In Red Wings Land

Will Detroit Red Wings make pitch for Ilya Kovalchuk? | MLive

Khan(!) doubts that Ilya Kovalchuk would want to come here in his latest mailbag. There’s also this:

Q: Do the Wings plan to look for a lot of trade-up opportunities at the draft and use extra picks to move up? – Tom

A: They will try. They would like to move up to No. 3 for a shot at right wing Filip Zadina or No. 4 or 5 to get defenseman Evan Bouchard. If they do trade up or down it would happen during the draft on June 21 and of course depend on what transpires ahead of them.

What would it take to move up? At minimum, in addition to swapping the No. 6 pick, the Red Wing surely would need to relinquish their other first-round selection (30 or 31, depending on whether Vegas wins the Stanley Cup) or one of their second-round picks (No. 33 or 36).

More draft pick trade talk here. Trading up for Filip Zadina? I could probably get behind that idea (unless it’s a massive overpayment). He’s pretty much cemented in that Tier Two with Andrei Svechnikov. If you’re giving up assets to move up, you better get an elite talent.

Now, trading up for Evan Bouchard? No thank you. It’s not that I don’t think he’ll be a good player in the NHL, I just don’t think he’s worth trading up for. You can get someone similarly good in Quinn Hughes, Noah Dobson or Adam Boqvist if you stand pat at #6.

Khan(!) also answers questions on the Svechnikov brothers and the young defensemen battling for a roster spot.

Around the League

Dahlin, Svechnikov, Tkachuk, Zadina top NHL.com mock drafts

Three NHL writers gave their mock draft picks and all three selected a defenseman for the Red Wings at #6.