The Detroit Red Wings will have the 6th overall pick in the 2021 NHL Draft.
Heading into Wednesday night’s lottery drawing the Red Wings had a 7.6% chance at drawing a 1st overall pick and a 7.8% chance at drawing a 2nd overall pick. Detroit had the 6th-best odds of landing the 1st or 2nd overall pick.
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But the Red Wings also had a 30% chance of landing at 6th overall, which is right where they stayed in the drawing.
The 1st overall pick went to the Buffalo Sabres, and 2nd overall went to the Seattle Kraken, the NHL’s newest expansion franchise. See the full drawing outcomes below.
The 2021 NHL Draft will be held virtually on July 23 and 24. Seattle’s expansion draft will be held right before that on July 21.
Detroit fans can’t be too upset about staying at 6th overall -- at least they didn’t slide down as they did last year. In 2020, the Red Wings finished in last place and had an 18.5 percent chance at grabbing the top pick, but fell to 4th overall during the Draft Lottery.
In 2019, the Red Wings selected German defenseman Moritz Seider at 6th overall. In 2018, the Red Wings selected forward Filip Zadina also at 6th overall.
The Red Wings have had three 1st overall picks in franchise history: Claude Gauthier in 1964, Dale McCourt in 1977, and Joe Murphy in 1986.
Full 2021 NHL Draft Lottery drawing order:
1. Buffalo Sabres
2. Seattle Kraken
3. Anaheim Ducks
4. New Jersey Devils
5. Columbus Blue Jackets
6. Detroit Red Wings
7. San Jose Sharks
8. Los Angeles Kings
9. Vancouver Canucks
10. Ottawa Senators
11. Chicago Blackhawks
12. Calgary Flames
13. Philadelphia Flyers
14. Dallas Stars
15. New York Rangers
Red Wings draft positions
Here’s the updated list of Red Wings 2021 and 2022 draft positions:
2021 draft positions:
- 1st-round pick (6th overall)
- 1st-round pick -- acquired in Mantha trade with Capitals
- 2nd-round pick -- acquired from the Rangers in the Marc Staal deal
- 2nd-round pick -- acquired from the Oilers in the Andreas Athanasiou/Sam Gagner deal
- 2nd-round pick
- 3rd-round pick -- acquired from Vegas in the Tomas Tatar trade
- 3rd-round pick
- 4th-round pick
- 4th-round pick -- acquired in the three-way Savard deal
- 5th-round pick
- 5th-round pick -- acquired in Merrill trade with Canadiens
- 6th-round pick
2022 draft positions:
- 1st-round pick
- 2nd-round pick
- 2nd-round pick -- acquired in Mantha trade with Capitals
- 3rd-round pick
- 4th-round pick -- from Avalanche for Nemeth
- 4th-round pick -- acquired from Vegas for 2020 5th-round pick
- 4th-round pick
- 5th-round pick
- 6th-round pick
- 7th-round pick
Key dates for the 2020-21 NHL season:
- July 15 -- Last possible day for the playoffs
- 24 hours after end of playoffs -- Player buyout period begins
- July 21 -- Expansion draft for Seattle Kraken
- July 23-24 -- NHL Entry Draft
- July 28 -- Free agency begins