Red Wings Select Six in 2015 NHL Entry Draft

The Detroit Red Wings selected six players in the 2015 NHL Entry Draft on Friday and Saturday.

Detroit did not have a second-round pick in the seven-round event, hosted by the Florida Panthers. They had traded their second- and third-round picks but acquired Dallas’ third-round pick in trade.

In Friday’s first round, the Red Wings picked Russian forward Evgeny Svechnikov at 19th overall. In his first season with the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, Svechnikov was named to QMJHL’s All-Rookie Team after scoring 32 goals and adding 46 assists in 55 games. He also appeared at the CHL Top Prospects Game.

With their first pick on Saturday, the Red Wings selected defenseman Vili Saarijarvi of Finland in the third round, 73rd overall. In 57 games with the USHL’s Green Bay Gamblers, Saarijari scored six goals and added 17 assists for 23 points to lead the team’s blueliners. The right-hander will play for Karpat in Finland next season.

Goaltender Joren Van Pottelberghe was Detroit’s fourth-round pick, 110th overall. The Swiss goalie, 6’2″, played last season with Linkoping’s U18 team in Sweden. In 11 games he had a 1.89 goals-against average and a .924 save percentage. He also appeared in 17 games for Switzerland’s U18 team with a 3.39 GAA and .881 save percentage and two games with the Swiss U19 team carrying a 1.92 GAA and .943 save percentage.

The Wings went back to forward for their fifth-round pick, selecting Chase Pearson – son of former NHLer Scott Pearson – at 140th overall. Committed to the University of Maine for the 2015-16 season, Pearson spent 2014-15 with the USHL’s Youngstown Phantoms, scoring 12 goals and 14 assists in 57 games.

Defenseman Patrick Holway was Detroit’s pick at 170th overall. Another University of Maine recruit, Holway will play one more season of junior hockey before joining the Black Bears. He scored 25 points in 28 games with the Boston Advantage U-18 team in the 2014-15 season.

The Red Wings’ final pick, 200th overall in the seventh round, was another son of a former NHLer. Forward Adam Marsh of the QMJHL’s Saint John Sea Dogs is the son of Peter Marsh. In 60 games, he scored 24 goals and twenty assists for 44 points as a 17-year-old.

With two Americans selected, a Russian, a Finn, a Swiss, and a Canadian, it marks the first year since 1992 that the Red Wings did not pick a Swede in the draft.