Red Wings to Pick Sixth After Draft Lottery

The Red Wings dropped one spot in the 2018 NHL Entry Draft on Saturday, as the Carolina Hurricanes leapfrogged them by winning one of the top three spots via the Draft Lottery.

Carolina’s win means that the Red Wings, who had been slotted in fifth, with an 8.5% chance of winning the lottery, drop to sixth overall.

Winning the lottery was a long shot.  However, it was important that the Red Wings not drop so far as to lose out on one of the second-tier defensemen that are available.

Defenseman groupings.

“A” Group (Pick No. 1)
Dahlin

“B” Group (Picks 4-12)
Boqvist
Smith
Hughes
Bouchard
Dobson

“C” Group (Picks 13-31)
Sandin
Wilde
Miller
Alexeeyev
McIsaac
Tychonick

— Steve Kournianos (@TheDraftAnalyst) April 29, 2018

I disagree with Kournianos a little bit here but not enough that I think it’s a bad description of where the Red Wings landed.

At the sixth pick, the worst-case scenario is that the Red Wings will have their choice of three of the second-tier defensemen available after missing out on Rasmus Dahlin.  Or two of them if you think that class is only four defensemen.

So the lottery could have gone better for the Wings but it definitely could have gone worse.