac is a steady type, not the high-end puck mover the Wings so desperately need on their back end.
“Just a steady defenseman,” Detroit director of amateur scouting Tyler Wright said. “A hard-nosed player. Skates well. Plays in all situations. I don’t think power play is going to be kind of his thing but he’s a good penalty killer, plays against the best players, plays physical, he’s good on the PK.
“We liked a lot about his game.”
67. Alec Regula, D, London (OHL)
He’ll be the second family member to join the Wings organization. His dad, Dr. Chet Regula, was Wings’ team dentist for many years. From West Bloomfield, Mich., Regula played youth hockey for Compuware and Honeybaked and won a state title with Cranbrook, and a USHL Clark Cup crown with the Chicago Steel.
“I like the way (Vegas Golden Knights defenseman) Colin Miller plays a lot,” Regula said. “I think I can play a little bit like him. Big defenseman, right-handed shot. Moves the puck well.”
Regula is already well-schooled in the ways of the Wings, at least off the ice.
“I work out at 2sp in Madison Heights and there’s a lot of Wings who work out there,” Regula explained. “Justin Abdelkader, Gus Nyquist, Jimmy Howard, Xavier Ouellet. They’re in there every day. I see those guys a lot. They’ll probably be pretty pumped when I get back.”
As with McIsaac, Regula’s strength is not puck movement and offense. “He’s another big body that’s kind of a stay at home defensemen that we want to play rugged,” Wright said.
81. Seth Barton, D, Trail (BCHL)
Considered to be a smart, cool blueliner with a bit of a physical edge to his game. Barton comes from the same Tier II junior league that produced fellow defenseman Dennis Cholowski, Detroit’s 2016 first round pick. He’s committed to play NCAA for UMass-Lowell in 2019-20.
Barton is the one defender in this draft that the Wings hope can evolve into a skilled puckhandler and distributor.
“He’s another late bloomer type defenseman,” Wright said. “A very good skater. Good size, good puck moving defenseman.”
84. Jesper Eliasson, G, Troja-Ljungby Jr. (Sweden)
The first of two Swedish netminders drafted by the Wings, big things happen for Eliasson involving Michigan. He made his national team debut for Sweden in a February international tournament at USA Hockey Arena in Plymouth, and now he’s a Red Wing. Amazingly, he’s advanced all the way up the ladder to NHL prospect without ever working with a full-time goaltending instructor. A big, mobile netminder, he’ll also change teams and play for Vaxjo next season.
“We have a goalie scout from Sweden (Maciej Suzwoch) who did a lot of research,” Andersson said. “He knows goalies more than I do. He thinks they’re talented and they have great worth ethic. So we’re hoping we got two really good goalie prospects.”
98. Ryan O’Reilly, RW, Madison (USHL)
O’Reilly doubled down on the hometown experience. He was raised in Dallas, so he got drafted at home. But he moved to Novi, Mich. to play peewee major for Little Caesars, and is once again playing hockey for the Ilitch family.
“I think it’s pretty unbelievable,” O’Reilly said. “Detroit is pretty much home to me. This is a pretty special feeling for me.”
O’Reilly, who will play NCAA at Denver and be a teammate of fellow Detroit draftee goalie Filip Larsson, believes the scouting report on his game differs from his own opinion.
“I think of myself more as a power forward and sniper,” O’Reilly explained. “When most guys think of me, they think more of my shots and my ability to score goals.”
Like the majority of players taken at this stage of the draft, there are holes in O’Reilly’s game in need of filling.
“He’s got to work on his skating but he’s got a good touch around the net,” Wright said. “We’re going to send him to college for a couple of years and kind of tuck him away and get our player development guys after him, and hopefully we can see the fruits of fruition.”
160. Victor Brattstrom, G, Timra IK (Sweden)
The Wings now have three Swedish goaltending prospects, Brattstrom joining Eliasson and Larsson. He’s a big one at 6-5 and 200 pounds, and he’s also 21 and the oldest player selected in the draft, so he’ll need to be fast-tracked to the pro game.
The coach of (Brattstrom’s) team just made it up from second-highest league to the Swedish Elite League,” Andersson said. “He just texted me, ‘Congratulations for a great pick. He was a big part of us winning.’ They think he’s going to be a great player.”
191. Otto Kivenmaki, C, Assat Jr. (Finland)
The scouting report on Kivenmaki is that he is all flash and dash and offers little substance in terms of two-way play. He’s about making his points and has the requisite skills to be an offensive dynamo, with 37 points in 37 games this season. But he cares little for the defensive side of the game, and at 5-8 and 137 pounds, is a long way off the physical requirements to survive in the NHL. Then again, this is the seventh round and if you’re going to take a reach, this is when you take it.
“He’s very small,” Andersson acknowledged. “He’s skilled and has hockey sense. In the late rounds, we didn’t think there was any more talent there. Obviously, you can draft bigger guys or go in a different direction. We thought he had a lot of talent.”
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