Detroit Red Wings Top 5 Draft Busts in Franchise History
By Ryan Ritchie
Detroit Red Wings Top 5 Countdown: Biggest Busts in Franchise History
Detroit Red Wings are the next team in a series dedicated to the top five draft busts in franchise history. Over the next while, we plan to explore all 30 teams (in alphabetical order) big misses on the draft floor since their inception.
For those expansion teams from the early and late 1990s into 2000, their franchise draft history is obviously skewed in comparison to older teams. Even with a limited sample size to choose from, each and every franchise has been victimized by the imperfect art of selecting 18-year-old prospects.
Detroit Red Wings will be the third of original six teams to be featured. Even with Hockey Town’s outstanding track record on the draft floor over the past two decades, as with every team, you can find noticeable misses near the top.
Detroit tends to do their best work in the later rounds finding those hidden gems. They don’t have the best track record with first round picks, but their scouts always seem to make up for their big misses.
Honorable Mentions:
Claude Gauthier – 1st overall in 1964
Terry Richardson – 11th overall in 1973
Fred Williams – 4th overall in 1976
Maxim Kuznetsov – 26th overall in 1995
Jesse Wallin – 26th overall in 1996
Tom McCollum – 30th overall in 2008
Detroit Red Wings Top 5 Draft Busts
5. Yan Golubovsky – 23rd overall in 1994
*Apologies, finding a suitable picture of Yan Golubovsky has proven difficult. Instead, the above is 1994 first overall pick Ed Jovanovski
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While the Detroit Red Wings missed on this giant (6’4 509lbs) Russian defender, they were fortunate to select Mathieu Dandenault (49th overall) and Tomas Holmstrom (257th overall) in later rounds at the 1994 draft.
Golubovsky played a grand total of 56 games over his career, 50 with Detroit, six with Florida.
He eventually left North America in 2000-01 and returned to Russia to play out the rest of his career in Europe.
Picks after Golubovsky: Rhett Warrener (FLA) – 27th overall, Deron Quint (WPG) – 30th overall, Ryan Johnson (FLA) – 36th overall, Dave Scatchard (VAN) – 42nd overall, Curtis Brown (BUF) – 43rd overall, Jose Theodore (MTL) – 44th overall, Richard Park (PIT) – 50th overall, Patrik Elias (NJ) – 51st overall
4. Curtis Bowen – 22nd overall in 1992
*Due to limited NHL exposure, pictures of Curtis Bowen are limited/non-existent, instead we present 1992 first overall selection Roman Hamrlik
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Detroit made up for their miss by selecting Darren McCarty 46th overall in 1992, but they saw seven players called after Curtis Bowen (before McCarty) who went on to have lengthy NHL careers.
Bowen never played a single NHL game.
After spending some time with AHL Adirondack and the Canadian National Team, Curtis eventually landed in IHL Manitoba in 1998-99 before taking his talents across the pond to play in the British Hockey League.
He would remain there until 2005-06 after spending time with Nottingham (two years), Manchester (one year), and Belfast (four years).
Picks after Bowen: Grant Marshall (TOR) – 23rd overall, Boris Mironov (WPG) – 27th overall, Valeri Bure (MTL) – 33rd overall, Jeff Shantz (CHI) – 36th overall, Igor Korolev (STL) – 38th overall, Mike Peca (VAN) – 40th overall, Sergei Brylin (NJ) – 42nd overall
3. Kory Kocur – 17th overall in 1988
*The above picture is Joey Kocur, cousin of Kory
Cousin of Wendel Clark and Joey Kocur, one would expect the point per game WHL star to have some NHL pedigree. Kory even surpassed triple digits posting 102 points in final junior year with Saskatoon.
Unfortunately, after two short years with AHL Adirondack, Kory Kocur was demoted to IHL Fort Wayne. He spent the next two years there with a short two game AHL call-up before calling it quits following the 1992-93 season.
Kory never played a single NHL game in his career.
Picks after Kocur: Tie Domi (TOR) – 27th overall, Tim Taylor (WSH) – 36th overall, Steve Heinze (BOS) – 60th overall, Mark Recchi (PIT) – 67th overall, Tony Amonte (NYR) – 68th overall, Rob Blake (LA) – 70th overall
2. Jakub Kindl – 19th overall in 2005
Tough year to miss in the first round when 2005 was arguably the deepest draft in history. We saw major names come off the board in later rounds (see below).
After spending several years in the Red Wings organization after paying his dues down in AHL Grand Rapids, Detroit finally gave up on Jakub Kindl this past season when they shipped him to Florida at the deadline.
Kindl has 70 points in 292 career regular season games, but looks to be nothing more than a depth defenseman.
2005 Draft (3rd Round)
PIT – Kris Letang (62nd overall)
CLB – Kris Russell (67th overall)
LA – Jonathan Quick (72nd overall)
STL – Ben Bishop (85th overall)
2005 Draft (4th Round)
PHX – Keith Yandle (105th overall)
CHI – Niklas Hjalmarsson (108th overall)
2005 Draft (5th Round)
DET – Darren Helm (132nd overall)
BUF – Nathan Gerbe (142nd overall)
Picks after Kindl: Tuukka Rask (TOR) – 21st overall, T.J. Oshie (STL) – 24th overall, Andrew Cogliano (EDM) – 25th overall, Matt Niskanen (DAL) – 28th overall, James Neal (DAL) – 33rd overall, Marc-Edouard Vlasic (SJ) – 35th overall, Ondrej Pavelec (WPG) – 41st overall, Justin Abdelkader (DET) – 42nd overall, Paul Stastny (COL) – 44th overall
1. Brent Fedyk – 8th overall in 1985
Brent Fedyk managed to accumulate 209 points over 470 career NHL games between Detroit (seven years), Philadelphia (three and a half years), Dallas (half a season), and NY Rangers (one years), yet he still fits under the category of a bust.
He was eventually traded to Philly in 1992 for a 4th round pick after he only managed to tally a season-high 35 points (1990-91). Surprisingly, Fedyk posted 21 goals (59 points) during his first year with the Flyers in 1992-93, but those numbers quickly dropped to 38 in 1993-94, and 34 in 1994-95. Brent would spend the next two years playing in the IHL (Michigan K-Wings/Detroit Vipers) before signing in Broadway for what would be his final NHL season in 1998-99.
Next: 10 NHL Careers Cut Too Early
Picks after Fedyk: Dave Manson (CHI) – 11th overall, Derek King (NYI) – 13th overall, Calle Johansson (BUF) – 14th overall, Tom Chorske (MTL) – 16th overall, Sean Burke (NJ) – 24th overall, Joe Nieuwendyk (CGY) – 27th overall, Mike Richter (NYR) – 28th overall