The best fourth round picks ever by the Detroit Red Wings include one of the greatest Russian players of all time, a controversial goaltender and a forgotten star
The best fourth round picks ever by the Detroit Red Wings include one of the greatest Russian players of all time, a controversial goaltender and a forgotten star
It's exceedingly rare for NHL teams to get games out of a fourth round pick, let alone someone at the top of the lineup. It's even rarer to find a hall of famer. The Detroit Red Wings, however, can claim such success.
Detroit's best fourth round picks include one of the greatest centers to ever play, a star whose success is often forgotten and a goaltender who was booed out of town by his own fans. And while this fourth round All-Draft class is a bit top-heavy, it's still a talented bunch.
Left Wing: Teemu Pulkkinen
111th overall, 2010
At one point, Pulkkinen was a promising prospect within the Red Wings’ organization. His bomb of a shot stood out at any level, and he lit up the AHL with 121 points in 119 games with the Grand Rapids Griffins. That tenure included a spot on the AHL All-Rookie team in 2014, earned in part by his rookie-leading 31 goals. He was such a talented goal scorer that even when he split the 2014-15 season half and half with the Griffins and the Red Wings, he still led the AHL in goals with 34.
By the time Pulkinnen earned a full-time spot on the Red Wings roster in 2015-16, he showed potential to be a middle six sniper with five goals across his first 16 games. But Pulkinnen’s promise faded after a shoulder injury in January 2016 derailed his career.
Pulkinnen came back after months of recovery, just not with Detroit. The Red Wings put him on waivers once he was healthy, and the Minnesota Wild claimed him. He scored one goal in nine games before being sent down to the AHL. And when a trade deadline swap dealt him to an Arizona Coyotes squad that offered plenty of opportunity to find his groove, Pulkinnen mustered one more goal in his final four NHL games. His scoring touch just wasn’t the same after the injury. After spending 2017-18 in the AHL as a member of the Vegas Golden Knights organization, Pulkinnen cut his losses and moved over to the KHL. He played there until 2023-24, utilizing his scoring touch a bit more with 96 goals and 172 points across 295 games.
Even though Pulkinnen didn’t pan out to be the middle six shooter that Detroit almost got from him, he remains the most accomplished left wing drafted by the organization in the fourth round. The Red Wings have picked just eight left wings in the fourth round in franchise history, and only three have played NHL games. Besides Pulkkinen, 1972 pick Danny Gruen and 1997 pick Quintin Laing made it to the NHL in their careers.
Center: Sergei Fedorov
74th overall, 1989
When the Red Wings picked Fedorov in the fourth round of the 1989 draft, he became the highest drafted Soviet player in NHL history — a record that stood for one year, when Detroit picked Vyacheslav Kozlov in the third round. But these record-breaking beginnings were only the start of the history Fedorov would make in the NHL.
In his 1,248-game career, Fedorov proved to be one of the greatest two-way forwards the game has ever seen. He’s the only player in NHL history to win the Hart Trophy for league MVP and the Selke Trophy for the best defensive forward in the same season. And as part of the famed Russian Five, Fedorov helped revolutionize the NHL with his focus on puck possession and speed.
There was never any guarantee that Fedorov would even come to the NHL, let alone be one of its greatest players of his generation. It took some Cold War spy caper maneuvers from the Red Wings organization to help Federov defect to the United States. In the end, the risks were worth it, and this fourth round pick went down as one of the most brilliant draft decisions in Detroit’s history.
With such an impact on the Red Wings’ organization, fans and media are constantly lobbying for Fedorov’s number 91 to be hung from the rafters of Little Caesars Arena. But a contract dispute that saw Fedorov sign for less money in Anaheim soured his relationship with Detroit. Years later, the iciness has started to thaw, but at this point the hall-of-famer Fedorov has yet to be enshrined by the Red Wings.
In addition to being one of the greatest Red Wings of all time, Fedorov is hands down the greatest center ever picked in the fourth round. His peers include 2008 pick Gustav Nyquist and 2012 pick Andreas Athanasiou.
Right Wing: John Ogrodnick
66th overall, 1979
You have no idea how good John Ogrodnick was.
Much like the famed Tim Duncan meme, it’s easy to forget how dominant Ogrodnick was because of the era in which he played. When he debuted in 1979-80, he finished the season top 10 in team scoring despite only playing half the season. Only Steve Yzerman and Dale McCourt eclipsed his 0.99 points per game during his time as a Red Wing. In 1984-85, Ogrodnick’s 55 goals broke the franchise single-season record, which stood until Yzerman broke it with 65 in 1988-89.
