General manager Steve Yzerman holds 10 picks in the 2020 draft, four of them in the first two rounds.
The NHL draft has changed over the years, expanding and contracting to where it is today as a seven-round, two-day event. At the first NHL draft, though, in 1963, there were only four rounds and teams could pass on a pick to a competitor. That’s the subject of this edition of Detroit Red Wings Revisited.
It was in the days of the Original Six, when what was then called the amateur draft was instituted to create a more equal opportunity for teams to acquire promising young players.