The Wings had six picks in 2015. They used their first one, at No. 19, on forward Evgeny Svechnikov. Svechnikov struggled to prove he belonged in the Wings’ lineup early in his career, and was set back in 2018-19 when he missed the entire season because of a knee injury.
Pearson is a career AHLer by this point whose ceiling is mayby Chris Conner, that guy who was briefly a Red Wing and who could consistently tear up the AHL but couldn’t stick with an NHL team because he fit too perfectly into the margins between the leagues.