How Emmitt Finnie went from seventh-round pick to surprise part of Red Wings youth movement

Emmitt Finnie wasn't supposed to be here. 

A seventh-round pick in 2023, a player who barely even made the Elite Prospects draft guide that year, Finnie was always supposed to be a long-shot, low-risk gamble for the Detroit Red Wings. 

If anything, he'd develop into a potential depth option, more of a quad-A player with the Grand Rapids Griffins. 

But three games into the 2025-26 season, the 20-year-old seventh-rounder has not only earned a place in Detroit, but seized and held a spot on the Red Wings top line with Dylan Larkin and Lucas Raymond. On Monday, in a matinee against the Toronto Maple Leafs, Finnie was on the ice with less than a minute remaining in a tie game, keeping the cycle alive to help set up a game-winning goal by Mason Appleton with 44 seconds remaining. 

It was Finnie's se