The Red Wings’ draft rights to Jan Bednar, Theodor Niederbach and Tnias Mathurin expire June 1 if Detroit doesn’t sign them to an entry-level contract

Just because a team drafts a player doesn’t mean that team holds their draft rights forever. For the Detroit Red Wings, three of their draftees will become free agents if they don’t sign them by Saturday, June 1. These players are Jan Bednar, Tnias Mathurin and Theodor Niederbach.

The draft expiry process is laid out in the NHL Collective Bargaining Agreement section 8.6. The rules vary by what league a player is drafted from and what league they play in. The CBA can be found here.

Jan Bednar, Toledo Walleye, G

Drafted in the fourth round of the 2020 NHL Draft, Czech goaltender Jan Bednar has played the last two seasons under an AHL contract with the Grand Rapids Griffins after playing in the QMJHL before that. While his contract might be at the AHL level, his starts came in the ECHL with Toledo, where Bednar was part of a tandem with Jon Lethemon this season.

Judging goaltenders by traditional stats can be deceiving as to their overall abilities, but Bednar’s counting stats were somewhat stronger than those of Lethemon who played behind the same team. Bednar’s 2.66 goals against average and .901 save percentage were the best of the pair, bolstered by a dominant March when he went 6-1-0 with a 1.59 goals against average and .939 save percentage, which earned ECHL goaltender of the month honors.

Bednar's future is likely to be impacted by Detroit's long term goalie projections. The Red Wing have four goaltenders under contract next season, with Alex Lyon and Ville Husso at the NHL level plus Sebastian Cossa and Carter Gylander in the minors. It’s possible that Detroit will seek a third NHL caliber goaltender through free agency, unless it wants Cossa to fill that role. And in the future, the Red Wings are likely to sign 2023 second round pick Trey Augustine.

There’s at least one goalie roster spot unspoken for next season, but whether Bednar will fill it or seek a job elsewhere is unknown. The Red Wings aren’t likely to sign Bednar to a long-term deal given his ECHL play level and the fact that their goalie room will change a lot in the next couple years. While his association with the organization's minor league teams is a good sign for Bednar to stick around, he's yet to sign a new contract with Detroit.

Tnias Mathurin, North Bay Battalion, LHD

For an overager in the OHL, Tnias Mathurin played rather few games at just 96 in the regular season and 40 in the playoffs across four seasons. It wasn’t exactly a situation he could control — COVID-19 shut down his rookie 2020-21 season, and he hurt his shoulder shortly after being drafted in 2022 which made him miss all but one regular season game and the playoffs in 2022-23. Considering how important it is for hockey players to develop through playing games, Mathurin has some catching up to do.

When he was drafted, the idea with Mathurin was that the shutdown defender could develop a bit of playmaking to his game. In the few contests that circumstances allowed him, Mathurin showed an alright scoring touch but not one that was truly dominant at the OHL level. His 17 points this season ranked 71st among OHL defensemen. But, this performance exists in context. Mathurin played for a North Bay team that didn’t really task him with scoring a whole lot, instead giving those active defense duties to Seattle Kraken draftee Ty Nelson on the first pair. 

Instead, Mathurin and defense partner Paul Christopoulos were tasked more so as a shutdown unit, leaning into Mathurin’s defensive specialties rather than trying to evolve him into a larger role. This worked for the Battalion to win games — they made the conference finals for the third straight season — even if it didn’t put Mathurin in position to show he can be an impact player at the next level. Perhaps with more games, though, Mathurin could have become the contributor from an offensive standpoint that his draft year projections had hoped for.

In the NHL today, it’s exceedingly difficult for defensive defensemen to carve out a niche as more and more teams seek offensive contributions from all 18 skaters. As much as Mathurin can impact a game with his defensive tools — especially size and reach at 6-foot-3 — it would be risky to bet on Mathurin with a contract given his one-dimensionality.

Theodor Niederbach, MoDo Hockey, C/RW

A second round pick in 2020, Theodor Niederbach is a forward whose hockey sense was routinely praised in his draft year. The hope was that he would develop more balance to his game, pairing crafty playmaking with his strong defensive positioning. Niederbach has had flashes of brilliance, like when he led MoDo to SHL promotion last season by scoring 12 points in 17 games. For the most part, however, Niederbach’s game is still not where you’d expect of a draft-plus-three player.

Despite his rather high draft selection, Niederbach doesn’t seem likely to sign with Detroit. He’s under contract with MoDo through 2024-25 according to Elite Prospects, which means he’d have to be released or otherwise terminate his contract to sign with the Red Wings. That’s unlikely, especially given that he hasn’t been a world-beater in the SHL.

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