Credit: TSN

The last time the Detroit Red Wings took a USNTDP player out of Hermantown, Minnesota in the second round, it worked out pretty well; so it didn’t come as much of a shock when they selected the third and youngest of the Plante brothers with the 47th overall pick in this summer’s draft.

Victor Plante spent this past season playing for the US National Team Development Program’s U-18 team in the USHL. This year’s version of the USNTDP under 18 squad wasn’t a vintage one, as the club finished last in the East division of the USHL, finishing only 3 points out of dead last in the entire league. They surrendered the most goals against in the USHL, giving up nearly 50 more goals than the second worst defensive team in the league. I mention this mostly due to the fact the counting stats for Plante are fairly underwhelming: 8 goals and 10 assists.

Even with that being the case, Plante tied for 3rd in points per game at 0.90. And while Plante only played in 20 USHL games — basically 1/3 of the season — he finished -1 on a team that had a -130 goal differential. Over the course of the USHL season, Plante’s worst games from a plus/minus standpoint was a -2, which happened on two occasions. He was clearly sheltered when it came to ice time, but that’s still respectable.

To his credit, Victor Plante typically wasn’t at the scene of the crime when the team needed to fish the puck out of their own goal.

The Red Wings were quite familiar with Victor, and it’s not just due to having drafted his brother Max: the youngest Plante brother billeted with Chris Osgood’s family. When Helene St James asked Ozzie to give a scouting report on Victor’s game, he kept the expectations very modest:

When you watch him, he's always in the right spot. I don't want to compare him to Henrik Zetterberg, because Zetterberg's very smart, but kind of like that. I don't want to get expectations that high, but like a Zetterberg or Patrice Bergeron-type smart player.

No pressure, Victor.

Plante will join his two older brothers Max and Zam at the University of Minnesota-Duluth this fall on a team with a great shot at making its second straight Frozen Four, which has to feel pretty great after this past season. The upcoming 2026-27 NCAA campaign will give us some insight into how Victor’s talent compares to his two older brothers.

Victor Plante’s Career Stats

Credit: Elite Prospects

For this scouting report, I’ve reviewed the USNTDP’s 5-3 win over the Muskegon Lumberjacks on March 27th. That Muskegon team finished 5th in the Eastern division and had an impressive playoff run before losing in the USHL Finals. One of the main reasons I decided to use this game was due to Victor Plante making it onto the scoresheet with an assist and it was a game against a quality opponent.

Victor Plante’s Position and Playing Style

Victor was stationed on the right wing, and received a decent amount of time on the power play. When on the power play, Plante tends to hang out down low near the goal, either going to the front of the net or stationing himself to the side of the net in order to be a facilitator, often attempting to center the puck to a teammate in the slot for a one-timer.

Plante was not used at all on the PK. His linemates were Logan Stuart (Washington Capitals 7th round pick), Jamie Glance (2027 draft class), and he often played with d-men Abe Barnett (2027 draft class, will play in the OHL next season before heading to the University of Michigan with JP Hurlbert), and Luke Schairer (St Louis Blues 3rd round pick). Stuart was injured during the second period so center Sammy Nelson was double-shifted and played on the Plante and Glance line.

Plante’s line did not drive the bus: the top line featured first round draft pick Wyatt Cullen along with Mikey Berchild (Carolina, 4th round) and Dayne Beuker. The other primary line included Parker Trottier (Montreal, 6th round), Casey Mutryn (Seattle, 2nd round) and the aforementioned Sammy Nelson (2027 draft class).

By my count, Plante received 5 or 6 shifts per period. With that being said, let’s take a look at his overall player rating for this game.

Victor Plante Player Ratings

Skating: 7/10

Plante’s skating seems perfectly fine. The main thing I am looking at is whether a prospect’s skating holds them back in any aspect of play, and this was definitely not the case with Victor: he was a capable forechecker, able to engage the puck carrier; he generated speed entering the offensive zone to create at least one good attack at the goal with the puck on his stick; and he won his fair share of 50/50 pucks.

There was a point in the 3rd period where he seemed to turn on the jets to get across the ice, and that served to highlight how rarely his speed was a true differentiator in this game. As he enters a high-end college hockey program, there’s reason to expect his skating to become more advanced.

I saw no issues at all with his skating, and believe it will continue to improve.

Passing: 8/10

Victor is definitely a Plante brother. His older brother Max got dinged for being the assist generator on the USNTDP when he was on a line with James Hagens and Cole Eiserman, and at this point Victor is more set up than trigger guy.

