Just a little change up from the bickering back and forth with the pens, the UFA/Hossa/What I would do threads. (They are all fun and I am not complaining.) I was looking around the internet to expand my useles knowledge base, and started looking at All of Detroit's drafts. Then I focused on the European, most specifically Detroit's love affair with Sweden... To start, Detroit's first ever European draft pick was Ladislav Svozil, he was drafted in the 12th round, 194th ovral in 1978 out of the Czecheslovokia Elite League. He played exactly 0 games in the NHL. Bjorn Skaare was a Norweigen born player who played 1 game for Detroit in 1978-79. Did you know that Petr Klima was only the third European ever drafted by Detroit? In between Svozil & Klima came the 1981 draft and in the 10th round Detroit selected their first EVER Swedish born draft pick out of Lulea, Sweden, Robert Nordmark. He also played 0 games for the Wings and re-entered the draft in 1987, where he was re-selected by the St. Louis Blues. He played 236 games in the NHL collecting 13 goals, 70 assists for 83 points playing for the Blues and Canucks. This was not the first Swede that Detroit had though, Thommie "Lars" Bergman played for Detroit from 1972-1975, then again from 1977-1980 and Tord Lundstrom played for Detroit in 1973-74. For a couple of seasons after Nordmark, the Wings stayed out of Europe (besides Klima) but in 1984, 4 out of 12 of their picks were from Sweden: *Mats Lundstrom - Vastra Frolunda - 0 NHL games *Stefan Karlsson - Vastra Frolunda - 0 NHL games *Lars Kalrsson - Farjestads - 0 NHL games *Urban Nordin - Modo - 0 NHL games Despite the failure of these 4 to break the NHL, they went to the Swedish hole again in 1985, drafting three Swede's, with unfortunately the same result, 0 NHL games: *Thomas Bjur, Bo Svanberg & Mikael Lindman. (on a side note the Wings drafted their first ever Finnish player, Erik Hamalainen, in the 10th round this year, with the same result as the Swede's. But he played in Europe up until last season, just nevr had what it takes to crack the NHL.) The first Swede's that Detroit drafted to make it into the NHL came just a year later in 1986: *Johan Garpenlov played 10 seasons in the NHL with Detroit, San Jose, FLorida & Atlanta. He was taken 85th overall in the 5th round. *Per Djoos also played in the NHL, only 3 season though, with Detroit and the Rangers. He was selected 127th overall, in the 7th round. *They also drafted Peter Ekroth, that year out of Sodertalje, he actually played early in his career in Canada and made an appearance in Adirondack for 12 games, but failed to crack the NHL. The Wings tried again in 1987 when they used their last pick to draft Tomas Jansson, but again, he stuggled in North America and only got as far as one season in the WHL with the Portland Winter Hawks. 1988 was Swedish free for the Wings, the did draft Czech Petr Hrbek in the 3rd round, but that was the only European taken that season. It seemed maybe the Wings had given up on the Swede's and Euros all together, then 1989 came. You'd have to have been born under a rock to not know the Swedish player selected in 1989, along with a couple of very famous Russian players. (Also Borje Salming played his last season in the NHL for the WIngs in 1989-1990.) The crazy thing is, Lidstrom didn't get selected until the 3rd round, and by the way he turned out, thus started Detroit's ability to uncover diamonds in the ruff. Fedorov was selected in the 4th round and Konstantinov the 11th round. Of course, what Wings fan doesn't know this? It seemed that with the success of Fedorov and Konstantinov, and the Wings ability to steal these players from Red Army, this is what they focued on for a few years, Russian players. It wasn't until the 1993 draft when Detroit decided to roll the dice on a Swedish born player again. This time using their first round pick to select Anders Eriksson #22 overall. Even though he wasn't the player he was projected to be, he was a part of the 1998 Stanley Cup team and has played a total of 552 games in the NHL thus far with Detroit, Chicago, Toronto, Florida, Columbus and most recently Calgary. In 1994, the used their 10th round pick to draft Tomas Holmstrom, again finding one of those diamonds that so many other teams passed on, round after round. As a matter of fact, Detroit's 6 picks in between Mathieu Dandenault in the 2nd round and Holmstrom in the 10th, have a grand total of 0 NHL games under their belts. Sticking with Russians in the higher rounds, Detroit didn't draft their first Swede in 1995 until round 7, when they selected Per Eklund and in the 9th round they selected David Engblom, both of whom have played 0 NHL games... 