Here are the Red Wings’ best second round picks of all time at each position
Here are the Red Wings’ best second round picks of all time at each position
We continue our series on the top Red Wings draft picks with the second round All-Draft team. The first round team can be found here.
These selections are made using a variety of criteria, including career games played, points, importance to team success and career accolades. This list judges players’ entire careers, not just their time with the Red Wing. So, there might be many players in this series who played their careers elsewhere (spoiler alert: a lot of the picks for this second round All-Draft team were stars elsewhere).
And now, the picks.
Left Wing: Adam Graves
22nd overall, 1986
The 1990 Stanley Cup is remembered as the Edmonton Oilers’ last championship — and their only one without Wayne Gretzky leading the way. But it could probably be remembered as one the Red Wings practically gift wrapped for them. That’s because of one of the more lopsided trades in Red Wings history.
The trade was a big one, with six players and a draft pick involved. See, the Oilers had picked up star Jimmy Carson from the Los Angeles Kings in 1988 as part of the return for Gretzky, and he was good. But he wasn’t Gretzky good. In his first season with the Oilers, he scored his second consecutive 100-point season, but Edmonton just wasn’t a fit for him off the ice. He demanded a trade. His hometown Detroit Red Wings sought him out.
Edmonton had a buyer. Not only that, they had a sucker. The Red Wings packaged 1986 first overall pick Joe Murphy, Petr Klima, Jeff Sharples and second round pick Adam Graves to the Edmonton Oilers in exchange for Carson, tough guy Kevin McClelland and a fifth round pick in 1991. Murphy, Klima and Graves added key depth for the Oilers, the kind of extra juice that could complement a lineup with stars such as Mark Messier, Jari Jurri, Esa Tikkanen and Glenn Anderson leading the way. The former Red Wings factored into the Stanley Cup run, scoring 30 combined points in 63 games in the playoffs and hoisted the Cup.
What about Carson? He scored 202 points in 240 games for the early ‘90s Red Wings, but he never quite reached his scorching level from earlier in his career. So, Detroit traded him back to Los Angeles in 1993 as part of the deal for Paul Coffey. The Kings went to the Stanley Cup Final and lost to Montreal that year, and Coffey won a Norris with Detroit in 1995.
And Graves? After his Cup with Edmonton, he played one more season with the Oilers before joining the New York Rangers, winning the Stanley Cup in 1994.Even if the trade was so lopsided, Graves remains the top second round pick the Red Wings have ever gotten with 1,152 games played and 616 points.
Other second round left wings in consideration were 2009’s Tomas Tatar and 2013’s Tyler Bertuzzi.
Center: Calle Jarnkrok
51st overall, 2010
Jarnkrok’s 699 games and 301 points are far more than any other Red Wings centers picked in the second round, but he never played any of those games with Detroit. Instead, he was one of the many players dealt away for reinforcements at the tail end of the playoff streak.
Jarnkrok played three seasons after his draft year in what’s now the SHL, but he came over and showed his talented two-way game could translate across the pond. After putting up 36 points with the Griffins in his first full season in North America, the Red Wings didn’t even let him finish that one year before selling high on him. At the 2014 deadline, they packaged Jarnkrok, Patrick Eaves and a third round pick for David Legwand, who scored 11 points to finish the season and then put up a goose egg in five playoff games.
Jarnkrok, meanwhile, became a force in the Predators’ bottom six. He helped them make the Stanley Cup Final in 2017, averaging around the 30-point mark each season and chipping in on the penalty kill. After stops in Seattle and Calgary, he is now with the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Jarnkrok isn’t a star caliber player, but he has been a dependable force that has made his teams better. His longevity and role excellence make him the best second round center drafted by the Red Wings, beating out 1981’s Claude Loiselle, 11971’s Henry Boucha and 1983’s Lane Lambert.
Right Wing: Darren McCarty
46th overall, 1992
With every punch he threw at Claude Lemieux during 1997’s infamous Fight Night at the Joe, McCarty stamped himself into Red Wings lore as one of the most important role players of Detroit’s 1990s dominance. As part of the second-gen Grind Line, McCarty provided checking and protection to a lineup that needed just that to cut it in the playoffs.