He got the primary assist on the opening goal in this game, getting things started by forechecking the puck carrier in the offensive zone to force the turnover. He then received the pass off the turnover and found Jamie Glance to the side of the net for the goal.

While Plante generated 10 assists and 8 goals in 20 games for the USNTDP, he put up 1 goal and 4 assists for the US team in the World Juniors U-18 competition over 5 games. When playing with capable scorers, Victor’s vision and passing stand out.

While Plante isn’t a battler in the corners, he uses his quickness and hockey sense to win the puck before recycling it back to the point. As far as issues not related directly to passing, with roughly 11 minutes remaining in the third period, Plante tried to stick handle out of his own zone and had the puck stripped, resulting in a quality shot on goal for the Lumberjacks.

Shooting: 7/10

For the season, Plante shot 18.6%, which ranked 4th among USNTDP skaters with at least 20 games played. In this game, however, Plante’s shot was a non-factor. He had several decent scoring chances with the puck on his stick in close to the goal, but the vast majority of them were blocked, with one shot from distance easily gloved by opposing goalie Carl Axelsson.

Plante is able to consistently get himself into good scoring position, which bodes well for his future as a goal scorer. Muskegon was middle of the road in terms of goals against the USHL, so Plante only getting one shot on frame at Muskegon goaltender Carl Axelsson stood out: it may have just been an off game for him.

As we saw with his brother Max, goal scoring could certainly be a skill that develops over time. There’s also this OT goal in the Prospects Challenge from Victor which was pretty impressive:

Physical Play: 3/10

While Victor is a capable forechecker, I only noticed one time when he actually finished his check. Given his size he certainly isn’t going to be a force of nature out on the ice, but even when he was attempting to skate through contact in the neutral zone, he would typically lose possession of the puck.

Being a smaller player, he will benefit from time in a college hockey program where the focus will be on nutrition and building strength.

Board Play: 4/10

Victor relies heavily on his quickness and hockey IQ to ‘win’ board battles, getting in and moving the puck before the battle commences rather than trying to withstand physical contact. Just about every time I saw him get caught up in a board battle, he ended up losing possession. If he’s to make it as a regular NHL player, it’s certainly not going to be due to him reminding people of Carter Bear.

Defensive Play: 8/10

It’s important to keep in mind that Plante wasn’t given heavy amounts of ice time in this game, and unfortunately the USHL website doesn’t track TOI, but if it did I suspect Plante’s average minutes per game would reflect that of a middle six forward. Even with that being the case, he’s a very defensively responsible forward, dropping low in his defensive zone in order to provide support. He’s also an eager forechecker, despite his unwillingness to play the body.

He was on the ice for one goal against in this game, and during that play he dropped down to the front of the net to cover one attacker, but was walled off from where the shot came from, and as a result was unable to defend the shot.

It’s also worth reiterating that he received no penalty kill time in this game, but despite this being the case I thought his commitment to play within his own zone was of reasonably high quality.

He looks like your prototypical Red Wings prospect in this regard.

Victor Plante’s Projection

It would be unfair to Victor to compare him to his brother Max, who won the Hobey Baker last year as a sophomore and was described by the Athletic’s Max Bultman as the best player on the ice at the recent prospect development camp. However when you look at his point per game totals for the USNTDP, his point per game production for the US team at the World Juniors, and his key goal in the USA-Canada Prospects Challenge, you certainly see elements of what made his older brother Max such an exciting prospect.

With that being said, I am going to lean heavily on how Victor was used by the USNTDP this past season and project him to be a third line winger who can contribute on the power play. For me, that probably works out to something like 20 goals and 40-45 points per season. He’ll likely be a good option for overtime in the regular season when the ice opens up.

His ceiling may suggest a second line winger who has a bit more scoring punch, but I have trouble at this point envisioning him as a first line wing who can play in all situations. If he had that sort of development curve he likely would have received heavier minutes in the USHL this past season. With that being said, his play with Team USA in the World Juniors saw him tie for 2nd in assists for Team USA and tie for 4th in points per game. So chances are good he can play up the lineup and not be an anchor.

Regardless, he will step into an ideal situation this fall when he suits up with his brothers to play on a Minnesota-Duluth team that will be among the best in the nation.

Last week we learned that Steve Yzerman was out as Detroit’s general manager. While my first reaction can best be described as shock, it was quickly replaced with a sense of relief, as Yzerman was stuck in a Groundhog Day of perpetual mediocrity.

To be fair, he never got much lottery luck, and Detroit just happens to be in a division that has become the most competitive in hockey, serving to block them from making the playoffs with respectable point totals, but after 7 years we can affirmatively say there are far more questions than answers. This is highlighted by the fact Simon Edvinsson, Alex DeBrincat, and Patrick Kane’s contracts, along with Dylan Larkin’s trade request, all remain unresolved.

