Abel to Yzerman

Abel to Yzerman

Boons Or Busts?

08/04/2018 at 1:19pm EDT

from Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press,

Here is a look at the best lower-round picks and the worst higher-round picks the Wings made between 1999 (the last draft to still have an active player on the team) and running through 2012 (players need time to develop).

Boons

F Gustav Nyquist
Drafted:
Fourth round, 121st overall, 2008.

How the selection turned out: After producing 21 points in 15 games with the Griffins to start the 2013-14 season, Nyquist was called up and went on to score 28 goals for the Wings. He followed up with 27 in 2014-15, often finding himself on a line with Zetterberg or Datsyuk. Nyquist’s production fell to 12 goals in 2016-17 (a season that saw many Wings struggle) but he bounced back in 2017-18 to record 21 goals. His NHL playoff history is meager, with eight points in 35 games. Nyquist is not an assertive player, but he’s shown he can score on a talented team.

Grade: B.

Busts

F Tomas Jurco
Drafted:
Second round, 35th overall, 2011.

How the selection turned out: It looked promising when Jurco produced 15 points during 36 games with the Wings in 2013-14, and the following season Mike Babcock wanted Jurco on the team, leading to Andrej Nestrasil being put on waivers. Babcock’s insistence baffled, as Jurco struggled to scored and finished 2014-15 with just thee goals and 18 points in 63 games. When Jurco wasn’t a healthy scratch in 2015-16, he registered six points in 44 games. Jurco had 15 goals and 24 assists in 159 career games with Detroit when the Wings traded him to Chicago in February of 2017 for a third-round pick. He wasn't any better with the Blackhawks, scoring one goal in 13 games when he wasn't a healthy scratch. After 10 points in 29 games last season, the Blackhawks did not qualify Jurco.

Grade: D.

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Welcome to Abel to Yzerman, a Red Wing blog since 1977. No other site on the internet has better-researched, fact-laden and better prepared discussions than A2Y. Re-phrase: we do little research, find facts and stats highly overrated and claim little to no preparation. There are 19 readers of A2Y. No more, no less. All of them, except maybe one, are juvenile in nature. Reminding them of that in the comment section will only encourage them to prove that.

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