While you’re at it, check out the comments from the Oil fans. Interesting conversation going on discussing the Wings success at finding talent in Europe the last twenty years.

I can’t help thinking back to the words of Kent Nilsson before the 2002 draft when he said something like: “Hudler might be the most talented guy in the draft, but he’s small so he’ll get passed over and then Detroit will take him in the third round.” Well, they decided not to wait and took him in the second round, 58th overall.

Whether Hudler turns into another Zetterberg or Datsyuk is still an open question, obviously, but the fact that Nilsson pinned the team that would draft him (and it wasn’t his own team, the Oilers, of course) says something about the Wings’ philosophy and scouting system. I’ll bet somewhere among Hudler, Filppula, Kopecky, and Franzen is a late bloomer or two who will carry the mail for the Wings for years to come.