1996 didn't show anything different from the Wings Swedish parade drafting Johan Forsander in the 4th round and Magnus Nilsson in the 6th round. Again, these two combined have zero NHL experience. Although the success of Lidstrom and Holmstrom had yet to repeat itself, the Wings kept holding on to their belief in Haken Andersson and the Swedish players. 1997 - John Wikstrom - 0 NHL Games; Also aquired at the trade deadline, born in Finland, but is Swedish, Tomas Sandstrom. 1998 - Calle Steen - 0 NHL games 1998 - David Petrasek - 0 NHL games In 1999, everything seemed the same for the Wings, with their first pick (4th round) the chose Jari Tosla from Goteberg, Sweden, this was supposed to be the best available Swedish player at this point in the draft, but once again he has 0 NHL games played. Then along came the 7th round and a young man name Henrik Zetterberg. No explantaion needed, excpet why this guy lasted this long in the draft... They also aquired at the trade deadline this season (along with trading away Anders Eriksson for Chris Chelios) Ulf Samuelsson from the New York Rangers. In the 2000 draft, the Wings went full throttle drafting 4 Swedes, Niklas Kronwall, Stefan Liv, Per Backer & Jimmie Svensson. Of which Kronwall has been the only one to see NHL action, although Liv, at one time, was touted as being the next superstar goaltender in Detroit. He has 0 games played. 2001 only saw one Swedish born player drafted, Andreas Jamtin, but he never seen any type of North American hockey. Although the Red Wings did sign Swedish free agent defensman, Frederick Olausson, who was a big part of their 2002 Stanley Cup Championship. 2002 was business as usual for the Wings, drafting 6 Europeans out of 10 total picks, 3 of which were Swedish born players: Johan Berggren, Christian Soderstrom & Jonathon Ericsson, who was selected with the very last draft pick of that year, and just happends to be their #1 prospect and is expected to see full duty in Detroit in 2009-2010. Now thats finding a diamond! 2003 brought four more Swedes to the system, none of which made it and none of which are still considered Wings prospects: Andreas Sundin, Stefan Blom, Tomas Kollar & Mikael Johansson. 2004 brought us Johan Franzen in the 3rd round, followed by Anton Axelsson & Nils Backstrom. Franzen of course needs no explanation, the other two are still in the Detroit prospect system, with Backstrom playing NCAA hockey at Alaska-Anchorage. 2005: Christofer Lofberg, Mattias Ritola & Johan Ryno. Lofberg fell off the map, Ryno went back to Sweden and Ritola played for Grand Rapids last season and is currently sitting in the #9 sot on the prospects list. Detroit also signed free agent defensman Andreas Lilja and free agent forward Mikail Samuelsson this off season. 2006: Dick Axelsson & Daniel Larsson, both of whom are in the system and are rank in the top 12 of prospects. Larsson in pegged to be a NHL goaltender in a few years, if not sooner. He spent all of last season in Grand Rapids. 2007: Joakim Andersson, who currently sits #8 in the prospects rankings. Which brings us to 2008, and not disappointing, the Wings used two selections this season to draft Gustav Nyquist in the 4th round and Jesper Smuelsson in the 7th round. In a week or so the Wings are going to go to the 2009 draft with no doubt a couple of Swedish prospects on their minds. They'd love to be able to get a hold of Victor Hedman, but unless they pull off a blockbuster trade to secure the #1 or #2 pick, they will have to rely on their European scouting to find the next diamond from Sweden, and given their history I think we have plenty to look forward to! Sorry this was so long, but I hope it kept your mind off the trolls for a while and the Salary Cap too!