Here’s what TSN says:

He is without question the best defensive defenceman available in the draft, a big, physical presence with an edge who perfectly understands his role as a shutdown defender. The bonus is that he makes a great first pass, doesn’t try to play outside of his ability and is as mentally tough as he is physically tough. 

Here’s what Kevin Allen at USA Today said in his mock draft:

  … a similar kind of player (To Adam Foote). He’s the third player who might be able to play next season in the NHL.

And here is what the ISS says:

He’ll join Eric Johnson, TJ Oshie and Patrick Berglund on a team with a great young core.

Here is what TSN said:

A big, mobile puck mover who makes doing things with the puck appear easy. Scouts believe his upside is huge because he’s only just started to tap into his physical presence and as he matures they believe he could be a dominant force at both ends of the ice, although some scouts say he’s only paid cursory attention thus far to the game without puck.

This from the Sportsnet.ca mock draft

  He’s a bit more of a project then some of the others above, but he has size, scoring ability, can quarterback the power play and a taste for the physical game.

And here’s what the ISS said:

Here’s what TSN said:

 A physical specimen who plays every shift with unbridled passion and aggression, Bogosian likes to make things happen. He has a cannon for a shot, gets physically involved at every opportunity and is a natural born leader, not unlike his father Ike, who was a co-captain of the Syracuse University football team.

And Sportsnet’s mock draft:

 He might not be as ready now as Doughty given that he’s barely 18, but he might also project to be bigger and better down the road. His junior GM calls him a budding Chris Pronger. Normally we dismiss that, but his junior GM also had Pronger in Peterborough and may well know of what he speaks.:

Here’s what ISS said about his strengths and weaknesses:

Strengths

1. Very Competitive

2. Skating / Mobility

3. Offensive skill

Areas For Improvement

1. At times gets caught up ice

2. Needs to fill out and add muscle

Here’s how he;s described by TSN:

  His hockey I.Q. is off the chart and he has an innate understanding of when he needs to step up offensively and create offence for his team, either by doing it himself or making those around him better. As good –- no, make that as great -– as he is, there may still be a huge upside because he has only recently shown any interest in training like a pro.

So, Drew Doughty and Jack Johnson back on the blueline a few years from now? Yikes

Here’s what the TSN said about Stamkos:

Dynamic speed, with and without the puck, there’s not much to say about Stamkos that hasn’t already been said. He does everything at top speed and is equally adept at making plays and scoring goals, though finishing is his strong suit. His defensive game is vastly underrated because of his offensive prowess. He consistently exhibits commitment and character

And the ISS:

NHL Potential: 1st line Centre, and if he continues to progress, he will become a star. Style compares to: Joe Sakic Year Team

The Flames have acquired forward Mike Cammalleri from the Los Angeles Kings as part of a three-way trade.

Calgary sent their first-round selection (17th overall) to the Kings who then ship that pick and the 28th overall selection to the Anaheim Ducks in exchange for the Ducks’ 12th overall draft pick.

Sources have told TSN that the Calgary Flames are in process of trading forward Alex Tanguay to the Montreal Canadiens for 25th overall pick in the draft. The deal has yet to be finalized, however, as the trade call must still go through

The trade was confirmed by TSN’s draft show

In fact, with the exception, perhaps, of the 2002 Stanley Cup, recently acquired big-name free agents haven’t played a very big role in the Wings cups.

That 2002 Stanley Cup was, more than the others, a Stanley Cup won with the help of owner Mike Illitch’s wallet. The Wings signed all-time greats Luc Robitaille and Brett Hull prior to winning that year. The cup was also made possible by Dominik Hasek’s decision to force Buffalo to trade him to Detroit.

But otherwise, these teams were built the old fashioned way. Steve Yzerman? Sergei Fedorov? Nick Lidstrom? The draft. Brendan Shanahan? Kirk Maltby? Kris Draper? Trades.

The 2008 Stanley Cup winning team is yet another example of a team built by the draft. Pavel Datsyuk, Henrik Zetterberg, Niklas Kronwall, Nick Lidstrom, Johan Franzen, Valtteri Filppula, Jiri Hudler … The list goes on and on.  The Wings also made shrewd signings after the lockout, getting Chris Osgood back for a song. They also signed Mikael Samuelsson, Dan Cleary and Andreas Lilja for next to nothing. Veteran Dallas Drake was signed in the most recent off-season. The only big name free agent was Brian Rafalski — and he was brought in after Matt Schneider left for Anaheim.

And it’s also unfair to say the Wings have enjoyed feasting on other team’s salary dumps at the trade deadline. While the Wings have made many of these trades, rarely to they result in instant post-season success. The biggest trades made by the Wings (Chris Chelios, Robert Lang, Matthieu Schneider) didn’t bring instant success. In fact, only Chelios ever won a Cup with Detroit. The more cautious trades (A second rounder for Brad Stuart, future considerations for Larry Murphy, etc) seem to fit better with the team.

The Globe and Mail recently printed an interesting feature on the 1998 draft.  In the article, the Globe prints the players taken in round 1 that year, and then, based on a survey of five scouts who worked during that draft, the 30 best players available from that draft were ranked.

Here’s the original draft.

