Plandowski is someone who DRW drafted late (5th round) in 2021, actually their second pick in the 5th round, he's not NHL big, and I can't remember the last time I saw any reference to him and progress in an already-deep Red Wings' pipeline for defensemen. Wings had already selected Simon Edvinsson early in the first round, and he's starting to make his mark at the NHL level. Shai Buium (the elder of the two Denver Buiums, DRW 2nd round pick that season) is stuck at the AHL level, could be trade bait with his younger bro already jumping right into the Wild's lineup. So good news, our 22 year old freshman, with elite skating skills/genes, may be one of those elusive four-year players, unless his one year of Canadian college hockey knocks that down to three years?
Statistics of Oscar Plandowski, a hockey player from Red Deer, ALTA born May 18 2003 who was active from 2019 to 2025.
www.hockeydb.com
Dan, you're starting to convince me that *maybe* just maybe, MS7 has finally settled on a new recruiting strategy that may bear fruit. As you've noted, there are two big questions out there in this upcoming transition season, how will CHL fare in NCAA, and are our CHL'ers better than other teams' CHL'ers? Another question left unstated though is, will our CHL'ers receive better coaching than those other CHL'ers?? To the extent that many of these CHL guys will be more developed as a result of their ages and experiences at higher Junior levels than traditional NCAA recruits ... perhaps that potential weakness will be mitigated?
Should make for an interesting season ... starting to have that annual debate with myself on whether to jump back in on season tix after a 30+ year hiatus ...