so its official, lottery is done and we own NO first round pick in 2026. the pick we shipped to st louis in the faulk deal landed at 15th overall. fifteenth. and our first selection is reportedly somewhere around 47th. so while half the league restocks with a blue chipper we sit on our hands until the second round. love it here. nothing says rebuild like trading the literal building block.
I am salty about it too but let me at least state it accurately for the thread. The pick went to STL in the Faulk trade and slotted 15th after the lottery. Detroit's first selection this year is reportedly around 47th, second round. So it is not nothing, it is just not a first.
Faulk was a deadline move to actually try to make the playoffs, which is what Yzerman said he wanted to do. You can hate the result but the intent was to compete. Trading a first to win now is a thing contenders do. The discomfort is that we did not win.
we gave up a first AND buchelnikov AND holl AND a third to rent a defenseman and still missed the playoffs by a mile. tenth straight year. that is the whole post.
It stings, no argument. But the counter is that the pipeline is deep enough right now that one missing first is survivable in a way it would not have been five years ago. The farm is loaded. This is the cost of being aggressive when you think your window is opening.
Quick ledger on the Faulk cost since people keep mangling it:
- out: Holl, Buchelnikov, 2026 1st (became 15th), 2026 3rd
- the 3rd we sent was the one we got back for Soderblom from Pittsburgh
So we effectively turned Soderblom into part of a Faulk rental. Whether that is good depends entirely on whether Faulk re-signs and stays. If he walks, the math gets ugly.
carl out here doing forensic accounting on my misery. respect. still mad though.
Picking 47th with this scouting staff scares me less than it would have a decade ago.