Mike Toth is Ready for Hockey

Sportsnet’s Mike Toth is ready for hockey to start, and has list of 10 situations to watch for the upcoming season.

5. Forget about the fact that Detroit has captured four Cups in the last 11 years. The real reason to fear the Red Wings is their penchant for making everybody else in the league look stupid. Motown is famous for taking late round draft picks such as Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg and turning them into stars. Their latest project? Jonathan Ericsson, a swift skating Swedish defenseman who the Wings grabbed with the very last pick of the 2002 draft. Ericsson is now being groomed to make his Detroit debut and it’s these kind of savvy moves that will allow the Wings to keep the Cup when the play-offs roll around.

Toth makes a good point here about the Red Wings. It would be easy to chalkup their late round drafting success to luck, but the simple fact is they do their homework and reap the rewards.