Red Wings’ 8 Best Draft Picks of the Yzerman Era – The Hockey Writers – Detroit Red Wings

With the announcement of Steve Yzerman stepping down as General Manager of the Detroit Red Wings last week, the “Yzerplan” Era of Red Wings hockey has come to a close. This era will be remembered as a failure for its inability to ice a playoff team, its wild free agent signings, and its mixed draft history.

After eight drafts with Yzerman at the helm, the Red Wings are certainly closer to being a consistent playoff team than they were, but the results didn’t arrive soon enough. I want to take a look at the eight best, and then the eight worst, draft picks of the Yzerman era in Detroit, starting on the optimistic side.

Let’s take a look at the most successful and valuable selections made by the Red Wings under Yzerman’s guidance.

Moritz Seider: 6th Overall, 2019 Draft

Moritz Seider was a late riser in the 2019 Draft, but taking Seider sixth overall was still a shock to the hockey world (and Seider himself). Seider’s development in the AHL and SHL in the years following his selection was very impressive, but nothing prepared the Red Wings for how impactful he would be right from the jump in the NHL.

Now, Seider is one of the league’s very best true two-way defenders, with a physical defensive game and enough smarts/skill to run the team’s top powerplay reasonably well. This past season, Seider’s game reached new heights and he set a new career high for points with 60, while being one of the most feared defenders in the league. He was fifth in Norris Trophy voting and even earned four votes for the Hart Trophy, more than some top players like Cale Makar, Kirill Kaprizov, or Quinn Hughes.

This was a generation defining draft pick for the Red Wings, providing them with the absolute foundation of their roster going forward. For a hint into how valuable a player like Seider could be, just look at the next highest scoring defender from the 2019 Draft class, Bowen Byram. Byram hasn’t even established himself as a number one defender, but was just traded for the fourth overall pick in the 2026 Draft. Seider would be worth far more than that in a trade and I think he’d be clearly in the conversation at first overall in a re-draft. 

Lucas Raymond: 4th Overall, 2020 Draft

Lucas Raymond is one of the best players to come out of the 2020 draft class. He is a dynamic scoring winger who still looks like he has more to give offensively. Raymond is second in scoring from his draft class (behind only Tim Stützle) and has a case as the third best player of the whole group (I’d have Jake Sanderson above him at the moment). 

Raymond has excelled early in his career, but has done so on a losing team with a captain and first line center who has decided he wants out. The path to playoff contention seems as far away as ever right now, so it will be up to Raymond to prove what kind of player he is going to be long-term. Is he a Jake Guentzel type who scores 80+ points and drives play for a winning team, or is he more like a Kevin Fiala who is a great, but not a truly elite player who can lead his team to victory?

Emmitt Finnie: 201st Overall, 2023 Draft

This is by far the most value Detroit has gotten out of a late round pick in the Yzerplan era. Emmitt Finnie looks like a real middle-six piece either on the wing or potentially down the middle. He developed well in the WHL for years but few expected him to actually be an impactful NHLer this early into his career. 

There are 38 players from the 2023 Draft who have made their NHL debut, and Finnie’s 30 points ranks 10th in that group (his 82 games played also ranks 8th). After being selected 201st in the seventh round, Finnie has quickly become a serious NHL player, and one whose arrival has provided immense value for a Red Wings team that has struggled to find NHL talent outside of the first round.

Simon Edvinsson: 6th Overall, 2021 Draft

Simon Edvinsson’s development has taken time, but the Red Wings are already benefiting from their patience. Edvinsson spent his first three post-draft seasons split primarily between the SHL and AHL, finally earning a full-time spot in the Red Wings’ lineup for the 2024-25 season. 

Since being paired up with Seider on the top pair, Edvinsson has looked like a future shut-down stud. He really established himself as a force to be reckoned with defensively this season and even pushed his way into the Olympics conversation for Team Sweden. Although he didn’t earn a spot on that olympic team, it’s easy to picture him lining up for them at the 2030 games.

