THE RED WINGS DRAFT GIVANI SMITH, FILIP HRONEK WITH 2ND ROUND PICKS

With the Wings 2nd round picks in the 2016 NHL Entry Draft they have selected Givani Smith and Filip Hronek.

With the 26th pick the Wings selected Givani Smith standing a solid 6’2″, 205 lbs, coming from the OHL’s Guelph Storm. He managed to put up 42 points in 65 games on a rebuilding Guelph team but another stat of note (unusual for the Wings) is he racked up 146 PIMs last season. So his game has some grit, that’s for sure, but he still has been scoring at a 0.46 points-per-game clip in the OHL showing he’s not a one dimensional guy. An interesting pick for the Wings for sure, one that certainly fills a team need with that grit. 

Watch Smith crash some nets here:

With the 53rd overall pick, acquired in the trade yesterday with Arizona for Pavel’s contract and the Wings first, the Red Wings selected Filip Hronek, the 8th ranked European Skater by NHL Central Scouting. The speedy Czech is the 2nd defenceman selected by the Wings with their 3 picks thus far. The numbers aren’t as impressive as some of the other defenceman picked already but he has been playing in the professional men’s league back home in the Czech Republic. He’s a power play QB and a defenceman who can move the puck. While he’s smaller (5’11”) he still plays with a bit of an edge and most importantly, doesn’t panic under pressure. Wings Nation’s own Sam Blazer takes a longer look at Hronek here in our draft profiles.

The message was much of the same with the picks so far in the second round, it’s all about team needs right now. Barring a trade, the Red Wings don’t hold a pick in the 3rd round so we’ll be back with more in the 4th.