RW wrote:
I'm not sure Detroit should take Hughes even if they get the no. 1 pick. They need NHL calibre defensemen so desperately right now as well as a young really top-flight potential NHL goaltender. The Red Wings are probably, at least, 3 to 5 years out from being a playoff calibre team.
I saw Hughes play in person just recently. Don't be a doof. You can build a winner around a kid like that. Him setting up Filip Zadina for countless goals will help more than taking a defender and waiting for him to develop ever would.
ALSO, this is not the draft to take a defenseman if you're in the top five or six, that was last year's draft and Detroit opted not to take Jack's big bro (in hindsight...maybe they should have, but I still don't think they messed up in taking Filip Zadina). The consensus top-rated blueliner this year is Bowen Byram, and the highest I've seen him ranked anywhere is 5th. Hughes setting up Zadina for scoring chances will far, far outweigh anything Byram could give you on the ice.
And for the record, it ain't like the Wings are flush with top-flight center prospects. Yeah, they got Larkin, and I was wrong in thinking he wasn't a legit top-flight center, but I don't think you can ever have too many elite forwards. And if you do, then trade for a defenseman. You said yourself they're gonna be tanking a little while longer, they have plenty of time to address the black hole on their blueline.