Red Wings' GM Kevin Smith is clearly getting a reputation for collecting prospects, having drafted 13 this year and 17 in 2020, leaving the team with 28 players under-20 and 33 junior prospects total, though a few (notably including goalie Nigel Daws) will likely be joining Grand Rapids to start the season.

However, while the 2020 class was very deep, it did not have a great deal of high end talent to it - only Stutzle (3rd) and Wallinder (14th) were first round picks, while the two second rounders (Pytlik and Bordeleau) were late in the round at 54th and 56th.

By comparison, the 2021 class is a mix of very strong prospects and several boom or bust projects, with a rather significant seven (7!) picks in the first two rounds.

Though they won the lottery to move up to first overall, ultimately Smith decided to trade back down to 2nd, gaining 43rd overall and a prospect (Thimo Nickl) in the process, in his only draft floor trade. He used 2nd overall to pick William Eklund, who he described as "a lot like Tim Stutzle, a dynamic offensive centre with great hands and strong defensive awareness," adding that "this should give us an excellent 1-2 down the middle for years to come".

The team followed that up with a pair of wingers - Brennan Othmann, a well-rounded offensive talent with a very good shot and decent skills away from the puck, at 13 and Zachary L'Heureux, a solid two-way forward with some reliability concerns, at 21.

Rounding out the first round was Roman Schmidt, a 6'6" beast of a defenceman who projects very much as a shutdown type who will crush opposing forwards and bully them in front of the net.

Using the aforementioned 43rd overall pick, acquired from Colorado earlier in the draft, the Wings went for a bit of a project in Nolan Allan. Another defensive defenceman, Allan is projected at more of a high-end AHL level, but has shown glimpses of NHL talent that suggest he could be as solid as Schmidt defensively but with a bit more offensive upside. Whether he reaches that peak is the question.

Late in the second, the Wings selected Oliver Moberg and Jack Matier back to back at 56 and 57, both continuing with a trend in Smith's 2021 drafting - a focus on defensively solid picks. Moberg projects as an inconsistent third liner, while Matier is a slightly smaller and slightly lesser version of Schmidt.

They chose another boom or bust project at 73rd in Wyatt Johnston, a two-way centre who might be a career second-line AHLer or could thrive as an NHL third line centre, followed by Alexei Kolosov at 77, a 19-year-old Russian goalie with very good consistency. Not likely to be a starter, he looks a solid backup.

The final four picks are all viewed as projects, with Olivier Nadeau (111), Victor Stjernborg (125), and Albert Sjoberg (126) two-way forwards and Topias Vilen (143) a two-way defenceman. None are expected to be stars, but all could be depth NHLers - or depth AHLers.