Chris Ilitch mercifully called time on Yzerman’s run as general manager.

Ultimately Yzerman suffered the same fate as Alan Trammell, with Joe Dumars being the only former Detroit sports legend to manage his team to the top of his sport. Yzerman was the last best shot for the Ken Holland management tree, and may be the last former great whom we see take over management of a team. That strategy seems to have lost favor, and it remains to be seen whether it returns.

But enough of that for now, let’s take a look at a few decisions which — if they were made differently — might have resulted in a better outcome for Yzerman and, by extension, the Detroit Red Wings franchise.

Sin #1: Never Hiring his Al Murray

When Yzerman was hired to lead the Tampa Bay Lightning organization, one of his key hires was Al Murray as his Director of Amateur Scouting. By that point, Murray had a long track record as a scout, and worked with Yzerman when they were tasked with running Team Canada in 2007 and 2010.

Murray served as a scout in the Kings organization for nearly 20 years, drafting cornerstone pieces Anže Kopitar and Dustin Brown. After leaving the Kings organization, he was a scout for Team Canada before being hired on in Tampa when Yzerman arrived.

His drafts for the Bolts were impressive, as the team selected Nikita Kucherov, Andrey Vasilevskiy, and Brayden Point, all key contributors to the two Stanley Cups won by Tampa, along with key depth pieces like Anthony Cirelli and Ondrej Palat.

When Yzerman came to Detroit, Tampa elevated Murray to Assistant General Manager, locking him into the franchise where he currently serves the same role as Yzerman, namely Senior Advisor.

Rather than attempt to find the equivalent of Al Murray, Yzerman leaned on Kris Draper to run his amateur drafts. There was precious little to suggest Draper was the best person for the position. His one coup as a front office executive was drafting Tyler Bertuzzi, who has thrived in Chicago after bouncing around the league.

With Draper running Detroit’s drafts, the Red Wings have one of the lowest number of games played relative to their draft position.

Credit: Ruben Flam-Shepherd

The poster children for Draper’s failed amateur drafts are Sebastian Cossa and Nate Danielson.

Sin #2: Never Replacing Pat Verbeek

While Yzerman fanned spectacularly in finding a competent leader for his amateur drafts, he did luck out in getting Pat Verbeek to join him in Detroit. While it’s tough to suss out exactly which decisions were heavily influenced by Verbeek, things started to go south very quickly once Verbeek left for Anaheim on February 3, 2022.

Detroit committed heavily to free agency in the summer of 2022, bringing on Andrew Copp, Ben Chiarot, Olli Määttä, Dominik Kubalik, and David Perron. The following offseason Yzerman signed JT Compher and Justin Holl. Other underwhelming free agency acquisitions included Vladimir Tarasenko and Erik Gustafsson.

These moves served to advance Detroit into the mushy middle, but none were difference makers. While we’ll never know whether Detroit made strong efforts to sign better players who simply chose other destinations, your results are your results, and the vast majority of these players added little if anything to a rebuilding team.

To be fair, Yzerman did acquire Patrick Kane in free agency, but that was heavily influenced by Kane being besties with Alex DeBrincat, who orchestrated a trade from Ottawa back to his hometown team. There was also the acquisition of Shayne Gostisbehere in the summer of 2023, but he was only signed for one season, leaving the club the following summer for the Carolina Hurricanes.

When Yzerman was pressed about the poor performance of his pro scouting group, he admitted they were ‘learning on the job’ which was a startling admission from someone as seasoned as Yzerman. His failure to replace Verbeek was the second of the three legs that bring us to the current situation in Detroit.

Sin #3: Committing to Dylan Larkin

The back to back games on February 27th and 28th against the Ottawa Senators in 2023 was a watershed moment for this franchise. On the 26th, Detroit sat in 4th place in the division and 3 points out of 8th place in the Eastern Conference. There was hope Detroit could create some separation from the pack and perhaps nose their way into the playoff picture.

Instead the Senators clobbered the Red Wings on back to back nights, winning by a combined score of 12-3, thereby ending Detroit’s pretensions of being a team on the rise. Yzerman was disgusted by the team’s lack of effort, and he made that clear when he traded Fillip Hronek on March 1 and Tyler Bertuzzi on March 2. His biggest sin, however, was committing to Dylan Larkin, signing the center to an 8 year contract with iron-clad trade protection.