1	1	Tampa Bay	Vincent Lecavalier	C	Rimouski Oceanic [QMJHL]	710	273	329	602	507
1	2	Nashville	David Legwand	C	Plymouth Whalers [OHL]	549	121	206	327	318
1	3	San Jose	Brad Stuart	D	Regina Pats [WHL]	579	59	170	229	372
1	4	Vancouver	Bryan Allen	D	Oshawa Generals [OHL]	371	20	53	73	467
1	5	Anaheim	Vitaly Vishnevsky	D	Torpedo-2 Yaroslavl (Russia)	552	16	52	68	494
1	6	Calgary	Rico Fata	R	London Knights [OHL]	230	27	36	63	104
1	7	NY Rangers	Manny Malhotra	C	Guelph Storm [OHL]	557	65	97	162	316
1	8	Chicago	Mark Bell	C	Ottawa 67’s [OHL]	445	87	95	182	597
1	9	NY Islanders	Michael Rupp	L	Erie Otters [OHL]	263	24	20	44	276
1	10	Toronto	Nikolai Antropov	C	Torpedo UST-Kamengorsk (Russia)	446	104	141	245	453
1	11	Carolina	Jeff Heerema	R	Sarnia Sting [OHL]	32	4	2	6	6
1	12	Colorado	Alex Tanguay	C	Halifax Mooseheads [QMJHL]	609	177	362	539	311
1	13	Edmonton	Michael Henrich	R	Barrie Colts [OHL]
1	14	Phoenix	Patrick DesRochers	G	Sarnia Sting [OHL]	11	0	0	0	2
1	15	Ottawa	Mathieu Chouinard	G	Shawinigan Cataractes [QMJHL]	1	0	0	0	0
1	16	Mtl. Canadiens	Eric Chouinard	C	Quebec Remparts [QMJHL]	90	11	11	22	16
1	17	Colorado	Martin Skoula	D	Barrie Colts [OHL]	643	37	132	169	308
1	18	Buffalo	Dmitri Kalinin	D	Traktor Chelyabinsk (Russia)	466	34	111	145	289
1	19	Colorado	Robyn Regehr	D	Kamloops Blazers [WHL]	592	25	96	121	591
1	20	Colorado	Scott Parker	R	Kelowna Rockets [WHL]	308	7	14	21	699
1	21	Los Angeles	Mathieu Biron	D	Shawinigan Cataractes [QMJHL]	253	12	32	44	177
1	22	Philadelphia	Simon Gagne	L	Quebec Remparts [QMJHL]	527	208	202	410	189
1	23	Pittsburgh	Milan Kraft	C	Keramika Plzen (Czech.)	207	41	41	82	52
1	24	St. Louis	Christian Backman	D	Vastra Frolunda [Sweden]	246	21	51	72	150
1	25	Detroit	Jiri Fischer	D	Hull Olympiques [QMJHL]	305	11	49	60	295
1	26	New Jersey	Mike Van Ryn	D	U. of Michigan [NCAA]	326	27	91	118	246
1	27	New Jersey	Scott Gomez	C	Tri-City Americans [WHL]	629	132	388	520	398

In that first round, the Wings had one draft pick in the first round, way down at #25.

But according to the Globe and Mail, the Wings have cornered the market on players from that draft. Tampa’s Vinny Lacavalier is still ranked #1. But who’s ranked #2? Non other than the Red Wings’ Pavel Datsyuk, who was drafted 170 picks later. Big defenseman Jiri Fischer, drafted 25th that year, moved up 10 spots to 15. Brad Stuart, who was drafted 3rd overall, was ranked 16th (I am a big Jiri Fischer fan, but I can’t support Stuart ranking lower than Fischer). Mikael Samuelsson, drafted 145th overall by the Sharks, ranks 21st on the list. And playoff stud Johan Franzen, who was eligible but went undrafted until six years later, when the Wings selected him 97th overall, was ranked 25th overall for 1998.

So the Wings had 2 of the top 15 draft picks that year. And, had Jiri Fischer’s career not ended prematurely, the might have had five of the top 25 players from that draft on their roster. Stuart, they paid for, by trade. Samuelsson came as a dirt cheap unrestricted free agent from Sweden after the lockout. That is simply amazing.

Here are other drafts in which Detroit’s picks/players would be in the first round, if redone.

• 1989 — Lidstrom, Fedorov, Konstantinov, Sillinger, Drake, Boughner (later round)
•  1990 —Kozlov, Primeau, (Jason York in later rounds)
• 1991 — Lapointe, Osgood, Knuble
• 1992 — Neither McCarty or McGillis are worth a first, but are notable

Here come the lean years

• 1993 — Ugh, Anders Ericsson
• 1994 — Tomas Holmstrom, Matthieu Dandenault (on the edge)
• 1995 — Nothing
• 1996 — Nothing
• 1997 — Nothing
• 1998 — Datsyuk, Fischer
• 1999 — Zetterberg
• 2000 — Niklas Kronwall
• 2001 — None (Grigorenko likely would have been were in not for the car crash)
• 2002 — Filppula, Hudler (And I think Ericsson will be on the list before long

So, from 1989 to 1992, the Wings built their franchise through the draft. And then, in 1998, the restocking began. Amazingly, of the 16 players I listed as first round caliber, only Fischer, Kronwall (late first rounders), Primeau, Lapointe and Sillinger were first rounders. Plus, there were busts (Bowen, Ericsson, Wallin, Golubovsky, etc). But the Wings had 9 first round draft picks in this 13 year span, and came out with 15 first rounders.

That’s not supposed to happen to a team always ranked near the top of the standings every year. Then again, maybe that’s the reason why the team is always ranked high in the standings every year.