Abel to Yzerman

Abel to Yzerman

Bad Draft Years

06/05/2020 at 8:23am EDT

from Ansar Khan of Mlive,

One day after we analyzed the five-best drafts in Red Wings’ history, here are the franchise’s first-worst drafts of all-time:

1. 1972

The 1970s were marked by mismanagement, bad drafting and a lot of losing in Detroit, as the team reached the postseason only twice.

Ned Harkness was the general manager in the early ’70s, an era that would be remembered as “Darkness with Harkness.” The only player taken during his second draft as GM to reach the NHL was fourth-round pick Danny Gruen (No. 58). He played more games for the Virginia Red Wings (AHL), Fort Worth Red Wings (Central Hockey League) and Kansas City Red Wings (CHL) than he did for the Detroit Red Wings (20).

Harkness traded his first-round pick (No. 10) to the Rangers for Rick Newell and Gary Doak. Newell played seven games for Detroit over the next two seasons. Doak was traded to Boston midway through the 1972-73 season.

The Rangers used Detroit’s pick to select winger Al Blanchard, the only player drafted in the first round who didn’t reach the NHL.

The Red Wings’ second selection, left wing Pierre Guite, played seven seasons in the World Hockey Association. Their third pick, right wing Bob Krieger, didn’t advance past the AHL.

more years...

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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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