After missing out on the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs on a tiebreaker, the 2024-25 season has been a massive disappointment for the Detroit Red Wings. Last year’s team was punching above their weight class a little, but few expected this team to come crashing right back down in the way they have. Breakout performances by young players like Simon Edvinsson and Marco Kasper, as well as some strong goaltending performances across the board haven’t been nearly enough to keep the team in the playoff race.
Unfortunately, with the season being more than a third complete, Red Wings fans are already left looking at the upcoming NHL Draft and Draft Lottery once again. While it’s way too early to predict Detroit’s draft slot or even draft lottery odds, they are currently on a pace that makes it likely that they’ll land in the bottom-10 of the NHL once again this season.
Related: 2025 NHL Draft Rankings – Horn’s Top 64 for December
With that in mind, I want to take a quick look at the players available at the top of the 2025 NHL Draft, and see what kind of impact each of them could have on this Red Wings team should pigs fly and Detroit wins a draft lottery spot. Additionally, I’ll give each of them a score out of 10 for how well they would fill a position of need for the Red Wings going forward.
Lack of Lottery Luck
I won’t rub salt in the wound too much, but it’s fair to say that draft lottery day has never been a very fun day in the city of Detroit. Their biggest losses have turned out alright so far, with each of Edvinsson, Moritz Seider, and Lucas Raymond being selected with picks in years that Detroit slid in the draft order following the lottery. However, it wouldn’t hurt to get a little nudge in the right direction one of these years.
Porter Martone
Porter Martone is a big winger who has the potential to have a Tkachuk-brother-like impact in the NHL. He has a ton of skill with the puck, skates really well for his size, and has that special ability to get under his opponents’ skin. Martone is one of the highest scoring players in the OHL so far this season, and has been selected by Team Canada for the World Junior Championship later this month as an 18-year-old, likely as a top-six winger.
Martone would be an excellent addition to Detroit’s top-six forward group that has plenty of skill and playmaking, but could use someone with his direct style of play, attacking space and moving through defenders if necessary. I don’t expect Martone to become an MVP-calibre player in the NHL, but I think it’s reasonable to expect him to become a first-line winger capable of scoring 80+ points a season through much of his career.
Projected Fit in Detroit: 10/10
James Hagens
James Hagens is an undersized center who skates incredibly well and has excellent hockey sense. There’s a lot of similarities between Hagens and recent NTDP graduates like Logan Cooley and Will Smith (or even a little bit of Jack Hughes), as slick skaters who lack size and physical jam, but make up for it with elusive skating and tons of skill. Hagens was the clear favorite to go first overall in this year’s draft coming into the season, and while a few others have caught up to him it’s through no fault of his own. Hagens has looked excellent in the NCAA this year, taking Smith’s spot as the first-line center for Boston College.
Related: The NHL’s Top 100 Prospects – Preseason Rankings
Detroit has quite the bounty of young, smooth-skating, playmaking centers with guys like Nate Danielson and Kasper both in the team’s center depth chart. Would Hagens be the best of that group? Yes. Would that make at least one of the other players somewhat redundant? Also yes. I do think that Hagens has a high enough offensive ceiling that he could conceivably push Larkin for the spot as the team’s first line center, which would have a ripple effect on the rest of their depth chart, improving the team’s outlook immensely.
Projected Fit in Detroit: 8/10
Michael Misa
Michael Misa is a more well-rounded center prospect than Hagens, though questions have surrounded him for a few years now regarding his ultimate offensive ceiling. Now that Misa has taken over as “the guy” for the Saginaw Spirit in the OHL, he has also silenced many critics, leading the OHL in both goals and points at the time of writing. After being given Exceptional Status to join the OHL a year early, expectations had been cooling for Misa, but he is scoring at a torrid pace this year, firmly putting himself back in the conversation as one of the 2025 Draft’s most exciting prospects.
Once again, Detroit wouldn’t exactly be getting anything all that new out of Misa, though I like his potential as a goal scorer more than any other young center in Detroit’s system. Misa would project either as a second-line center or top-six winger in Detroit, pushing both Danielson and Kasper either down the lineup or onto the wing. I’m not sure he’d push Larkin out of his spot as the 1C anytime soon, but I could see him holding that position eventually.
Projected Fit in Detroit: 7/10
Matthew Schaefer
Matthew Schaefer is a left-shot defenseman who was known primarily as a smooth skater with an excellent defensive game, right up until his offensive explosion this season. Schaefer is a remarkable two-way defender who has been dominant in the OHL this season. He’s 6-foot-2, plays huge minutes on both special teams, and is just over a week away from being eligible for the 2026 Draft instead, giving him even more time to develop physically compared to his peers. Schaefer is a phenomenal skater, which he has used to wild success on offense this year, but it also makes him an incredibly mobile and versatile defender.
Matthew Schaefer goes Coast-to-Coast! 4-0 CHL#CHLUSAProspectsChellenge pic.twitter.com/bT3DsAEoZg
— TSN (@TSN_Sports) November 27, 2024
The Red Wings have two 6th overall picks in Edvinsson and Seider who have formed a dynamic top pairing, and they have an offensive phenom coming down the pipeline soon in Axel Sandin Pellikka. Schaefer could help round out a fearsome top-four group on the left side, giving Detroit another strong two-way defender to give them a d-corps that would be the envy of the rest of the league. His combination of size, defensive care, and offensive juice make him the no-doubt top defender in this year’s draft, and could possibly make him the first overall pick when all is said and done.
Projected Fit in Detroit: 10/10
Would a Lottery Win Solve Detroit?
Well . . . no. Detroit’s problems are clearly more complex and numerous than any one player could fix, but landing any of the aforementioned prospects (or even likely another few players who work their way into the top-5 conversation this year), would be a stroke of luck that could massively improve the team’s outlook.
If it wasn’t clear, I believe the best fit for Detroit would be one of Martone or Schaefer, who would both fill positions of greater need for the Red Wings, but either of Misa or Hagens would also be a huge help for Detroit.
It would be such a lovely symbol for fans if the team finally won a draft lottery, signalling a change in fortunes that would hopefully raise spirits a bit and help lead to the team finally breaking their franchise record playoff drought. This version of the Detroit Red Wings is going to continue to struggle due to a lack of elite players, and while those players are still available past the first few picks of the NHL Draft (if you’re lucky), winning a draft lottery would certainly help the Red Wings solve that problem.