2012 Draft: Red Wings

First Round: 
We traded our pick for Kyle Quincey. With our pick Tampa chose goalie Andrei Vasilevski.

Second Round: 

We chose forward Martin Frk. Yes, we chose someone with no vowels in their last name... What is that? Apparently, it's pronounced FERK, and he wears #91 because of his childhood idol Sergei Fedorov. (Source)

Anyways, the Red Wings chose a guy who NHL Network said slipped through the cracks, like Nyquist/Tatar.

The NHL.com article about Frk in February says that although he missed the first 29 games of Halifax's season with a concussion, he has been symptom free ever since his return. He had 27 points in 24 games with Halifax this year.

Elite Prospects: Martin Frk
Reaction on Twitter --
Jeff Marek (TSN):
"DET nabs Martin Frk in the 2nd rd.  Hardest shot in the draft. Concussion probs hurt his year. Raw, raw talent.  Could be outstanding"
RedWingsCentral:
"Frk is basically a bigger, harder shooting version of Teemu Pulkkinen. Literally terrorizes goaltenders with his shot, but accuracy varies."
Red Wings Twitter:
"Frk when asked to describe his game: 'I think I'm powerful. I can score goals and have a good shot.'"

Here's a Highlight Reel 

Third Round:

Goalie Jake Paterson. Says his favorite team is the Wings and his favorite goalie is Ryan Miller.

"Jake Paterson – Saginaw Spirit – 6’1.25’’ 183 – G – 3^rd Ranked Goalie by NHL Central Scouting

Paterson played in 42 regular season games this season for the Spirit before backstopping the club in all 12 playoff contests posting a 6-3-3-0 record with a goals-against-average of 3.05 and save percentage of .903 which included a 42-save performance in a 5-2 win over the London Knights in Game 3 of the Western Conference Semi-Finals. 

Spirit Head Coach Greg Gilbert says:  “Jake is a very talented young goaltender.  Very strong athleticism, compete level and work ethic.  Jake is showing very good signs of becoming a much more mature and efficient goalie.  Jake has shown the mental toughness to rebound and play a solid game after a tough outing the previous game.  All good signs." (Source)

Twitter Reaction:

Bob Duff:

"#redwings Paterson won a gold medal with Team Ontario at the 2011 World Under-17 Hockey Challenge."

Red Wings Twitter:

"Paterson said he was a #Wings fan growing up, remembers the 2002 Stanley Cup winning team well and looks up to Chris Osgood."

Brian Hedger:

"Also, Paterson said: "My first time playing goalie, I hated it and couldn’t wait for the next game to be back at forward ..." #RedWings"

Fourth Round

Left Wing Andreas Athanasiou.

The Hockey Writers say:

"Andreas Athanasiou (ath-an-ah-see-ew) was a name to watch coming into the 2011-12 season, blessed with tremendous skill, many scouts put him on their watch lists and high in their preliminary rankings.   TSN analyst Craig Button had him listed 8th in his pre-season draft rankings.

By mid-season he was ranked 24th by NHL Central Scouting.

Whether it was his inability to capitalize or otherprospects simply progressing past him, he fell further than he would have liked as the season went on.  Currently he is ranked as the 40th North American skater by NHL Central Scouting and #36 overall by ISS.

However, it wasn’t exactly that he had a terrible year, playing on a loaded Knights team this season he finished third on the team in the regular season with 22 goals, and helped lead them to the Memorial Cup final where they lost to eventual champ Shawinigan.  He played primarily on the second line with OHL veterans Austin Watson and Greg McKegg.

When talking about Athanasiou’s game, it begins and ends with speed.  One of the faster players in the draft, he has the type of top end speed that kills.  He’s also very dynamic offensively with slick hands and is a tremendous stickhandler, which has drawn comparisons to another CHL player who was in a similar situation to him a year ago and the Sea Dogs Tomas Jurco.  In fact Athanasiou did a similar stickhandling and trick shot video to that of the Red Wings 2010 draftee" (Source)

He is not without fault though, he needs to work on shooting. Production is not where it is wanted but, the Wings are not afraid of it.

Twitter Reaction:

Sarah Lindenau (Wings Camp:

"wooo like how TSN is describing him #redwings"

Corey Pronman (ESPN Draft Guru)

"DET takes Athanasiou. At one point considered a high first rounder but struggled this year. Tremendous skater, lot of offensive skill."

Here's A Highlight Reel:

Fifth Round:

Defenseman Mike McKee.
McKee is committed to Western Michigan. Michael McKee is huge at 6'4" -- still not the biggest guy we got this year. McKee put up 237PIM in 59 games last season, to go along with that he potted 2G and 17 assists. McKee is not at all close to NHL ready, about as NHL ready as most guys are in the fifth round -- he's big though and you can't teach size. He's got that going for him which is nice. (Caddy Shack reference)

Bruins DraftWatch calls him a sleeper pick, in 2010.

"McKee at 17 is already 6-4 and 230 pounds and apparently skates extremely well for such a big boy. He's an August 1993 birthdate, which means he's on the young end of the spectrum. He had three goals and 11 points last season for the Lions, and watch for him to breakout in a big way (pun intended) this season if he returns.

He and USHL defender Scott Mayfield looked quite good as a defensive pairing on the ice this week, and it will be interesting to see how his hockey skills and intellect grade out, as clearly, the fact that he's such a physical specimen already but one who can actually skate, makes him one kid that NHL teams are zeroing in on this season no matter where he ends up playing."

No twitter for the rest of them -- my twitter stopped updating... must figure out why.

Sixth Round: 

All the way to the sixth round and no Europeans for the Wings... not the traditional draft. 

Anyways, our Wings selected another Ontario born player in James De Haas. This is the second D-man that the Wings picked this year. 

RedWingsCentral has this to say:

"Good-sized defenceman was ranked 176th by Central Scouting. Will play in the NCAA at Clarkson next season, the same program that housed former Red Wings prospects Julien Cayer and the late Bryan Rufenach. He led his team in defense scoring and was fifth in the Ontario junior A ranks." 

Seventh Round:

Here's where the Wings continue to shine over the years. Henrik Zetterberg, Pavel Datsyuk and a whole host of other great Wings were chosen here.

At the 200th overall pick, once again the world was exposed to Hakan Andersson's greatness. The Wings chose Rasmus Bodin. He is six-foot-six and over 230 pounds.

RedWingsCentral has this to say about him:

"The Red Wings finally went to Europe with their last pick and took yet another Swedish sleeper, a six-foot-six forward who averaged close to a point per game and  piled up 94 penalty minutes at the country’s second J-18 level last season. He’s joining the HV-71 organization next season and will get much more exposure."