If he weren’t abruptly traded to Quebec against his will in 1987, it’s fair to wonder if Ogrodnick’s elite play would be better remembered. After that trade, he didn’t like Quebec so much that he demanded a trade to the New York Rangers in the 1987 offseason. He continued scoring in the Big Apple, but not to the level he did with the Red Wings. In 1992-93, he made a homecoming with Detroit and put up 12 points in 19 games as a depth forward.
Because he played in an era when the Red Wings were uncompetitive, Ogrodnick’s success is cast in the shadow of Detroit’s ‘90s dominance. But for the era he played in, he was one of its greatest stars.
The Red Wings have a knack for finding good right wings in the fourth round. They also drafted Mike Knuble, who played more than 1,000 games, in 1991. They also picked Sheldon Kennedy in 1988, who became an activist against child abuse after his hockey career and was awarded the Order of Canada in 2014.
Defense: Kyle Quincey
132nd overall, 2003
Quincey’s time with the Red Wings will always be remembered for the time Yzerman-led Tampa Bay traded him back to Detroit in exchange for the pick that turned into star goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy. But before that, Quincey played 269 games in eight years with Detroit spread across two separate stints. And especially in stops with Los Angeles and Colorado, Quincey’s two-way game shined.
Quincey started his career playing in call-ups from 2005 to 2008. He earned a Stanley Cup ring as part of Detroit’s 2008 championship team, but he didn’t fill requirements to see his name etched on the Cup because he didn’t play more than practice drills in the postseason. After being left on waivers, Quincey joined the Kings and broke out with a 38-point season. He followed that up with two 20-point seasons in three years with Colorado, before he rejoined the Red Wings and transitioned into a shutdown role.
Quincey was never really a star defenseman outside of his one burst with the Kings, but he was dependable in versatile roles. Of all Red Wings fourth-rounders, his 586 games rank fifth overall and first among defensemen.
Defense: Stewart Malgunas
66th overall, 1990
While Malgunas eventually played in 129 NHL games as a depth defenseman, he never played one with Detroit. That’s because he was traded to the Philadelphia Flyers in 1993, where he played his only full NHL season. He spent the majority of his career in the AHL, including the season he won the 1992 Calder Cup with the Red Wings’ Adirondack farm team.
Technically, Federov could be eligible for the defense positions too, having played there for Detroit when injuries made it necessary. Scotty Bowman praised his abilities, saying Fedorov could have been an All-Star on the blue line, too. But in terms of players who played defense for a living, the Red Wings haven’t had a whole lot of success stories from the fourth round besides Quincey and Malgunas. 1973 pick Mike Korney, 1977 pick John Hilworth and 1993 pick John Jakopin are the only others to play NHL games, and only Jakopin broke the 100-game milestone.
Goaltender: Tim Cheveldae
64th overall, 1986
For a player who was booed out of town and blamed for playoff losses in the early 1990s, Tim Cheveldae was still a talented goalie in his five seasons in goal for the Red Wings. At a time when the Red Wings didn’t really have goaltending depth, Chelveldae played more games than any other goaltender in the NHL from 1990-91 to 1992-93 at a whopping 204. Among goalies who played more than 100 games in that span, his 3.32 goals against ranked 11th against his peers, though his .884 save percentage left a lot to be desired.
After losing Game 7 to Toronto in the first round of the 1993 playoffs, Cheveldae’s days in Detroit were numbered. A young star named Chris Osgood had taken over his crease, and he was traded to Winnipeg. Cheveldae’s workload dropped off a lot with the Jets, where a rookie named Nikolai Khabibulin emerged as a star. Cheveldae finished his NHL career with a two-game stint with Boston in 1996-97, finishing his final pro season in 1998 in the minors.
Even if his time in Detroit was tenuous, Cheveldae ranks eighth all time in games played with Detroit and sixth in wins. The only other fourth-round pick by the Red Wings to play NHL games was Drew MacIntyre, picked in 2001.
Previous All-Draft Selections
First Round
LW: Pete Mahovlich
C: Steve Yzerman
RW: Mike Foligno
D: Niklas Kronwall
D: Moritz Seider
G: Jim Rutherford
Second Round
LW: Adam Graves
C: Calle Jarnkrok
RW: Darren McCarty
D: Reed Larson
D: Bob Boughner
G: Jimmy Howard
Third Round
LW: Vyacheslav Kozlov
C: Valterri Filppula
RW: Johan Franzen
D: Nicklas Lidstrom
D: Steve Chiasson
G: Chris Osgood
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