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Triple threat: Ferraro, Tatar and Nestrasil
By Matthew Wuest - RedWingsCentral.com / June 27, 2009The Detroit Red Wings walked away from the 2009 NHL draft saying they'd nabbed three first-round picks — without actually using one.
The Red Wings ended up with forwards Landon Ferraro, Tomas Tatar and Andrej Nestrasil in the first three rounds after dealing their first-rounder (29th overall) to the Tampa Bay Lightning for the 32nd and 75th picks.
They grabbed Ferraro in the 32nd slot and Tatar at No. 60. They took Nestrasil at 75th overall with what amounted to a "bonus pick."
"We had them all ranked high," said Red Wings assistant general manager Jim Nill. "That's why we moved down when we did. We knew we'd have a chance to get a couple of those names, and we ended up getting all three."
The 6-foot, 170-pound Ferraro is the son of former NHL 400-goal scorer Ray Ferraro. He did plenty of goal-scoring damage on a weak Red Deer Rebels team in the Western Hockey League last season, scoring 37 goals in 68 games. The Red Wings project him as a gritty second-line center.
Tatar bumped to the top of everyone's radar by scoring seven goals among 11 points in seven games at the world junior championship at mid-season and had a productive season in the Slovak ExtraLiga. The 5-foot-11, 176-pounder is a quick, elusive scoring-line winger who has a nose for the net.
The 6-foot-2, 200-pound Nestrasil came over from the Czech Republic and adjusted well to the QMJHL with the Victoriaville Tigres. He had 57 points in 66 games impressed the Red Wings at the world under-18 championship. His skating needs work, but he plays a new-age power forward game.
Later in the draft, the Red Wings picked up three smooth-skating, offensive defensemen — Gleason Fournier (90th), Nick Jensen (150th) and Adam Almqvist (210th) — in the hopes at least one of them pans out.
Fournier, who plays in the QMJHL for the Rimouski Oceanic, has brilliant wheels but needs to get stronger; Jensen, who plays for the United States Hockey League's Green Bay Gamblers, is a late-blooming, long-term project; and Almqvist, a 5-foot-10 Swede, is blessed with cerebral hockey sense.
The Red Wings' other pick was right-winger Mitchell Callahan, who finished third in the WHL with 188 penalty minutes en route to the Memorial Cup final with the Kelowna Rockets. Although he is only 5-foot-11 and 175 pounds, he's an agitating scrapper in the Daniel Carcillo/Adam Burish mold.
"We're happy," said Nill. "Talk to 29 other teams, they're happy too. If you're not happy today, you're never going to be happy. We all did something we think we did right, but now, time will tell if we were."
Nill said he will be inviting a number of undrafted players to try out for contracts, perhaps as early as a development camp the Red Wings are holding at Joe Louis Arena from July 7 to 12. Last season, the Red Wings uncovered free agent signings Brian Lashoff and Brent Raedeke via that route.
Red Wings Central will have in-depth profiles of all seven of Detroit's draft choices this week as well as updates on free agent tryouts.
In other Red Wings news, Swedish forwards Johan Ryno and Dick Axelsson are slated to play in the American Hockey League next season.
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The next wave
RWC's top 10 prospects (2009-10 preliminary)
| 01 | F | Tomas Tatar » | Grand Rapids (AHL) |
| 02 | D | Jakub Kindl » | Grand Rapids (AHL) |
| 03 | D | Brendan Smith » | Wisconsin (NCAA) |
| 04 | G | Thomas McCollum » | Grand Rapids (AHL) |
| 05 | F | Gustav Nyquist » | Maine (NCAA) |
| 06 | F | Landon Ferraro » | Red Deer (WHL) |
| 07 | F | Jan Mursak » | Grand Rapids (AHL) |
| 08 | F | Cory Emmerton » | Grand Rapids (AHL) |
| 09 | F | Joakim Andersson » | Frolunda (SEL) |
| 10 | F | Mattias Ritola » | Grand Rapids (AHL) |