Red Wings’ 3 Biggest Needs in 2025 NHL Draft

It has been nearly a decade since the Detroit Red Wings accepted that they were at the end of their competitive window and began the long, arduous process of rebuilding. Since 2016, the Red Wings have held a top five pick in the draft once (2020), but have picked within the top-10 six times (2017, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022 and 2023). Thanks to these high picks as well as a steady accumulation of talent via their picks outside of the first round, Detroit’s prospect pool is one of the deepest and most well-rounded in the NHL.

That is one of the reasons there is an appetite across the fanbase for the Red Wings to trade the 13th pick in the 2025 draft. The Red Wings’ active roster needs an infusion of talent, and the 13th pick will almost certainly yield a player that is still a couple years away from contributing at the NHL level. Despite their need for immediate talent, however, the Red Wings still have areas of their prospect pool that they would be wise to address.

If Detroit can fill these voids in their prospect pool, they could walk away from the 2025 draft with the most balanced pool in the league.

Physical Forward With Skill

The Florida Panthers are in the midst of their third-straight Stanley Cup Final and have a chance to repeat as champions just as the Tampa Bay Lightning did in 2020 and 2021. Looking at the Panthers’ roster, you obviously notice the talent spread throughout their lineup, but you also notice that they have an abundance of players that are just as capable of irritating their opponents as they are of putting the puck in the net.

The Red Wings, to their credit, have prioritized players that are “hard to play against” with their top picks in the last few drafts. If enough of their prospects realize their potential, the Red Wings should be a hard-working, two-way-proficient team thanks to a roster filled with players that have those traits. However, the organization lacks the element of nastiness that has clearly become part of the Panthers’ DNA.

The Red Wings need their own Matthew Tkachuk: a player that doesn’t back down from the physical stuff while still producing a point-per-game or more. Those players don’t exactly grow on trees, but that’s the exact type of player the Red Wings of today and tomorrow will need if they want to compete for a Stanley Cup within the next decade.

Potential Options: Carter Bear, Brady Martin, Roger McQueen

Middle-Six Scorers

This need probably depends on how you project the Red Wings’ lineup to look two or three years from now. Players like Patrick Kane and Jonatan Berggren may or may not be part of the picture anymore, and prosects like Amadeus Lombardi and Dmitry Buchelnikov are far from guaranteed to be legitimate NHL players within that timeframe.

With that in mind, the Red Wings still need to focus their efforts on drafting players that project to help fill out an offensive lineup; these players don’t necessarily have to be superstars, but they need to have the potential to provide depth scoring while also having the upside to play on the power play as well. Despite his shaky standing today, Berggren was the type of prospect that fit this mold back in 2018, and it is players in this mold that Detroit should still be targeting.

To some extent, this is all about targeting raw potential. You aren’t going to target “depth scoring” with the 13th pick, but you should be able to find plenty of prospects with that projections outside of the first round. Buchelnikov was selected 52nd overall back in 2022 with the hopes he could develop into a sneaky-good offensive player, and now he is regarded as one of the organization’s top prospects. The Red Wings should take a swing on offensive talent and hope that one day it translates to a deep offensive lineup.

Potential Options: Cole McKinney, Alexander Zharovsky, Vaclav Nestrasil

Left-Handed Top-4 Defenseman

Slowly but surely under the watch of general manager Steve Yzerman and head of amateur scouting Kris Draper, the Red Wings have rebuilt the blue line in Detroit. It began with selecting Moritz Seider at sixth overall in 2019, and then they followed it up by taking Simon Edvinsson at sixth overall in 2021. Edvinsson just completed his first full NHL season, and Seider has already established himself as a top defenseman in the NHL as well as a Calder Trophy winner back in 2022.

The Red Wings’ top prospect is Axel Sandin Pellikka, a right-handed defenseman selected 17th overall back in 2023, and most people that follow the Red Wings expect him to make his NHL debut at some point next season. If he reaches his potential, the Red Wings’ top four of the future would be nearly complete with Seider and Sandin Pellikka on the right side, and Edvinsson on the left. Albert Johansson announced himself as an NHL player this season, and Detroit has a few left-handed defenders in their prospect pool worth keeping an eye on, but the only thing missing is someone that can hold down the fort on the left side with Edvinsson.