McCarty’s toughness shows in the way he finished his career with five times the PIMs as he had points. But, McCarty was also an adept scorer. It was his goal against Ron Hextall that proved the game-winner to the 1997 Stanley Cup. McCarty also won the Cup in 1998, 2002 and even in 2008 after sparking a career comeback that saw him grind from the minor leagues all the way to 17 playoff games that season.
Other talented Detroit right wingers selected in the second round include 1994’s Mathieu Dandenault and 2002’s Jiri Hudler, but neither captures the kind of importance that McCarty had to the Red Wings’ ‘90s and ‘00s success.
Defense: Reed Larson
22nd overall, 1976
In today’s drafts, Larson would’ve been a first round pick — and not just because he was picked at 22. Larson was a smooth skater who could play punishing defense in his own end while bringing a playmaking touch at the other end. He was among the best two-way defensemen of his era. He was so good that he was receiving Norris votes while playing for Detroit in the height of the Dead Wings era.
Alongside star winger John Ogrodnick, Larson was one of the Red Wings’ stars in the early ‘80s before Yzerman’s arrival. And while the two overlapped in the early years of Yzerman’s career, Larson was eventually traded in 1986 for shutdown defenseman Mike O’Connell.
Larson played a couple seasons with the Bruins with a young Cam Neely and star defenseman Ray Bourque. Then, he went on to play for the Oilers, Islanders, his hometown North Stars and one game with the Sabres before spending a few years in the Italian league. Meanwhile, O’Connell helped the Wings make back-to-back conference finals in 1987 and 1988 as a penalty kill stalwart.
Defense: Bob Boughner
32nd overall, 1989
Nothing encapsulates Boughner’s play better than this quote from a THN scout in his draft year: “Bob Boughner’s primary asset is obvious. Just look at his penalty minutes.” Boughner finished his career with 1,382 PIMs in 630 games, but none of them came with Detroit. Instead, the Red Wings let Boughner walk in free agency in 1994, and he played a journeyman’s career with the Sabres, Predators, Penguins, Flames, Hurricanes and Avalanche.
Boughner might not have had the kind of two-way impact that a lot of celebrated defensemen are celebrated for, but his tough and physical defense helped him become a long-term NHLer who opponents didn’t like to play. He could protect his teammates and protect the net, and that made him a valuable player at a time when that toughness was a much bigger deal than it is in today’s game. Nowadays, Boughner is teaching his defensive skills to the next generation of Red Wings as an assistant coach with Derek Lalonde’s staff.
Other defensemen in consideration for the second round All-Draft team include 1984’s Doug Houda, 1991’s Jamie Pushor and 2016’s Filip Hronek. However, Larson’s two-way game made him one of the greatest Red Wings of his era, and Boughner’s ability to ply a career as a tough guy defenseman made him more valuable to his teams. For that, they both earned their way onto this list.
Goaltender: Jimmy Howard
64th overall, 2003
A poor end to his career really diminishes how good Jimmy Howard was at his prime. He was a starter from pretty much the moment he stuck on an NHL roster, earning All-Rookie honors and placing second for the Calder after a 63-game rookie season. He earned Vezina votes twice including that first campaign, and his 471 games in the 2010s were the 10th most of any goaltender in that era.
Howard wasn’t just good for his era, but also in Red Wings history. His 543 career games — all with Detroit — rank third in franchise history. His 2.62 goals against average ranks ninth among all netminders to reach 100 games in the Winged Wheel. And his .912 career save percentage ranks fourth among all goaltenders to ever play for Detroit. Howard doesn’t have the kind of hardware to earn recognition against the greats, but he was dependable and elite for the majority of his career.
Other goaltenders in consideration include 1978’s Al Jensen, the only other second round goaltender to play NHL games. But Jensen’s career as a starter for the Washington Capitals doesn’t clear Howard’s accomplished career.
Previous All-Draft Selections
First Round
LW: Pete Mahovlich
C: Steve Yzerman
RW: Mike Foligno
D: Niklas Kronwall
D: Moritz Seider
G: Jim Rutherford
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