Detroit Red Wings’ Evgeny Svechnikov must prove he fits into future
But five years on this is not looking like a good pick. The Wings passed on Brock Boeser (23rd, Vancouver Canucks), who was on pace for a third straight 20-plus goal season when the NHL shut down March 12, and on Travis Konecny (24th, Philadelphia Flyers), who has recorded three straight 24-goal seasons. They are established players with their respective teams, while the Wings are still waiting on Svechnikov.
I highlighted this part because while I completely understand the tendency to look at players that the team passed on in order to make a selection, and I’m not saying there’s nothing to it, sometimes I think people put too much emphasis on it. Would I rather have had either of those players at this point? Sure. But who knows what would have happened if Svech didn’t get hurt so much.
Of course, those could have been better picks regardless. I’m just saying it’s really hard to tell.
What opening day of NHL’s Phase 3 looks like around the league – Sportsnet.ca
The NHL has centralized all player health and injury updates, which means coaches and general managers cannot comment on any players’ absences beyond announcing that they are “unfit to play.” So while we’ll likely be hearing that term quite a bit in the next few days, it’s important not to jump to any conclusions here about players’ health, as measures are in place to keep players and their families safe and healthy and personal health records are kept private.
While I do care about player’s privacy, it seems like this injury reporting phrasing the league is making clubs use now is going to just lead to more speculation.
