Detroit Red Wings

Was Red Wings 1989 NHL Draft Class The Best Ever? | DHN+

Published

4 months ago

June 18, 2021

Bob Duff

Nicklas Lidstrom went his entire career without ever winning the Lady Byng Trophy

Nicklas Lidstrom was part of the Detroit's 1989 draft class, which grades out as the best in NHL history.

No one would put forth a debate over which was the best draft year in Detroit Red Wings history. Thursday was the anniversary of the 1989 NHL entry draft. It wasn’t a year that the Wings picked in the lottery. Still, there’s no question that Detroit hit the lottery.

Nicklas Lidstrom, Sergei Fedorov and Vladimir Konstantinov all became Red Wings that day.

As great a draft as it was for the Winged Wheel, how does Detroit’s class of 1989 stack up agains the best performances by other NHL teams in a single draft year? We here at Detroit Hockey Now wondered that as well, so we devised a formula to determine which was the best single-team draft performance in NHL history.

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