UPDATE: We’ve recorded the episode. It should be out Thursday morning.

Can you feel the excitement in Motown for the first NHL draft of the Steve Yzerman-as-GM era? Well if you can’t, you can always plan to listen to our upcoming episode of WIIM radio and that should help, because we’re all geeked here.

We’ll be recording a new episode with the plan to release early on Thursday morning just before the NHL draft this weekend. While our last episode of Fer Sure went heavy on the overall NHL draft (and would be a great primer for this episode if you’re so inclined), we’ll be focusing much-heavier on the Red Wings’ side. As a bonus, we’ll have the esteemed DrDangles with us to help really dig into things.

Here’s what we’ll get into:

Draft Primer: Just in case ANYBODY has been living under a rock waiting for WIIM Radio to explain the basics, we’ll start off covering where we are and the tier of players the Wings can expect to be looking at with their first rounder. As an added bonus, we’ve got a poll down below that we want you to help us out with: who is the WIIM consensus pick for #6 right now?

Draft Strategy: Should the Wings consider moving up or down in the first round? What about moving around by potentially moving back or using some of their later-round draft stock (and/or some of their potential cap space) to pick up some added value?

The Later Rounds: We’ve talked to death about the guys expected to go early in the first, but want to take an opportunity to look deeper into the draft pool and figure out what the Wings might want to do with those later round picks to parse which guys fit those needs.

Reader Questions: Please ask anything that comes to mind to make sure that we get it covered.  We’ll be going over lots in this episode, but I’d hate to miss something you want asked.

We’ll be recording late tonight with the plan to release the episode early on Thursday. Get your questions and your voting in!

[Poll note: I’ve included a couple players some people may not consider reasonable to still be available at #6.  If you don’t feel a player you would love for the Wings to pick will realistically be there, please vote for somebody else]

Who should the Wings take with the sixth overall pick?