ON THIS DAY: 10 years ago, the Detroit Red Wings make a HUGE Mistake
Back in the 2011-2012 season, the Detroit Red Wings finished with a 48-28-6 record, good enough for 5th in the Western Conference. The team felt that had a shot at advancing in the playoffs so they decided to bring in a defenceman who was traded twice that day.
First the Colorado Avalanche traded defenceman Kyle Quincey to the Tampa Bay Lightning in return for Steve Downie.
The Lightning then flipped Quincey to the Red Wings in return for Sebastien Piche and 1st round pick in the 2012 draft. Quincey was an original draft pick of the Wings back in 2003, taken 132 overall.
This move did not pay off for the Red Wings as they ended up getting bumped in the 1st round to the Nashville Predators in 5 games.
Now where this goes incredibly bad for the Red Wings. With the loss to the Predators, the Red Wings pick that was sent to Tampa became the 19th overall selection.
The 2012 draft was highlighted at the time by Russian superstar Nail Yakupov who was selected 1st overall. We later saw players like Alex Galchenyuk, Tom Wilson, Morgan Rielly, Martin Erat: I mean Filip Forsberg (sorry Caps fans) taken. No player in this draft turned into a bonafide superstar, but one name stands alone in this draft, and he was selected at 19th.
The Tampa Bay Lightning selected with the Detroit Red Wings 19th pick, Andrei Vasilevskiy. The rest has been history.
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