LAS VEGAS — All along, as the 2024 NHL Draft took shape, Michael Brandsegg-Nygård just felt like a fit to the Detroit Red Wings.

As it turned out, he felt the same way they did.

“I had a little feeling,” Brandsegg-Nygård said. “So when I saw Detroit was on the clock, I hoped for it.”

That feeling proved prescient, as Detroit went to the stage in the middle of the Vegas Sphere and called Brandsegg-Nygård’s name, making him the first Norwegian player ever picked in the first round of the NHL Draft.

“I think it means a lot,” he said. “I can only speak for myself, but I know Mats Zuccarello was a big role model for me, and I looked up to him, and it was cool to see a Norwegian guy play in the NHL. … And hopefully me and (Norwegian defenseman Stian Solberg, who went 23rd) can be role models for young hockey players back in Norway.”

On those grounds, Brandsegg-Nygård is already a great story. What Red Wings fans will be more interested in is whether he turns out to be a great pick.

Already, there are plenty of opinions about the decision back in Detroit — a result of what felt like perhaps the most obvious team-player fit outside the top 10. He looks the part of a future NHL power winger — a big-bodied scorer who can make an impact in many different ways. He can score. He can win pucks for teammates on the forecheck. And yes, he will do his part in the defensive zone.

These are all, unambiguously, positive qualities.

There will be those who question the pick, though, because of how much rhyme it has to some of Detroit’s other recent picks, including 2022 first-rounder Marco Kasper and 2023 first-round pick Nate Danielson. Indeed, the Red Wings have developed a reputation as a team that emphasizes competitiveness and two-way ability in the draft. And at times, that over-arching profile — shared by nearly every first-round pick the team has made under general manager Steve Yzerman — has probably obscured some of the other abilities their prospects possess. Danielson, for example, is a high-end skater with considerable skill, but the fact he was also a competitive, responsible center has become the primary thing he’s known for.

In Brandsegg-Nygård’s case, the attribute that may be getting lost is his shot. When he was asked Friday night what his best skill was as a player, he quickly answered “probably my shot.” And Yzerman agreed.

“He can really rip it,” Yzerman said. “But it’s not like he’s just a one-dimensional shooter. All parts of his game: He’s got pretty good hands. I see him being more of a shooter than, say, a half-wall quarterback on the power play, but he can play in the bumper, he can play down on the goal line, and he can still make a play. But I’d say primarily, his greatest strength (is) he can skate down the wing and he can rip it.”