We are now exactly one week away from the 2025 NHL Draft. The Detroit Red Wings own nine picks in the seven round draft, including the 13th overall selection.
This morning The Athletic’s NHL staff posted their first round mock draft. At pick 13, the Red Wings are projected to select Victor Eklund, a left wing out of Djurgården in Sweden.
“Eklund is a fashionable pick for the Red Wings, who have already used five first-round picks to draft a player out of Sweden in six years under Steve Yzerman, and whose preference for high-compete prospects is abundantly clear. Maybe that makes it feel too obvious,” The Athletic writes.
Eklund is listed on eliteprospects.com at five-foot-eleven, weighing just 170 pounds. This makes the 18-year-old from Stockholm, Sweden less than prototype size. FloHockey’s Max Bultman gave the lowdown on the young forward.
“It checks too many boxes,” Bultman said. “The only hesitation I have is it would be another small winger, which at the NHL level, they are a little heavy on. Patrick Kane’s not going to be there forever — probably won’t even be there by the time Victor Eklund makes the NHL — but still with Lucas Raymond and Alex DeBrincat, that would be three sub-six-foot wingers in your top six. That’s a little itchy. But I don’t think there’s a great alternative, and he checks so many other boxes for them: it’s the high compete, the motor, he is a good scorer, he can really shoot it.”
Scouting Report On Viktor Eklund
Eklund is a right handed shot and a consensus top-ten prospect in this year’s draft class. Last season, in 42 games played in Sweden’s First Division, Eklund buried 19 goals and tallied 12 assists for a 31 point regular season. In 16 playoff games he potted two more and dished out five more assists.
“Employing a relentless, never-ending motor and highly impressive contact skills, Eklund suffocates defenders with his pace, outraces them for pucks on retrievals and wins the war for body positioning by cutting them at their hands,” reads EliteProspects 2025 Draft Guide. “He’s also a very capable offensive creator who gets a lot of looks from the slot and net-front areas due to his dogged style, as well as showing skill and finesse as a playmaker. He’s particularly gifted at playing below the goal line, combining the forechecking prowess with playmaking vision to turn steals into chances with clever feeds to the slot.”
Lynden Lakovic Mocked To Detroit
The art of mock drafting is an imperfect one. With a pool of thousands, it is not often you’ll find many sources in agreement. But in this case, there are two sources that send the WHL’s Lynden Lakovic to Detroit.
“Detroit is always prepared to pull out a draft-day wild card,” NPR’s Gabriel Foley writes. “Perhaps their best player right now – Moritz Seider – was once a jaw-dropping draft-day selection who quickly ramped up to NHL success. That could send them in one of many directions next week, though they seem a great fit for WHL bruiser Lynden Lakovic.”
NPR had Eklund off the board at 11, so the team selects this winger who uses his big body to physically patrol the perimeter of the ice. Bleacher Nation’s first round mock also has the Moose Jaw Warrior, Lakovic, landing in Detroit just one selection before Eklund falls off the board.
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