Yzerman’s first error was committing to Larkin as captain in 2020, but that wouldn’t have been a big issue if he hadn’t doubled down and committed to Larkin after the team’s gutless performances against the Senators. Larkin, signed to a nearly $70 million extension on March 1 2023, wept as he discussed losing Tyler Bertuzzi as a teammate.

It’s easy to engage in what ifs after the fact, but I never viewed Larkin as captain material. Yzerman is extremely competitive, so on the one hand you can understand his willingness to build around Larkin, but with the benefit of hindsight it was one of his biggest errors.

If Yzerman sent Larkin packing prior to the trade deadline rather than signing him to that extension, there’s a good chance the Red Wings would have finished lower in the 2023 draft pecking order, with an outside shot at winning the lottery. Max Bultman highlighted the amount of talent at center in the 2023 draft in his most recent article for the Athletic.

…the true stars of that draft were Connor Bedard, Leo Carlsson, Adam Fantilli and Will Smith, all of whom went in the top four. And the teams that landed those players all finished the 2022-23 season with 60 or fewer points.

Bultman’s larger point is the terrible free agent signings the previous summer served to push Detroit out of the running for the best centers in that draft class, which is certainly true; if you add in trading Larkin at some point that season, there’s a great chance they finish closer to 60 points than 80.

The next general manager will be tasked with upgrading Detroit’s amateur and pro scouting group, and may be able to fix this third and final sin of the Yzerman era by trading Larkin and potentially drafting that franchise 1C in the 2027 draft.

No, I’m not suggesting Eric Tulsky as the next GM

In the aftermath of Steve Yzerman being moved out of the Vice President of Hockey Operations and General Manager role in Detroit, it’s natural to think about whom Chris Ilitch will appoint to fill these roles? I’m not going to throw out names, at least not until we get some reporting on people being considered, so instead what I’m going to do with this short article — I’m on vacation with my son right now — is highlight the type of backgrounds of some of the most successful general managers in the NHL.

The Former Player Agent

Kent Hughes has the Montreal Canadiens on a trajectory they haven’t seen in nearly 30 years. Hughes has built out a young core that makes Les Habs an exciting team to watch, and he hired Martin St Louis to drive the bus. It’s not unreasonable to view the Hughes and St Louis combo favorably when comparing it to Eric Tulsky and Rod Brind’Amour’s partnership in Carolina.

Vancouver was a forerunner in appointing former agent Mike Gillis as Canucks GM just over 18 years ago and the Canucks had an impressive run, winning their division five straight seasons while making it all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals in 2011.

Hiring a former player-agent would be an understandable pivot if Chris Ilitch found the Yzerman approach of treating contract negotiations as a bloodsport to be counter-productive. With Elliotte Friedman reporting that Yzerman had a philosophical issue with signing young players to big contracts, combined with the difficulty of getting Alex DeBrincat and Simon Edvinsson signed to new deals, there’s reason to think an agent would be better suited to making players feel more valued.

NHL owners have cost certainty in the form of a salary cap, so grinding players on money and term can be counter-productive — which is something Pat Verbeek and Henry Samueli just found out.

The Stat Savant

If you are familiar with Moneyball, you likely have one of two thoughts: you either acknowledge the role advanced statistical analysis has played across the entire professional sports landscape, or you lament the fact the eye test is no longer the sole method for identifying talent.

We’re far enough along with the stats-based era for most fans to at least have heard of Corsi and Fenwick metrics, if not have a good handle on what they measure. Carolina GM Eric Tulsky is the current poster child for statistical analysis-based GM’ing, having served as a contributor to Broad Street Hockey due to growing up as a Flyers fan before eventually becoming an NHL exec.

John Chayka was one of the first data-centric GMs in the NHL, working for an Arizona Coyote franchise that needed any advantage it could find. The youngest GM in league history, Chayka was hired at the age of 26 and ran the Coyotes franchise for 4 seasons. The franchise continued to struggle, but the underlying issues that resulted in them playing games in a college hockey arena before eventually ceasing operations certainly made his job nearly impossible.

Chayka was recently named general manager for the Toronto Maple Leafs, with former TML GM Kyle Dubas now serving the same role for the Pittsburgh Penguins. Dubas is another young GM who is comfortable with advanced analytics, but struggled to sign and ultimately build around the Core Four of Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, John Tavares and William Nylander.

What History May Tell Us

Note: shout out to reader Jeremy Oosterhouse who clarified the Tigers’ leadership hiring timeline and hierarchy for me.

Chris Ilitch had to replace Al Avila as his GM when the Detroit Tigers needed new leadership following an 8 year playoff drought. Avila, it should be noted, was part of previous GM Dave Dombrowski’s management team, but stayed behind when Dombrowski parted ways with the Tigers organization in order to join the Red Sox front office.

