At some point along the way for their rebuild to be successful, the Red Wings are going to have to land a top defenseman. They had no choice but to grab winger Filip Zadina when he slipped to No. 6 in the draft since game-breaking talents are hard to find in the NHL.



Their prospect depth on defense already in the system is better than even a year ago. Dennis Cholowski looked really good in development camp; his skating is as high-end as advertised, as is his ability to move the puck. Filip Hronek should make the Red Wings out of training camp. There are players like Gustav Lindstrom, Vili Saarijarvi and Jared McIsaac who all look like future NHL players. But none are players you can comfortably project as top-pair defensemen. At least not right now.



Privately, the Red Wings hoped to have a crack at one of the top defensemen in the free agent Class of 2019 but it’s starting to thin out quickly. Oliver Ekman-Larsson decided to stay in Arizona. Drew Doughty...