Unusual Draft positions for Midwest NHL teams.

At least a couple of the five Midwest-based National Hockey League teams sees them in unusual, but enviable positions for Friday night’s NHL Entry Draft.

It’s not all that long ago all five teams moved into the post season festivities, but there has been a bit of a skid since then – likely hitting rock bottom this season as the Detroit Red Wings not only sat out its second straight playoff run but found itself joined by both the Chicago Blackhawks and St. Louis Blues. One round in the other two – Minnesota Wild and Columbus Blue Jackets, joined their Midwest brothers on the golf links, making it the earliest summer in recent memory for Midwest fans.

St. Louis – inexplicably a seller at the Trade deadline for a second straight season – last season it was defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk and this season productive, but oft-injured forward Paul Stastny left for what turned out to be a great playoff run with the Winnipeg Jets.

Making matters tougher for the Blues is management will once again be watching most of the opening round, having surrendered its own first round pick (14^th Overall) to the Philadelphia Flyers as part of last off-season’s pick up of Brayden Schenn for Jori Lehtera.

The Blues will get the 29^th Overall pick as part of the Stastny deal.

Wings benefit most

Top pick among the Midwestern squads goes to the Wings who will select sixth overall. The Wings will almost for sure grab one of several stud defensemen available, but unfortunately, it will not be Rasmus Dahlin, the overwhelming number one prospect who will go instead to the Buffalo Sabres.

The Wings will also pick 30^th in the Draft, part of its compensation for the Trade Deadline move that sent Tomas Tatar to the Vegas Golden Knights. The Wings will continue to benefit from that trade with the Islanders second round pick next summer and fourth round selection in 2021.

The Wings will also have a pair of second round picks, inheriting the second-round selection of the Ottawa Senators in exchange for the trade of Brendan Smith to the Rangers last season.

That will be the 33^rd overall selection. With its own pick coming moments later, the Wings will have four picks among the top 36.

Early picks for Hawks

It’s been a while since the Hawks picked up a Top 10 selection, but barring a trade, the eighth overall selection will be grinning for pics with a Hawks Jersey and cap. The Hawks also doubled up on first round selections as they will pick 27^th Overall in a pick garnered from the Predators as part of a deadline deal that send Ryan Hartman to Nashville in exchange for Victor Edsel. The Hawks will also get a fourth-round pick from Nashville while sending a fifth-round selection to the Prods.

However, the Hawks will sit silent through the next round, losing its second-round pick to the Montreal Canadiens as the final piece of a trade from 2016 that brought Tomas Fleischmann and Dale Weise to the Windy City for Phillip Danault (and this pick). After picking 27^th, the Hawks will be on the sidelines until the third round (69^th Overall).

The Hawks have an awesome, but aging defense corps and could also benefit from one of the highly ranked early defensemen in the talent pool.

Wild selects 24^th

The Minnesota Wild will pick 24^th overall but sits out the second round as its 55^th Overall selection goes to the Arizona Coyotes as part of a 2017 Deadline deal that brought Martin Hanzal to the Twin Cities along with Ryan White for Grayson Downing, last summer’s first round selection and this pick.

The Wild will second first in the third round (63^rd overall) as part of a deal last summer that sent Jason Pominville back to Buffalo along with Marco Scandella, for Tyler Ennis, Marcus Foligno and this selection. The Wings will have three picks in the round having also garnered the Golden Knights’ selection (92^nd overall), finishing a deal that sent Alex Tuch to Vegas at last summer’s draft.

It’s harder to narrow down a selection for the Wild as so many things can happen in the first 23 picks. It’s extremely doubtful though the team will see the player its selects in a Hawks’ jersey for at least one (and more than likely two or three) seasons.

Finally, the Blue Jackets will pick 16^th Overall in the opening round and have no pickups or losses in the opening two rounds.

The Jackets will likely select the best player available. The performance of the Cleveland Monsters, the team’s AHL affiliate this past season seems to indicate, the lucrative gold mine of young prospects that came out of the 2016 Calder Cup Championship team has likely been used up. Time to restock a bit for the Blue Jackets.