When Ilitch decided to change direction, he appointed Scott Harris to oversee baseball operations for the Tigers. Brandon Day at the website Bless You Boys covered the high level of what made Harris an appealing signing:

…Harris appears very well qualified. He has the academic background and experience to run a modern major league baseball club. The lineage behind that experience is quite appealing as well. He’s a Theo Epstein protegé who was then hired to the general manager’s role by another highly respected president of baseball ops in Farhan Zaidi, who was Los Angeles Dodgers’ president Andrew Friedman’s right-hand man for years.

The selection of Harris was a 180 from the old school methodology of hiring a guy who cut his teeth as a scout. This was an embrace of the analytical methodology that first gained a foothold with the Oakland Athletics under Billy Beane, then spread to organizations like Tampa, Boston and Los Angeles.

After Harris was installed to oversee baseball operations, he went with another guy who didn’t play the sport or begin his career as a scout as his general manager. Instead, he hired Jeff Greenberg, a guy with an Ivy League education and a law degree, and an executive Harris knew well from their time with the Chicago Cubs before Greenberg took a brief pit stop to help manage the Chicago Blackhawks.

Jeff Greenberg talked a bit about his background when he was hired to lead the Tigers:

I was lucky enough to get two summer internships for the Pittsburgh Pirates when I was an undergrad, and it took me, like, three days to realize, ‘This is what I want to do.’

This was in 2006, and Michael Lewis’ Moneyball had been published a few years before. There were all these new ideas out there; Theo Epstein had won a World Series in Boston by incorporating a data analytics approach to managing the Red Sox. So it felt like there could be opportunities for individuals like me, who didn’t necessarily play professional baseball, in a team’s front office.

Under Harris and Greenberg, the Tigers have made the playoffs in 2 of the past 3 seasons, with an outside shot at making the post season this year despite suffering through a horrific string of injuries.

Then there’s the fact the Ilitch family likely doesn’t have the financial might to compete with MLB powerhouses like the Dodgers, Yankees and Mets, so getting the most out of their budget makes a lot of sense, and as such, I can appreciate the pivot from an executive like Dave Dombrowski to Scott Harris and Jeff Greenberg.

While the NHL has a salary cap, the Ilitch family has spent somewhere in the vicinity of $750 million on player salaries over the past decade without making a single penny in playoff revenue. My guess is Chris Ilitch is unlikely to sign up for 5+ years of another rebuild, so someone steeped in analytics may be able to build a team that can compete for a playoff spot in the near term, finally bringing postseason play to Little Caesars Arena.

The Hockey Ops and General Manager Conundrum

I don’t want to delve too far into the weeds on the relationship between the person tasked with overseeing operations and the one handling GM duties, other than to point out there have been cases where the President of Hockey Ops was the de facto GM which served to neuter the actual GM.

This happened in Vancouver with Jim Rutherford serving as President of Hockey Operations but also involving himself with GM duties from time to time. It was reported that Vancouver’s actual GM at the time — Patrik Allvin — told anyone interested in making an offer on Quinn Hughes that Rutherford was running point on those negotiations. Add in the fact the Canucks are notorious for having a very hands-on owner, and you can see how things could go very badly if you have a hockey ops guy who still wants to try his hand at GM’ing.

The good news for anyone considering the roles in Detroit is the Ilitch family in general and Chris Ilitch in particular are notorious for being very hands off. They will let their hockey leadership group cook.

Making the Most of a Crisis

Thinking in very broad terms, I do like the concept of a President of Hockey Operations who is very comfortable with advanced analytics and as a result would set the strategic direction of the franchise. Hiring someone from the player agent side who is also comfortable with advanced stats to be GM would likely increase the odds of both maximizing the team’s budget while keeping players happy.

Those of us who have followed this team for a long time can remember back to when Detroit was the first team in the NHL to have their own private plane which made distant road trips much easier for the team compared to commercial travel. Mike Ilitch hired the best, paid them, and treated them like royalty.

It’s time for Chris to take a page out of his father’s playbook and hire the best in the business to run his front office.

With the news of Steve Yzerman being ‘moved’ out of the GM chair in Detroit, the time has come for Chis Ilitch to revamp the entire Detroit Red Wings front office. When you’ve had as much success as this club had from the 1990s to the 2010s, it’s understandable to lean on those who played a major role in that success; but at some point, you must come to the realization that the people who won so much on the ice aren’t always best suited to do the job off the ice.

