NHL draft: Marchenko shows late rounds have hidden gems

Sunrise, Fla. — The first round is all marquee power and glamour. The later rounds have far less pizzazz, but this is where an area scout can really shine.

The 2015 NHL entry draft, headlined by generational player Connor McDavid who'll belong to Edmonton at first overall, gets underway Friday at BB&T Center with round one, followed by rounds 2-7 on Saturday. The last few rounds go faster than a game of speed chess, with teams calling out names as soon as their number is called.

Players taken past round four often don't pan out, but the Wings have a great example from 2011 of why it pays to have good scouts across the world. In the seventh round of that year, the Wings had the seventh-to-last pick. A throw-away? Hardly. On the urging of Russia-based scout Nikolai Vakourov, the Wings went with Alexey Marchenko.

Marchenko, 23, is pencilled in to be a part of Detroit's lineup next season.

"Marchenko was a pick that Nikolai really liked," assistant general manager Ryan Martin told the Free Press. "That's a great example of an area guy that really liked a particular player and didn't stop lobbying for him as the draft got into later rounds. That's really what you want your area scouts to do so you might find those steals."

Jeff Finley, the chief amateur scout based in North America, and Hakan Andersson, the Sweden-based director of European scouting, don't have time to go out and see as much, if any, of the later-round options. Those two, and director of amateur scouting Tyler Wright, are the top three men in charge of what the Wings do at the entry draft. But as Saturday drags past noon, the Wings' four European scouts, which also includes Finland-based Ari Vouri, as well as three part-time amateur scouts, start to be more involved.

"At a certain point in the draft," Martin said, "you want your area guys to have gut feelings on certain players. You want them to really like particular guys. Sometimes it becomes a matter of position, and where is the player going to develop — is he going to college, or is he an older European. There is a lot of circumstances that come into play."

Marchenko appealed partly because he'd already been playing in the KHL. Now he's the front runner to grab the opening the Wings have for a defenseman, with chief competition from Xavier Ouellet.

Contact Helene St. James: hstjames@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @helenestjames.

NHL draft

What: Round 1, Friday; Rounds 2-7,

Saturday.

Where: Sunrise, Fla.

TV: Friday — 7 p.m., NBCSN; Saturday —

10 a.m., NHL Network.

Wings' picks: 19th, 73rd, 110th, 140th, 170th, 200th.

Top-25 prospects

Free Press sports writer George Sipple scouts the NHL draft and lists his top-25 players:

1. C Connor McDavid, Erie (OHL)

2. C Jack Eichel, Boston College (NCAA)

3. D Noah Hanifin, Boston College (NCAA)

4. C Dylan Strome, Erie (OHL)

5. F Lawson Crouse, Kingston (OHL)

6. F Mitch Marner, London (OHL)

7. C Pavel Zacha, Sarnia (OHL)

8. F Mikko Rantanen, TPS Turku

(Finland)

9. D Ivan Provorov, Brandon (WHL)

10. C Mathew Barzal, Seattle (WHL)

11. D Zach Werenski, Michigan (NCAA)

12. F Kyle Connor, Youngstown (USHL)/U-M commit

13. F Evgeni Svechnikov, Cape Breton (QMJHL)

14. F Timo Meier, Halifax (QMJHL)

15. F Denis Guryanov, Lada Togliatti (Russia)

16. F Travis Konecny, Ottawa (OHL)

17. C Joel Eriksson Ek, Farjestad Jr.

(Sweden)

18. F Nick Merkley, Kelowna (WHL)

19. F Paul Bittner, Portland (WHL)

20. C Jansen Harkins, Prince George (WHL)

21. F Jake DeBrusk, Swift Current (WHL)

22. C Brock Boeser, Waterloo (USHL)

23. D Thomas Chabot, Saint John (QMJHL)

24. D Brandon Carlo, Tri-City (WHL)

25. F Colin White, US NTDP U-18 (USHL)