Gabe Perreault deserves to be high on the Detroit Red Wings’ list of possibilities with their first pick in next week’s draft.
General manager Steve Yzerman said this week that he anticipates picking where the lottery put the Wings — rather than trade up — which is at No. 9. Teams lean towards the best available player that high in the draft, and for the Wings, that could be Perreault, a puck-loving forward coming off a history-making season.
“I remember writing in some of my comments, ‘This kid has eyes in the back of his head,’ ” NHL Central Scouting director Dan Marr said of Perreault earlier this month at the combine. “I called him a magician out there.”
Perreault (5 feet 11, 163 pounds, shoots left) put up a staggering 53 goals and 79 assists in 63 games with the U.S. Hockey National Team Development Program (USNTDP) this past season. His 132 points set the program’s single-season record, eclipsing 2016 No. 1 pick Auston Matthews (117 points in 60 games in 2014-15), and 2019 No. 1 pick Jack Hughes (116 points in 60 games in 2017-18).
Central Scouting placed Perreault at No. 10 among North American skaters.
“He’s quick and clever with the puck,” Marr said. “Just a pure goal scorer. He’s a kid that wants the puck on his stick, but he showed that at top speed, he can make plays, he can get the shot off, he arrives on time. He’s just your pure, offensive, top-end player.”
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That should sound appealing to the Wings, who struggled to score even before unloading their two best goal-scorers, Tyler Bertuzzi and Jakub Vrána, at the trade deadline.
Perreault had 18 points (five goals, 13 assists) in seven games with the gold-medal U.S. team at the U18 World Championship in April. Perreault has high-end hockey IQ and the kind of anticipation that leaves opponents wondering what happened. (It doesn’t hurt he grew up around the NHL: His father, Yanic, was a journeyman who played 859 games from 1993-2008).
There are better skaters in the draft — such as speed demon Oliver Moore — but Perreault has shown strides in his mobility.
“His skating, his strength coach at USA Hockey has done a really good job,” Marr said. “His skating improved significantly from last year into this year, and he picked up the good habits to keep his feet moving, to always be in the right place at the right time.”
Perreault might be available to the Wings with their other first-round pick, which falls at No. 17 — as handy as pre-draft rankings are, they only mean so much. (Remember last year, when pundits had Shane Wright going first overall, but he fell to fourth?) But if there isn’t a center they like at No. 9, Perreault may look like the best available player, thanks to his elite offensive skills.
Contact Helene St. James at hstjames@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @helenestjames.
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