There are a lot of reasons for the Red Wings to like Lucas Raymond. To love Lucas Raymond. For director of amateur scouting Kris Draper, it starts with the fact that Raymond reminds him nothing of himself.
"The smarter players always have the pucks on their sticks -- and I can tell you I didn’t have the puck on my stick a lot. Seemed to dump and chase it and go in and try to get it back," Draper said with a smile after the Red Wings drafted Raymond fourth overall Tuesday night. "You see smart hockey players, they know how to carry the puck, they know where to put the puck, they know how to get open.
"For me, that’s what hockey sense is. The vision and creativity with the puck. They see their teammates, they have the ability to make players around them better. These are the guys that are go-to guys on power plays, and right now that’s what we’re seeing from Lucas Raymond."
Steve Yzerman and Draper used that term -- hockey sense -- over and over when discussing Raymond Tuesday night. They emphasized his smarts and his intelligence and his creativity. The more they talked about this 5'10 winger from Sweden, the harder it was not to picture Henrik Zetterberg.
"We think he has all the tools to be an elite forward in the NHL," Yzerman said.
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Know who always seemed to have the puck on his stick? No. 40 in red. And whenever he didn't, he was usually in the process of getting it back. Zetterberg was never the strongest, fastest or flashiest player on the ice. But he was ever in control of the action. It was like the game waited for Z to make the first move.
Another thing about Zetterberg? His performance didn't fluctuate. He was the same tireless player in the spotlight of May as he was in the dim lights of November. This is how he lasted 15 years in the NHL. And yet Zetteberg had that special ability to raise his game with the stakes, to match the moment in front of him.
The first time they saw Raymond match the moment, Yzerman and Draper were sitting side by side. It was at the 2019 U-18 World Championship in Sweden. A year younger than most of the players in the tournament, Raymond lifted the Swedes over Russia with a hat trick in the gold medal game, topped off by the overtime winner.
Draper left the rink smiling that night. Even Yzerman may have betrayed a grin.
"To me, it means a lot," said Draper. "When you’re sitting there, 17 years old, playing in your home country in front of your home fans, and all of the sudden you raise your level, you raise your level of compete and the way you play and you rise to the occasion in a big game, that puts a smile on your face when you’re watching it."
We're underselling Raymond's talent. He's not just smart. He's a strong skater with smooth hands and a sneaky good shot. For his first act against Russia, he undressed a defenseman one-on-one, then went far-side blocker on future first-round pick Yaraslov Askarov. "What a move, what a shot!"
While we're in the business of comparisons, it's Raymond's puck-handling that scouts have likened to Mitch Marner. He makes clever plays in tight spaces. The undersized Marner put up 61 points as a rookie, then established himself as a star with 94 points two years later. He's answered questions about his size with statements of his skill.
The Red Wings knew there would be plenty of good players on the board at No. 4 Tuesday night. But the more they discussed their options in the lead-up to the draft, the more they kept coming back to Raymond. And the deeper they dug, the more they were sold. Draper and his team went out of their way to find flaws in Raymond's game. They couldn't.
"We put the work in, we watched, we interviewed, we made calls," said Draper. "Anything we could do to gather information on Lucas Raymond, we certainly did it. And in the end, everything just kept coming back that this young hockey player wants to be a hockey player."
"What we liked about him," said Yzerman, "we think he’s a very intelligent player, a highly-skilled player, very competitive. So we think he fits in with the kind of team we want to build."
These are the qualities Yzerman put a premium on as he drafted the pieces for an eventual Cup-winner in Tampa Bay. Can we interest you in one more comparison? Good, because 'intelligent, skilled and competitive' might be the perfect description of the 5'10 Brayden Point.
Ultimately, Lucas Raymond will be Lucas Raymond. He made that point himself Tuesday night when asked whether he patterns his game after anyone in the NHL. No, he said -- with distinctive Swedish courtesy. There are plenty of players he likes to watch, but none he strives to mimic.
If it all works out, Raymond will eventually call images of Zetterberg and Marner and Point to mind. And then he'll show us something that resists comparison, that is uniquely Lucas Raymond, like that dazzling goal against Russia. The Red Wings need playmakers, and Raymond makes plays. He'll be making them in Detroit as soon as next season.
And you get the sense he'll be here for a while.
"There’s a lot of things that you can teach in the game of hockey," Draper said. "But hockey IQ, hockey sense, it’s just a gift, it’s given, and the real good ones have it."