Helene St. James

Detroit Free Press

When the Detroit Red Wings committed to keeping their first-round draft picks after a two-year absence in 2011-12, size and scoring was on order.

The young talent pool is up for grabs Friday and Saturday during the NHL draft. The Wings select 16th when the first round is held at First Niagara Center in Buffalo, N.Y.

“There’s a good crop available, and we’re excited about where we pick,” general manager Ken Holland told the Free Press.

With good reason: The most recent time the Wings had near this high of a pick, it yielded Dylan Larkin at 15th overall in 2014. He made the team a year later and led the Wings with 23 goals this past season.

This year, there is a strong possibility the Wings opt for a defenseman — the good ones really have to come from within these days, as they rarely hit the open market.

“At some point in time, we need to draft some defensemen, but if our scouts deem the best available player when we pick is a forward, we’ll pick a forward,” Holland said.

Several defensemen could be available in the middle of the first round. Charles McAvoy (6 feet, 199 pounds) is offensively gifted and shoots right-handed. Dante Fabbro (6-0, 192) and Jake Bean (6-1, 168) are considered puck movers either via fleet feet or excellent first passes. Logan Stanley towers at 6-7 and 224, but he’s more of a stay-at-home type defenseman. The Wings really need a puck mover — such defensemen are the holy grail of today’s NHL.

NHL draft 2016: Five trade story lines to monitor

Among forwards, a likely choice Friday is Mike McLeod (6-2, 185), a hard-nosed two-way forward who can create space with his speed.

Other possible forwards include German Rubtsov (6-0, 178), a solid two-way player with good hockey sense. Kieffer Bellows (6-0, 197) scored 50 goals with the NTDP U-18 team and is a pure shooter with a dimension of physicality. Luke Kunin (6-0, 193) led Wisconsin with 19 goals — and he shoots right-handed. Max Jones (Rochester) already is an impressive 6-2 and tops 200 pounds and could be a top-six power forward. Julien Gauthier is another big guy (6-3, 231) with tremendous offensive instincts. (He scored 41 goals in 54 games this past season for Val d’Or, Anthony Mantha’s former team.) Brett Howden (6-2, 193) is a good two-way center coming off a season with 64 points in 68 games.

In 2013, the Wings drafted 6-5 Mantha at 20th overall. In 2015, it was 6-2 Evgeny Svechnikov. Mantha will get “every opportunity” to make the Wings out of camp next season, Holland said. Svechnikov just turned pro.

Local players invited to USA Hockey Junior Evaluation Camp

The Wings’ draft table is run chiefly by Tyler Wright, the director of amateur scouting; Jeff Finley, the chief amateur scout based in North America; and Hakan Andersson, the Sweden-based director of European scouting.

The draft continues Saturday with Rounds 2-7. The Wings’ pick again at 46, 107, 137, 167 and 197. Their third-round pick, 77th overall, belongs to New Jersey because of the 2015 trade for defenseman Marek Zidlicky.

While the first round has the star power, lower rounds still yield gems (not as many as decades ago, though, such as when Pavel Datsyuk was drafted in the sixth round in 1998, or the 1989 draft, which saw Nicklas Lidstrom go in the third round and Sergei Fedorov in the fourth).

Andreas Athanasiou stems from the fourth round in 2012. Petr Mrazek dates to the fifth round of 2010. Alexey Marchenko sat waiting for the Wings to pick him in the seventh round in 2011.

Recent years have seen the shift toward building via development from within.

“Unless you get really lucky, realistically it’s going to take four years before the player can have an impact on an NHL roster,” Holland said. “There’s a bit of gambling in projecting what someone is going to be like at 23 or 24.”

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

NHL draft

When: Friday-Saturday. Round 1 starts at 7 p.m. Friday. Rounds 2-7 begin at 10 a.m. Saturday.

Where: First Niagara Center, Buffalo, N.Y.

TV: NBC Sports Network (Friday), NHL Network (Saturday).

Top-threepicks: 1. Toronto, 2. Winnipeg, 3. Columbus.

Red Wings’ picks: Nos. 16, 46, 107, 137, 167 and 197.