Sure, Steve Yzerman had plenty of success turning around the Tampa Bay Lightning, but he had a phenomenal Director of Amateur Scouting in Al Murray who stayed with the Tampa organization when Yzerman returned to Detroit. He also had Pat Verbeek help with scouting both in Tampa and when he returned to the state of Michigan, but Verbeek left for Anaheim in 2022 to run their organization.

Yzerman didn’t replace either of them with comparable talent and it’s set the organization back.

I’ve been critical of Detroit’s North American Amateur Scouting, along with the Pro Scouting group. It’s reasonable to wonder whether many of the people would be in these roles if they weren’t former Red Wings who played during the glory days?

As far as I’m concerned, the questionable decisions when it comes to the front office, combined with the commitment to Dylan Larkin as team captain, put the franchise in a bind. The team certainly had enough talent to make the playoffs once or twice over the past 4 seasons, yet they always found a way to miss out on post-season play.

Professional sports isn’t an area where excuses are allowed for very long, and patience with this organization has been stretched to the breaking point, so something had to give. While I’m surprised about the timing of the move — with Dylan Larkin’s trade request still unresolved, Simon Edvinsson’s RFA contract needing to be completed, and Alex DeBrincat’s impending free agency next summer — at least it signals there will be a major change in direction.

And oftentimes, change is the first step to a brighter future, even when there are so many unknowns in front of you.

Learning from Another Local Sports Team

I’ve witnessed what we’ve seen over the past 10 years with the Red Wings after Lloyd Carr retired as the University of Michigan’s head football coach. Carr was an internal hire who was part of the Bo Schembechler coaching tree. Early on, it wasn’t clear he was cut out for the job, but then the team won an unexpected national championship in 1997. That solidified ‘Bo’s Boys’ as the faction that held sway inside Michigan football for the next decade.

When Carr retired, there was no clear heir apparent to replace him. So an external hire was made when Rich Rodriguez was named coach. While Rodriguez did plenty to fail on his own, the Schembechler and Carr internal factions within the program certainly had no qualms about creating as many issues for him as possible. When Rich Rod failed, a ‘Michigan Man’ was named to replace him in Brady Hoke. Hoke — a member of the Carr coaching tree — was wildly unqualified and, after a fortuitous 11-2 campaign in his first season in Ann Arbor, stumbled badly before being replaced by Jim Harbaugh.

Between Lloyd Carr’s final season and Jim Harbaugh’s first season, Michigan went a combined 35-40 if you remove the 11-2 outlier season. The one constant during this time frame — outside of losing games one never before thought losable — was the internal power struggle that took place between the Bo Schembechler and Lloyd Carr factions.

While Jim Harbaugh was one of ‘Bo’s Boys’ he had one crucial difference from Brady Hoke: he’d proven himself, first at Stanford University, and then with the San Francisco 49’ers. When Harbaugh returned to Ann Arbor, no one could question his qualifications. That combined with Michigan football no longer looking formidable over the past decade resulted in Harbaugh having plenty of support.

Competence trumped everything else.

Harbaugh slowly but surely returned the football program to prominence, beating Ohio State three times in a row before making the college football playoff two years in a row, ultimately winning the national championship in January 2024.

Rebooting the Red Wings

When Steve Yzerman returned to run the Red Wings, I viewed him as a Harbaugh figure, particularly given he’d managed the Canadian hockey team to two Olympic gold medals and restored Tampa to Cup contenders.

I was wrong.

While there are plenty of factors we can blame for this outcome, ultimately Yzerman is the person responsible for scouting, for making trades, and for signing free agents. What’s done is done, and while we now have our final verdict on the Yzerplan, it’s important that Chris Ilitch not double down on the current management group.

This is why I think it’s important he doesn’t go with the easy route by naming Kris Draper as general manager. If Draper wasn’t a former Red Wings player and didn’t have decades-long relationships with many of the people in the organization, he would never garner serious consideration for such an important role.

With Steve Yzerman, Chris Ilitch gave the Ken Holland management tree its last and best chance to return the organization to prominence. With Yzerman’s failure, it’s time to hire the most qualified candidate, not the most comfortable one.

Credit: Castanet

When I wrote up my 2026 Red Wings Draft Primer, Detroit didn’t have a first round draft pick due to the Justin Faulk trade. The team however was able to get back into the first round when Utah exchanged their 23rd overall pick for Sebastian Cossa, and with that pick the Red Wings selected JP Hurlbert.

Hurlbert was one of the leading scorers in the WHL this past season, and his game is a bit of a departure from what Detroit’s North American scouts tend to prioritize, but when your team finishes in the bottom third in the league for 5v5 goal scoring, it probably makes sense to start focusing on guys who can score goals, and that’s Hurlbert’s biggest feature as a hockey player.

