With the NHL back on pre-pandemic schedule, this will be a particularly busy week for teams.
First up is the draft: The Detroit Red Wings hold picks No. 9 and No. 17 in Wednesday’s Round 1 and picks 41, 42, 43, 73, 117, 137, 169 and 201 in Rounds 2-7 on Thursday. General manager Steve Yzerman and his staff already are in Nashville, Tennessee, which is this year’s host.
Two days after the draft ends, free agency opens on Saturday. This was common until COVID disrupted the flow (last year the draft was July 7-8; free agency began a week later, on July 13).
Yzerman said last week that he anticipates selecting where the picks fall, but also noted that flipping picks usually happens as the draft is live. So until the Columbus Blue Jackets make their pick at No. 3, there will still be hope that maybe Yzerman can move up and get Leo Carlsson, touted as the best center in the class behind Connor Bedard and Adam Fantilli.
“Very rarely do you go into the draft not having an idea of what you might be able to do,” Yzerman said last week. “You’re not really caught off guard.”
Good possibilities: 9 options at No. 9 for Detroit Red Wings in 2023 NHL draft
Yzerman could also use some of his draft capital to put together a package for Alex DeBrincat, the 40-goal scorer who Ottawa is projected to trade. DeBrincat, from Farmington Hills, is 25, so he fits right in with the core age group Yzerman is building around, but the big hurdle is pulling off an intra-divisional trade. The Ottawa Senators are in a rebuild, too, and no doubt would prefer DeBrincat not go to an Atlantic rival.
It’s not a particularly attractive free agency class this summer, and there’s likely to be multiple signings before the market opens at noon as teams look to lock up their last guys at the last minute. One name that’s on the list, though, is Tyler Bertuzzi, who was sent to Boston at the trade deadline when it became clear an extension was not going to materialize. Maybe the Wings revisit Bertuzzi if the Bruins don’t figure out a way to re-sign a guy for whom they gave up a conditional 2024 first-round pick (top-10 protected) and a 2025 fourth-round pick. (That task got a little easier on Monday when the Bruins dealt former MVP Taylor Hall and Nick Foligno, son of former Red Wing Mike Foligno, to the Chicago Blackhawks to free up some cap space.)
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Beyond help in the scoring department, Yzerman needs to find someone to pair with Ville Husso in net. Intriguing options include pending unrestricted free agents Joonas Korpisalo, Alex Lyon and Antti Raanta — unless Yzerman opts to re-sign one of his own pending UFA goalies, Alex Nedeljkovic and Magnus Hellberg.
Last year Yzerman traded a third-round pick on the second day of the draft for the rights to Husso, circumventing free agency. A similar situation is certainly viable this year, though Yzerman indicated he doesn’t think it will be driven by the perception that it looks like it will be a pretty paltry free-agent market.
“I haven’t talked to every team in the league, but for the most part I think there is an understanding of what most teams are trying to do or looking to do at this stage of the offseason,” Yzerman said. “I don’t think teams are necessarily trading their players because there are no free agents out there.”
Contact Helene St. James at hstjames@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @helenestjames.
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Her latest book, “On the Clock: Behind the Scenes with the Detroit Red Wings at the NHL Draft,” is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Triumph Books. Personalized copies available via her e-mail.
Feeling a draft?
What: 2023 NHL draft.
When/where: Round 1 — 7 p.m. Wednesday, Rounds 2-7 — Noon Thursday; Bridgestone Arena, Nashville, Tennessee.
TV: Round 1 — ESPN; Rounds 2-7 — NHL Network.
Red Wings’ picks (with overall picks in parentheses): Round 1 — No. 9 (9), No. 17 (17); Round 2 — No. 8 (41), No. 9 (42), No. 10 (43); Round 3 — No. 9 (73); Round 4 — No. 21 (117); Round 5 — No. 9 (137); Round 6 — No. 9 (169); Round 7 — No. 9 (201).