The Detroit Red Wings have once again reprised their position in the top-five of our annual prospect pool ranking, falling one spot to No. 5. It marks the fourth year in a row the team has featured in the top five when we’ve done this exercise.
The fact that they’re near the top again shouldn’t come as a surprise. The core of the pool remains the same, with Jonatan Berggren being the only notable graduate compared to last year’s ranking.
The 2023 draft was also yet another big one for the Red Wings, as the team had two top-17 picks and three additional selections in the second round. This helps to compensate for the fact that some of their most well-known prospects (Theodor Niederbach, Sebastian Cossa, Liam Dower Nilsson, for example) haven’t progressed as expected.
Blueliners are undoubtedly the strong point of the Red Wings’ prospect pipeline. When we recently ranked the top-100 affiliated NHL prospects, four defencemen from the Red Wings’ system were featured and two of them ranked in the top-40. You’re also able to find other lesser-heralded yet still intriguing defensive prospects deeper in the system.
The organization also has two middle-six centres with very strong likelihoods of playing and a pair of interesting goalie prospects.
Let’s take a deeper dive into what they’ve got.
