The Wings drafting ability has become a highly discussed topic over the past few years. Some say that we are the best and automatically assume that the Wings will pick some 6th rounder that will turn into a superstar. There are others that claim that the Wings success rate is mostly due to the developmental system. Aka The Wings are able to let their prospects develop slowly, and thus they get more bang for their buck. There are also those that say the Wings drafting is greatly overrated and that they really aren't much better off that a lot of other NHL teams. I decided to look into this a bit further because I've always wondered about this myself. Please feel free to add any info you have regarding the Wings drafting, addition of scouts, change in the development system. I personally became a Wings fan in the 90s so I did not watch a lot of the players in the first period.
83-91 The cup building years aka prior to the playoff years:
General Notes & Stats:
The Wings had 31 picks that ended up playing over 200 games. The Wings had a total of 108 picks during that span, thus 28.7% of the players that they picked went on to have a meaningful career (over 200 games played). Of the 108 picks, 22 were European born (20%). Of the 31 notable drafted players 11 were picked within the first 30 picks, and 6 were picked after the first 100 picks. Notable for the sub 100 picks is that each played over 400 games. If one removes Konstantinov, the lowest is 729 games (Grimson). Each of the Wings first selections except for Kory Kocur in 1988 played at least 400 games. The Wings average first pick during this time period was 8th overall. The highest was 1st overall (Murphy) and the lowest was 17th (Kory Kocur). 6 of the 31 notable players were from Europe, most (4) of which were taken in the 89-91 period. All of the European players were drafted after the 30th pick, with Kozlov being the highest at pick 45. The group of 29 skaters averaged 449 points over their careers. It be noted that the draft still went 12 rounds during this period and that the Iron Curtain prevented Eastern European players from easily playing in the NHL draft.
Observations:
The Wings obviously benefited from high picks and the uncertainty surrounding players developed in the USSR. With that said however they did a great job of managing their high picks, and getting 8 (out of 9 chances) guys that would have significant NHL careers. Only Yzerman could be considered a true superstar of that group but the Wings did a good job of at least getting guys that were largely top 9 guys. The Wings also did really well in the European gamble. It has been argued that they only got many of those guys so low because of the fact that other teams didn’t know if they were going to be able to get them over. This was very much the beginning of the boom or bust strategy for the Wings. They deserve a lot of credit however for making the choice to take guys like Feds, Kozlov, Konstantinov even though there was a strong chance that they’d never come over. So yes they were lucky in the fact that it worked out, but they still put in the time to go and scout those players and took the risk in drafting them. Overall I’d say that this period of Wings drafting was defined by taking fairly safe picks talent wise but great risk when it came to getting them over to NA and getting them into the lineup.
General Notes & Stats:
Only 3 of the notable players were taken before the 30th pick in their draft year, while another 3 of the notable players were taken after the 100th pick in the draft. Of the 9 players, only 2 were from North America (Dandenault and McCarty). Fischer, while being Czech, was also drafted out of NA system. The Wings made 88 selections during the time period giving them a 10.2% success rate. Of the 88 selections 35 were European (39%). The Wings had no player selected in the 93, 95, 96, or 97 drafts play 200 or more games. Each of the notable picks has played at least 300 games. Not included Jiri Fischer (who had to retire prematurely), those that have retired/ will retire shortly (McCarty, Dandenault, Eriksson, Holmstrom) each played at least 572 games and averaged 293 pts for their careers. The other 4 players (Kopecky, Datsyuk, Zetterberg, and Kronwall), already average 370 pts for their careers and 492 games played. Of the 9 players only Fischer and Kronwall were 1st round picks and both were taken in the last 5 picks of that round. The Wings did not have a 1st round pick in 97 or 99. They were also without their 2nd round pick in 99. The Wings had both a 1st and 2nd round pick the other 7 years. The Wings average 1st round pick during this period was 24th. If you include 97 and 99, the Wings average first pick was 37th overall. It is important to note that the draft went down in rounds for 12 to 11 and eventually to 9 in this period. It also important to note that there was a massive increase of European players entering the league during this period due to the downfall of the Iron Curtain.
Observations:
The Wings had a really rough time drafting in the 90s, and contrary to popular belief it wasn’t because the Wings traded all of their 1st round picks away. Only 3 of the 7 1st round selections made went on to do anything in the NHL, and really because of Fischer’s heart condition, only one went on to be a core player. From 92-97 the Wings were pretty much a complete bust. Only Homer was more than a bottom pair/ bottom 6 player. Most of these players also required additional years of development either in Europe or the AHL. It was during this period that the Wings really started to hone the “overrippen” policy, with Fischer being the only major exception to this rule. The picks of Datsyuk and Zetterberg really saved the Wings during this period. With the Wings only making 9 really good picks in this period I would lean more towards the 2 amazing picks of Dats and Z being more luck than great drafting. The Wings obviously didn’t think they were going to be superstars or they would have taken them higher. Don’t believe me look no further than the Kronwall pick. I can still remember watching that draft and having all the announcers trying to figure out who this kid was. He was truly an off the board pick. If they thought either Zetterberg or Datsyuk were going to be the players they are today, they would have taken them sooner. Maybe not in the first round but they would not have been 7th and 6th round pick respectively. Yes in Datsyuk’s case it was believe that only Hakan had seen him play, but even then you don’t risk waiting that long if you think the kid is a superstar in waiting. I give the Wings a lot of credit for taking both players but I don’t credit them being superstars to their drafting. If anything the Wings development and coaches deserve the credit. Overall I’d say this was a pretty bad period of drafting saved by a few key picks. Luckily for the Wings they had a ton of holdover guys from the previous period that were in their primes. Plus thanks to fact that there was no cap, the Wings could simply fill holes through free agency if needed.
**note I'll be doing the 2 more recent periods later this weekend
Interesting and thanks for the good in depth look.
Find it interesting that they were so dismal from 1992-1997 otherwise known as the Bowman has significant personnel decision making power during much of that time period. I know Nill and Holland were in the room but who knows how powerful their say was one would think it wasn't as big as it was after Bowman was stripped of his titles on the management side. I guess I will have to wait to see the other time periods but that at least jumped out to me.
I would say 83-88 is its own era. Other than Yzerman, most of those guys were gone by the time won their first cup.
83-88 as the drafting that helped the Wings rise to respectability again
Then 89-92 as one another erra. -- The era the cup was drafted
92-97 as another era -- The Bowman Dark ages
98 to 04 as another era -- The pre-cap Holland drafting
and 04-present -- Post cap Holland drafting
I remember a quote from that Devellano book, where Jimmy-D was asking from Mike Ilitch that who should they draft because they would never see the guys taken from Soviet Union. Ilitch told without hesitation that "take the best guy available, rest can be fixed." And rest was history.
I remember a quote from that Devellano book, where Jimmy-D was asking from Mike Ilitch that who should they draft because they would never see the guys taken from Soviet Union. Ilitch told without hesitation that "take the best guy available, rest can be fixed." And rest was history.
like faking Konstantinov's cancer so he's have to come to the US for treatment where he defected. Sneaking Petr Klima out of the country in the trunk of a car.