While Edvinsson sits fifth in scoring among defenders in the 2021 Draft class, I do think his two-way game compares favorably to many of his peers like Luke Hughes, Brandt Clarke, and Owen Power. Edvinsson looks like a top-four mainstay for the Red Wings, assuming they can get an extension hammered out with him before the 2026-27 season starts.

Eddie Genborg: 44th Overall, 2025 Draft

Obviously it’s too early to tell what Eddie Genborg will be as an NHL player, with just 12 North American games under his belt, but he looks like the exact kind of player Detroit needs for their top-six. Genborg is strong, physical, and he is a nightmare to deal with in corners and around the net. 

Genborg has done nothing but score since going in the second round of the 2025 Draft, earning 25 points in the SHL last season as an 18-year-old. He has a mature, athletic frame that allowed him to compete hard in that league, but his instincts and timing in the offensive zone made him a constant threat both as a scorer and a forechecker. 

He lit up the World Junior Championship for Gold medal winning Sweden, scoring some massive goals for a total of eight points in seven games. Genborg signed his entry level contract with Detroit in the Spring and spent a few weeks on an Amateur Tryout Deal with the Grand Rapids Griffins. He appears set to re-join Timrå IK back in Sweden on loan next season, though he will most likely return to North America full time after their season ends.

Trey Augustine: 41st Overall, 2023 Draft

Trey Augustine wasn’t seen as an elite goaltending prospect in his draft due to his lack of size, but that line of thinking ignores the fact that the kid is just a winner. Augustine won Gold at the U18 World Championships, won Gold twice at the World Junior Championships, won his NCAA conference twice, and was named top goalie in that conference twice as well. 

Augustine is calm and collected, never appearing frazzled in his crease, and rarely getting caught out of position. It was incredibly telling that he was called into service for Team USA back in the 2024 Senior Men’s World Championship. At age 19 he earned some playing time and performed on par with Charlie Lindgren and Alex Lyon, who are both established tandem goaltenders in the NHL.

After a stellar three-year collegiate career, Augustine made the jump to the AHL at the end of last season. While his numbers weren’t exactly inspiring in his two starts, I didn’t think he looked particularly bad. Augustine is going to be a good AHL goaltender in the near future, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he earned some time as the starter for the Griffins if Michael Postava lands with the Red Wings for any amount of time. 

Max Plante: 47th Overall, 2024 Draft

Max Plante is a phenomenal playmaker whose lack of size and physical prowess saw him fall to Detroit in the second round of the 2024 Draft. His first post-draft season saw him put up impressive numbers in the NCAA as a freshman, but he exploded this past season for 52 points as one of college hockey’s best players.

In fact, he was named the best player at that level, winning the Hobey Baker Award despite dealing with an injury through much of his season. Plante has tons of skill, supports defensively, and puts in admirable effort on the forecheck, but his clear standout skill is his passing. 

He always puts his teammates in good positions to succeed, often drawing attention through fakes or dekes before rifling a pass through approaching traffic, giving linemates extra time and space to work with. Plante is likely to return to the University of Minnesota-Duluth next season before going pro, but I think he has the potential to be a meaningful second-line winger for Detroit, providing extra value on the power play. 

Elmer Soderblom: 159th Overall, 2019 Draft

This one might be a bit of a stretch as the player hasn’t necessarily established himself as a full-time NHLer, and isn’t even with the club anymore, but I want to call attention to one of the team’s few success stories outside of the first 40 picks or so.

Elmer Soderblom is a towering forward with skill that far outweighs typical expectations for someone with his massive frame. Standing at 6-foot-8 off the ice, Soderblom is a unique player with the potential to be a meaningful piece in the NHL, though no longer with Detroit. He sits 37th in scoring among peers in the 2019 draft class despite being taken with the 159th pick by the Red Wings.