Bear’s intangibles stand out to Red Wings as much as his offensive skills

LOS ANGELES -- Executive Vice President and General Manager Steve Yzerman, as well as Assistant Manager and Director of Amateur Scouting Kris Draper, spoke highly of Carter Bear following Round 1 of the 2025 NHL Entry Draft at L.A. Live’s Peacock Theater on Friday night, in which the Detroit Red Wings used their lone first-round pick to take the 18-year-old forward at No. 13 overall.

“We’re getting a very intelligent hockey player, extremely competitive,” Yzerman, from Little Caesars Arena, said in a Zoom call with the media on Friday. “At the junior level, he really can score. We think all of his game translates to the NHL as well. I think our fanbase will really take to him when the time comes that he’s playing for the Red Wings because he competes hard, he’s a really good person. I know we’re very excited about this pick.”

This season, Bear tied for seventh in the Western Hockey League with 40 goals and paced the Everett Silvertips with 82 points in 56 games.

“Obviously, if you just look at the stats that he put up, he put up some real good numbers playing on a good team,” Draper also said via Zoom. “The thing with Carter is that he can score in different ways. He can score from the perimeter, the way he shoots the puck. He can score off the rush and off the cycle. He gets around the net, so that’s obviously a skill in itself – not being a one-dimensional pure shooter or a guy that just scores goals one way. He can score in a lot of different ways, which is a great attribute for Carter to have.”

Although an Achilles injury sustained in March prematurely ended Bear’s season, Yzerman said that wasn’t something Detroit was overly concerned about moving forward.

“We were aware of that,” Yzerman said. “We checked it out. We talked to him. He’s been examined fully, and we expect it to heal.”

Year after year, one of the Red Wings’ top priorities leading up to an NHL Draft is getting to know the prospects as best they can. A lot of that information gathering happens at the annual NHL Scouting Combine.

But because of his injury, Bear couldn’t participate in the fitness testing at the 2025 edition of the NHL Combine, which took place earlier this month at KeyBank Center. However, Yzerman pointed out there’s other avenues by which teams can evaluate a prospect.

“We try to get test results on the kids that are at the Combine that do the tests,” Yzerman said. “And then a lot of kids that don’t even come to the Combine. Most teams will do some testing through the course of the year or in their offseason training program, and the kids are generally good about getting results to us. Unfortunately, with Carter’s injury, we didn’t get any of those test results. We basically, for the most part, will use that as secondary information. Ultimately, the most important thing is what they do on the ice. We felt more than comfortable in selecting him even though we didn’t get that information.”

Draper said he was fortunate enough to see Bear play in person this season and appreciates how the 6-foot, 179-pound forward combines his offensive instincts with relentless determination.

“We liked the way he thinks the game,” Draper said. “He’s a player that played in all situations. He can play up and down the lineup if he has to so there are a lot of things that we liked about Carter’s game. He’s the type of player that when you go watch him play, sometimes you walk out of the rink and just really appreciate the effort that he gave.”

The 2025 NHL Entry Draft concludes Saturday with Rounds 2-7. For continued coverage from L.A. Live's Peacock Theater, follow along on DetroitRedWings.com.