Helene St. James

Detroit Free Press

Detroit Red Wings general manager Ken Holland is cramming his schedule with scouting.

Today saw him travel to Toronto to catch the OHL playoff game between Mississauga and Peterborough. Next up is a trip to Kelowna, British Columbia, to see the Rockets take on the Seattle Thunderbirds in the Western Hockey League semifinals.

“I’m focused on the draft,” Holland told the Free Press this afternoon. “Got to see the kids. (I) was at under-18 worlds, got to see a lot of good games there.”

Holland spent last week in Slovakia taking in the U18 world championship -- the Wings had eight scouts there all together, Holland said. He returned in time to catch the Wings’ top farm team, the Grand Rapids Griffins, win both weekend games to take a 2-0 lead on Milwaukee in the AHL playoffs. Several Wings prospects are off to good starts in the Calder Cup race, including Tyler Bertuzzi (two goals), Evgeny Svechnikov (goal, assist), Tomas Nosek (goal, assist) and Axel Holmstrom (goal).

Related:

Red Wings prospect Tyler Bertuzzi scores twice; Griffins take 2-0 lead

Red Wings prospect Tomas Nosek leads Griffins to early playoff success

The 2017 NHL draft is June 23-24 in Chicago. The Wings are guaranteed to pick no worse than seventh overall, and enter the April 29 draft lottery with 6.7% odds of picking first overall.

Abdelkader update: Holland said an ultrasound on Justin Abdelkader revealed “there is something” in the back of his knee that is causing discomfort, but doctors prescribed rest rather than surgery as a fix, for now.

Contact Helene St. James: hstjames@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @helenestjames. Check out our Red Wings Xtra app on Apple and Android!