Red Wings not as interested in NHL Draft Lottery with no first-round pick
Detroit — The NHL Draft Lottery has been a major news story for the Red Wings in recent years but not this time. The league’s lottery is set for 7 p. m.
Tuesday and will be broadcast on ESPN, but the Wings may only have a passing interest in the proceedings. They dealt their first-round draft pick this year at the trade deadline to the St. Louis Blues, along with prospect Dmitri Buchelnikov, for defenseman Justin Faulk .
The Wings were in position to make the playoffs at the time and Faulk, who has one year left on his contract, upgraded the lineup, with term on his contract. But the Wings collapsed in the season's final weeks and missed the playoffs for a 10th consecutive season. So now, they're without a first-round pick, which is slotted currently at 15th.
But general manager Steve Yzerman said trading and drafting are the two main routes for teams to improve these days, as free agent classes get progressively thinner. "Obviously we used a first-round pick and a good prospect to acquire a defenseman that helps us for the foreseeable future,” Yzerman said. "Free agency, with a 32-team league and the salary cap going up, teams in the past weren’t able to re-sign their free agents.
(But) they’re all getting re-signed, so that free-agent market is thinner. "Ultimately, you're drafting or looking at really trading to do that. " There is no chance of the draft pick jumping into the No.