Detroit Red Wings
Former Red Wings Top Pick Staying in Europe
Zadina signs extension with Davos through 2027-28 season
Earlier in the offseason, Detroit Red Wings 2018 first-round draft pick Filip Zadina was suggesting that he hadn’t given up on the NHL dream.
Following a season in which he’d played a major role for Davos of the Swiss National League, the player Detroit chose sixth overall in the NHL entry draft was hoping to open some eyes among hockey people on this side of the Atlantic Ocean.
“If something like that could come from America, I would take it 100 percent,” Zadina told Czech website Sport Ceskatelevize in late April.
.@filip_zadina, his first National Hockey League goal! #LGRW pic.twitter.com/Yh4QmTD5bI
— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) March 6, 2019
Evidently, those eyes opted to keep looking the other way. Monday, Zadina agreed to a two-year contract extension to remain with Davos. He was going to be entering the second season of the two-year pact he signed last year. Now, he’ll be staying with Davos through the 2027-28 season.
Last season, Zadina put up 21 goals and 13 assists in 43 games for Davos.
“In Davos I felt that they took me as a valid player, they gave me a role and I filled it,” Zadina said. He’ll be 28 when his Davos pact expires in 2028.
Zadina was taking a que sera sera approach to the continuing lack of interest in his services from NHL clubs.
“If it comes, it comes,” Zadina said. “If not, of course I won’t hang my head. I was there for a few years, I tried it, it was great.”
Sore Spot With Red Wings Fans
Zadina’s selection one pick before Michigan Wolverines defenseman and 2023-24 Norris Trophy winner Quinn Hughes going to the Vancouver Canucks will always remain a talking point among the Red Wings fanbase.
Happy Draft Day to those who celebrate. May your favorite team end up with a Mo Seider and not a Filip-Zadina-When-You-Could-Have-Had-Quinn-Hughes.
— Michael Caples (@michaelcaples) June 27, 2025
The 2018 draft was the last for Ken Holland as GM of the Red Wings. Seven years later, only winger Jonatan Berggren, chosen 33rd overall, remains with the Red Wings.
The other player to play with Detroit from that draft class was center Joe Veleno. Like Zadina, a first-round selection (30th overall), Veleno was traded to Chicago at last season’s NHL trade deadline. He was later dealt by the Blackhawks to Seattle and then bought out by the Kraken. Veleno currently remains out of contract.