While the Ruck brothers were the toast of the WHL, Hurlbert made a smooth transition to the WHL from the USHL, scoring 42 goals and registering 97 points, and was entrusted with wearing a letter during his rookie campaign in Kamloops. Since his selection as an alternate captain, there have been stories about how JP was instrumental in getting the boys to gel as a team, with Kamloops general manager Shaun Clouston sharing:

[Clouston] knew they made the right decision when he showed up to clean his desk on one early-season Sunday morning, and when he heard some noise from his office and stepped out, he saw half a dozen players coming in for an extra workout before some golf, both organized by Hurlbert.

It was also Hurlbert who got the team playing cards at the back of the bus for the first time in years.

Hurlbert will head to the University of Michigan this fall, in large part due to head coach Brandon Naurato’s approach to offense, with JP commenting ‘we really connected on how we see and think the game. He’s very offensive-minded and so am I’.

JP Hurlbert’s Career Stats

Credit: Elite Prospects

Let’s take a quick overview of JP Hurlbert as a player. This scouting report will cover Kamloops’ 7-3 victory over Vancouver with the main reason being the fact Hurlbert scored a hat trick on 7 shots on goal, going +3.

JP Hurlbert’s Position and Playing Style

Hurlbert was on the ice for the opening face-off for the first and second periods, playing left wing alongside center Ty Coupland and right wing Natham Behm. Both Coupland and Behm would be credited with two assists on Hurlbert’s goals in this game. Behm was a third round pick of the Blackhawks in the 2025 draft and will attend Arizona State University this fall, while Coupland has gone undrafted.

As you would expect from a player with Hurlbert’s skill set, he’s a fixture on the power play but isn’t a key penalty killer. The main reason he wasn’t out there for the opening face-off in the third period was due to the fact the Blazers started the period on the PK.

The commentators mentioned during this game that Vancouver had 2 goals in their previous 49 power play opportunities for an anemic 4% success rate. Kamloops would surrender 2 power play goals to the Giants in the first two periods, and Hurlbert eventually got some time on the PK in the third. This leads me to believe the coaching staff decided to put Hurlbert on the PK as a short-handed goal scoring threat given how ineffective their PK had been through the first two periods.

Hurlbert is deployed in several locations in the o-zone. For Kamloops’ first power play, he was stationed on the right wing along the boards and scored a power play goal off a shot from the right face-off circle, beating Vancouver goalie Burke Hood cleanly on his glove side. He would go on to score two more goals from the left side. He also had a couple nice cross slot passes to Nathan Behm while attacking from the right side before finding Behm on the far post.

In the d-zone, Hurlbert is mostly in the high slot, waiving his stick at crossing passes and putting in low amounts of effort at attacking an opponent with the puck on his stick. When his team gains possession of the puck, he quickly heads to the neutral zone, at the ready for a breakout pass to head his way.

It’s worth pointing out that Vancouver had a rough season, finishing last in the BC Division with a -86 goal differential. So this opponent played right into Hurlbert’s wheelhouse. During the playoffs, Hurlbert was held by Kelowna to three points, with only one of them being a goal, so his production tailed off when facing better competition.

Let’s take a look at my skill ratings for Hurlbert in this game.

JP Hurlbert Player Ratings

Skating: 4/10

When commentators are trying to be positive about Hurlbert’s skating, they say it’s ‘not bad’. This is a case of damning with faint praise. I try not to focus too much on technical skating skill as that’s not a personal strength and I’m not entirely sure how much impact it truly has. What I prefer to do is get a sense of what the skating allows a player to do or — in this case — holds him back from doing. In Hurlbert’s case, his skating is an issue at both ends of the ice.

For starters, when he gets the puck in his own end, he needs to pass it fairly quickly, as he doesn’t have escape velocity to pull away from a back checker. When he’s playing defense in his own end, he rarely if ever has the skating chops to pressure a puck handler, instead preferring to waive his stick. His forecheck is more theory than reality.

There are cases where he will receive the puck in transition and find a teammate with a pass, and this is important given he’s not going to skate away from many opponents. Poor skating isn’t an issue that held back many gifted NHL scorers, but my hope with Hurlbert heading to Michigan is he’ll work on improving his skating.

If it doesn’t improve, he may be relegated to the role of power play merchant.

Passing: 7/10

As mentioned above, with the skating issues, at least Hurlbert has mitigated this limitation by skating with his head up, looking to headman the puck through the neutral zone, or find an attacker in the o-zone with a pass across the slot to the opposite post. This happened twice in the third period where he had the puck at the top of the right face-off circle and threaded a pass to Nathan Behm at the far post. The second pass got Behm the puck with nearly half the net open, but his shot went wide.

