Last season, as the public sphere arrived at the consensus of Marco Kasper as a first-round pick, few thought of him as a top-10 talent. 

The Detroit Red Wings disagreed. When they stood at the podium on draft day, Detroit overlooked other high-end prospects, Matthew Savoie and Pavel Mintyukov and picked Kasper at No. 8. 

“Very excited to add Marco to our prospect pool,” Kris Draper, the Red Wings’ director of amateur scouting said, following the selection. “He does everything the right way, very strong and very responsible. The consistency in his play is something that really stands out, but we believe that there is more offence to come for him.”

Tenacious on the forecheck and relentless on net drives, in his draft year  Kasper already looked like an NHLer. His defensive engagement, pace, an