Carter Bear is headed to Motown.
The Detroit Red Wings selected the Everett Silvertips forward with the 13th overall pick in the 2025 NHL Draft in Los Angeles on Friday.
Bear is the first Silvertips player to be selected in the first round of the NHL Draft since Noah Juulsen in 2015 (26th overall to Montreal). He is the highest- drafted Silvertips player since Ryan Murray, who was selected second overall by Columbus in 2012.
After putting on the iconic winged wheel jersey and taking a photo with NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, Bear walked across the stage to speak to Red Wings general manager Steve Yzerman via video call, which was featured on the ESPN broadcast. Bear had a hard time finding the words to describe the moment.
“I’m very grateful for this opportunity,” Bear said on the broadcast. “I’m speechless.”
Bear led the Silvertips with 82 points and 40 goals this season, earning Team MVP honors. For Yzerman, Bear’s goal-scoring ability represented just one of the reasons Detroit zeroed in on him.
“We think he’s an extremely intelligent hockey player,” Yzerman said on the broadcast. “Very competitive, and highly skilled. And obviously scoring 40 goals this year, a great goal-scorer, so we think he’s an excellent all-around player. From everyone we’ve spoken to, his former teammates, coaches, everyone thinks extremely high of him, and we think we’ve found ourselves a special young prospect here.”
Bear’s stellar season ended prematurely due to a lacerated Achilles he suffered on March 9 against the Portland Winterhawks, but he avoided a more serious injury. According to Silvertips general manager Mike Fraser, Bear has already started skating again, less than four months later. He’s expected to be “good to go,” by training camp at the end of the summer.
The Silvertips missed Bear’s production in the postseason, eventually falling in the second round of the WHL Playoffs to Portland in seven games after winning the Scotty Munro Memorial Trophy for posting the best regular-season record.
“Obviously, it was a devastating injury for him, but it was pretty obvious how much of a toll it took on our players,” Fraser told The Herald over the phone on Thursday. “Just because they have so much respect for him and really like him as a player, but even more as a person.”
Before he developed into a top player for Everett, he was a sixth-round pick in the 2021 WHL Prospects Draft. Fraser said the complications surrounding the COVID seasons — fewer games on tape, pandemic-related layoffs in front offices, etc. — contributed to him slipping that far, but that he has also come a long way in his development to put him in position to be an NHL lottery pick, particularly in his skating and maturity.
“He’s very mature and very refreshing as a player,” Fraser said. “Because when you tell him that he did something wrong, he doesn’t pout about it. He wants to go out and fix it or make sure that he doesn’t do it again.”
Fraser spoke to Bear the day before the draft, wishing him luck and encouraging him to enjoy the day. More than anything, Bear was just eager to find out where he’d be heading more so than where he’d fall on the draft board. After he was selected, Bear said he did not have a sense that Detroit would pick him, even after their pre-draft meetings.
“Obviously, just trying to be myself, try to prove something to them,” Bear said on the broadcast about the pre-draft meeting. “Obviously they took me, and I’m pretty grateful for the opportunity.”
Evidently, the Red Wings liked what they saw.
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In addition to Bear, Everett Silvertips forward Shea Busch found his NHL home this weekend. The back-to-back Stanley Cup Champion Florida Panthers selected Busch in the fourth round with the 128th overall pick on Saturday.
After Busch scored seven points (five goals, two assists) in six games during Everett’s first-round playoff series against the Seattle Thunderbirds this past spring, Fraser believes his performance raised his draft stock.
“I think that Seattle series for us in the first round was maybe Shea Busch’s coming-out party,” Fraser said. “I thought he had a real strong end of season, and that series against Seattle, he might have been our best forward, to be honest with you.”
Busch’s 11 total playoff points ranked fifth on the team after he totaled just 19 points (11 goals, eight assists) in 39 regular-season games. He joined Everett in December after starting the season with the BCHL’s Vernon Vipers, where he scored 12 goals and 17 points in 22 games. Now the 18-year-old’s rights belong to the best team in the NHL.
“Good size,” Florida Panthers general manager Bill Zito said in the team’s press release. “Plays in the hard areas.”
After his brief stint with the Silvertips, Busch is set to head to the NCAA next season, joining a Penn State program that reached the Frozen Four for the first time before losing to Boston University.
Two other Silvertips players appeared in the NHL’s official draft prospect rankings at some point this season, but did not get selected. Forward Cole Temple ranked 173rd among North American skaters in the midterm rankings, but fell out of the final rank. Inversely, goaltender Raiden LeGall slotted in at 28th among North American goalies after not being included on the midterm list.
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