Hurlbert’s passing is solid, he has good vision to find an attacker when in transition and he threads his passes accurately, but I find myself second guessing his passing capabilities and wonder how much of that is due to a Kelowna team that doesn’t have much pro caliber talent?

The hope is his passing will stand out more when he’s playing with NHL talent in Ann Arbor.

Shooting: 8/10

This is what we’re here for. Hurlbert’s first goal came from his ‘off wing’, a snipe from the right face-off circle that beat the goalie glove side. The second goal came in transition after a turnover inside the Giants’ blue line where Ty Coupland was able to push the loose puck towards Hurlbert on the left side of the goaltender; JP did the rest, beating the goaltender cleanly. The final goal came in the closing minute of the game, as he approached the left side of the goal to collect a rebound and put the puck behind the goaltender for his final goal.

Hurlbert tends to cheat a bit when his team is in the d-zone and gains possession, but with how good he is at scoring in transition, this seems like a reasonable risk to take. It’s too early to make any definitive claims, but if his shot is behind anyone in the organization it’s probably Alex DeBrincat, but I have a hard time thinking of another player who is so good in close. It should be Lucas Raymond, but Ray seems to defer a bit too much given his elite release. Michael Brandsegg-Nygård is in the conversation.

I feel comfortable saying Hurlbert’s release is top 5 in the organization, with a legit claim to be in the top 3.

Physical Play: 2/10

Hurlbert just doesn’t seem to get involved with board battles, and, as mentioned previously, he’s not much of a forechecker at this point. This game got chippy after a Blazers skater ran Burke Hood, with Kamloops forward Ty Bonkowski eventually getting knocked out of the contest with a hit up high. Hurlbert is 100% a ‘let’s hurt them on the power play’ type of player and for good reason. The guy knows his limitations.

Board Play: 2/10

More of the same. He will skate along the boards, but if he feels pressure he’s moving the puck to an open teammate. If there’s a board battle in his end of the ice, he’s typically making himself available for the outlet pass.

Defensive Play: 4/10

Initially, I had this as a 3/10, but when he got some PK time late, and even took a face-off in his own zone while short-handed — which he won by the way — I had to give him a bit more credit.

As mentioned previously, he’s mostly stationed in the high slot area and ready to make a beeline for the neutral zone if he thinks his team is going to gain possession of the puck. I saw some of this from Carter Bear in reviewing his games last season, and with gifted scorers you can certainly understand the tradeoff.

There were two plays that gave me pause with Hurlbert defending in his own zone:

1. With Kamloops nursing a one-goal lead with 11:20 left in the 2nd, Hurlbert was headed back to the blue line hoping to get a jump in transition. However the Blazers’ d-men both covered an attacker in front of the net, leaving Joe Iginla wide open on the back post. His shot was fortunately stopped by Kamloops keeper Logan Edmonstone. Hurlbert eventually hustled back to help, but by then the play was over.

2. Later with 8:30 remaining in the second period, when JP was alone in front of his own net against Vancouver forward Misha Volotovskii, he just waved his stick at him as he took several point black shots at Edmonstone before another Blazers skater wrapped Volotovskii up.

Seeing Hurlbert get some PK time late in the game was a good sign, as the game wasn’t truly done and dusted until Kamloops scored an empty net goal while short-handed with less than 2 minutes left in the contest.

JP Hurlbert’s Projection

The reason you are drafting JP Hurlbert is due to his goal scoring capabilities. He’s proven to be a scorer across the UNTDP and the WHL, and next season he’ll play for one of the elite offensive teams in college hockey. We should feel confident he’s going to be capable of potting 25-30 goals a year when he eventually matriculates to the NHL.

The question with his skating is whether he’s limited to a role that features him as a power play merchant, or can he find a way to be a contributor on your first line?

The one thing Hurlbert could do that would raise his ceiling the most is to improve his skating. It doesn’t need to be elite or anything close to that, but if it could get to the point where he could put defenders in a quandary when he’s attacking, it would allow him to maximize his offensive upside.

For me, his floor is middle six scorer who is a power play merchant. In that scenario, I could see him being a consistent 25 goal, 45 point producer. If his skating improves and he can hang on the top line with a strong playmaking center, I think there’s the potential for him to be a 35 goal, 70ish point player in the NHL.

Credit: The Peterborough Examiner

Note: during the summer, I’m going to create scouting reports on the most recent Red Wings draft picks. In my Red Wings draft primer I identified Levac as a prospect I liked in the back half of the draft, so this year’s series will start off with him.

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