Red Wings 2025 Draft Guide: Top 50 Targets, Trades & More – The Hockey Writers – Detroit Red Wings

Over the last few months, the Detroit Red Wings have been hard at work finalizing their game plan in preparation for the 2025 NHL Draft. And this weekend, Steve Yzerman, Kris Draper, and the organization’s scouting staff will have another chance to strengthen their prospect pipeline.

Detroit enters the 2025 draft with nine picks:

While there’s plenty of depth currently in the prospect pipeline, the Red Wings still need a couple high-end players to round out the top of their (future) lineup. Another top-six forward and top-four defenseman would go a long way in elevating Detroit’s fortunes.

Related: Red Wings Trade Board for the 2025 Offseason

Path to Detroit’s No. 13 Pick

Twelve players will be chosen before Yzerman makes Detroit’s selection. Based on what I’ve been hearing, here is how I expect the first 12 picks to pan out:

1. New York Islanders – LD Matthew Schaefer
2. San Jose Sharks – C Michael Misa
3. Chicago Blackhawks – C Anton Frondell
4. Utah Mammoth – C Caleb Desnoyers
5. Nashville Predators – RW Porter Martone
6. Philadelphia Flyers – C James Hagens
7. Boston Bruins – C Brady Martin
8. Seattle Kraken – C Roger McQueen
9. Buffalo Sabres – C Jake O’Brien
10. Anaheim Ducks – RD Radim Mrtka
11. Pittsburgh Penguins – LD Jackson Smith
12. New York Rangers – LD Kashawn Aitcheson

Red Wings Draft Board

In preparation for this year’s draft, I got together with my colleagues over at The Flying Octopus Podcast—Devin Little and Evan Sabourin—and created a draft board for the Red Wings – 50 prospects who would be great organizational fits.

This is a follow-up to a similar exercise last year. These are not the 50 best prospects. Instead, these prospects are the 50 best fits relative to Detroit’s draft slots, organizational needs, and draft culture. Rankings are based on our collective research, tracking, live viewings, and tape analysis.

You’ll notice that most of the top players in this year’s draft class are missing. That’s intentional. I do not expect the likes of Matthew Schaefer, Michael Misa, Anton Frondell, Porter Martone, Caleb Desnoyers, or James Hagens to be available when the Red Wings make their pick at No. 13.

With that said, here’s our 2025 draft board for the Red Wings:

1. C Roger McQueen
2. C Jake O’Brien
3. LW Victor Eklund
4. C Brady Martin
5. LW Carter Bear
6. LD Jackson Smith
7. LD Kashawn Aitcheson
8. C Cole Reschny
9. RW Justin Carbonneau
10. RD Radim Mrtka
11. LW Lyndon Lakovic
12. C Milton Gastrin
13. LW Malcolm Spence
14. C/LW Will Horcoff
15. C Ryker Lee
16. RD Henry Brzustewicz
17. LW Jack Murtagh
18. C Eric Nilson
19. C Cole McKinney
20. RW Alexander Zharovsky
21. LD Simon Wang
22. RW Shane Vansaghi
23. RW Eddie Genborg
24. C Ethan Czata
25. LD Kurban Limatov
26. RW Vaclav Nestrasil
27. C Matthew Gard
28. RD Carter Amico
29. LW David Lewandowski
30. RD Peyton Kettles
31. C Theo Stockselius
32. LW Tomas Poletin
33. C Michal Svrcek
34. LW Filip Ekberg
35. RW Bruno Osmanis
36. C Gustav Hillstrom
37. LD Malte Vass
38. C Tyler Hopkins
39. RD Theodor Hallquisth
40. RD Carlos Handel
41. C Adam Benak 
42. C Mikkel Eriksen
43. LW Kristian Epperson
44. RD Carson Cameron
45. C Jimmy Lombardi
46. RW Maxim Schafer
47. G Petteri Rimpinen
48. C Tomas Tobezal
49. G Jack Parsons
50. LW Max Westergard

Red Wings’ First Round Trade Options

In addition to the draft board, we’ve included fair deals should the Red Wings decide to trade up or back using PuckPedia’s Perri Pick Value Calculator. 

• Move up to No. 10 – Detroit trades No. 13, No. 44, and No. 119 to Anaheim for No. 10
• Move back to No. 16 – Detroit trades No. 13 to Montreal for No. 16 and No. 41

In both cases, the team moving back gets a little more than the team moving up in terms of pick value. So a slight overpay to move up, and getting a sweetener to move back.

Detroit could potentially move up if Roger McQueen falls due to concerns about his back injury. If the Red Wings are comfortable with the risk, getting a high-end talent would be worth the cost. Additionally, Anaheim could opt to move back and grab a defenseman in a more appropriate draft slot.

One last note: This may be the last year the Red Wings select in the top half of the draft. It may be a good opportunity to consolidate draft picks (and prospects, if need be) and trade up into the top 10 to select one more high-end player to cap off their rebuild. I’m talking Brady Martin, Jake O’Brien, James Hagans, or Porter Martone. It’s now or never.

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