HighOnHockey

I wouldn't say that, no. He played mostly on a line with Matt Savoie so they couldn't focus on one or the other. The Blades just played a tight-checking game, clogged up the middle and cut down on time and space. Their coach was named WHL Coach of the Year, by the way. OK well, less convinced about him than I am about Carlsson as a center. Carlsson has been centering Sweden's top line at this Men's World Championship, between Lucas Raymond and Jonaten Berggren. I was very early on the Carlsson hype train and also the Carlsson center train, so loving to see him play such a huge role for Sweden and arguably outperform Fantilli on this big stage. Compared to Wood and Honzek, about whom there's been a lot of talk as potential centers, I prefer But's 200 foot hockey IQ, as well as his playmaking and distribution through the middle of the ice. Here's a few clips of him carrying through the neutral zone, the first two from the 2021 Hlinka gold medal game, where he was under-aged (#25), and the next two from a game late this MHL regular season (#50). Be sure to watch the 4th clip through to the end; features some nifty hands in tight space and leads eventually to a goal.

D you mean after September 15 or are you thinking more like June to September?

The San Jose Sharks release: Will Calverley, Stelio Mattheos, Hudson Elynuik, Jonathan Aspirot. Also request the release of Viktor Lodin, who has apparently signed in Sweden. https://www.eliteprospects.com/player/287856/viktor-lodin

I'm becoming more and more convinced that Carlsson and But are both centers in the NHL. I think it's also likely Smith, Leonard, Moore will all be centers. Wood, Honzek, Perreault, Benson I'm less convinced about.

The Blue Jackets are looking to use some of our draft capital to add a defenseman. We have picks 20, 22 and 54. Could package pretty much any combination of those picks depending on the quality of defenseman.

Yeah for as long as I've known it LWOS has always been a pretty mediocre source. To me, the best you can ask for from fan/journalist/blogger scouts, is just give an accurate description of the player. I don't care if you're right about your rankings and predicting who's gonna be better than who, but you should at least be able to give an accurate assessment and be able to say why a player might fail and why they might succeed. For all the data they use and seemingly in-depth scouting reports, I find all too often LWOS just plain gets players wrong. The two that stood out to me were their write-ups on Cole Sillinger and Carson Lambos in 2021. They tried to call Cole Sillinger a one-dimensional goal-scorer when in reality he was also one of the best defensive forwards in the draft. They also tried to portray Lambos as a low-upside, stay-at-home defensive D, when actually he's a complex, flawed, but immensely skilled puck-moving defenseman. I saw Benson play twice in person, for games three and four of the WHL Eastern Finals. I was not blown away. Saskatoon was playing a very tight-checking defensive game and there wasn't a lot of room to work with, and Benson didn't create a lot. The one thing I did like to see was that he also didn't hurt his team. He wasn't trying to force anything that wasn't there, just made the simple plays, tried to advance the puck into dangerous areas when possible. I don't think he'll be in my final top 10. I wouldn't be disappointed with him at 11, but there are some other players I'm more hopeful might be there. I wouldn't take Cristall until near the end of the first round. Sure, he could turn out to be a very good player, but I'm not convinced the ceiling is high enough to justify the low floor.

I guess I just don't understand why we're even talking about a redraft two years after the draft. Aside from the obvious fact that it takes at least five years for most players to fully develop, to me it seems flippant and irresolute for people to so readily give up on their draft day rankings. But also, 17 points at World Juniors for McTavish. 43 points in 80 games his 19 year-old season.

What?

I guess I should clarify, McCagg is the only one whose opinion I care about from Recrutes. I still haven't watched the Hameenaho video you posted. Probably won't. I've seen him play enough and he's not that hard a player to get a read on. His stats are actually pretty average though. Just going back ten years, Hameenaho's season in Liiga ranks 28th among U19s in p/g (min 10 GP). https://www.eliteprospects.com/league/liiga/stats/all-time-season?age=u19&from=2013-2014&sort=ppg Some of those with better seasons at his age or younger included Kotkaniemi (twice), Puljujarvi (twice), Antonni Honka (a defenseman and a full year younger), Antti Saarela, Jerry Turkulainen, Alexandre Texier, Otto Koivula, Ville Koivunen, Roby Jarventie. Certainly nothing wrong with his stats, but nothing to be parading around about either.

Just to reiterate, that's Recruit. No idea who they are, but they're not Grant McCagg's Recrutes. Some of their assessments on their top few players seemed pretty astute, but as it gets further down the list some of it gets a little questionable. It's only fair, he's just a fan like you or I. I'm sure he knows Jacob Fowler and Gavin Brindley better than I do. I know Minnetian and Gulyayev a lot better than he does. Props to dude for going 100 deep though. Most I'd ever gone was 75.

Yeah I recall the post you're referring to. Hammertime said "Recruit" but was definitely referring to 'Recrutes". I would imagine an awful lot of folks make the same mistake and assume they're the same thing. It's a huge difference though. Recrutes is one of the most trustworthy scouting sources out there. Recruit is... well, not. Edit: lol took me a few tries to get all those straight.

Nein nein. Let's be clear it was moving down 8 spots. Not giving away a 1st for Boeser. No need to be disingenuous. And furthermore, considering Lekkerimaki was my guy, Sens could've got him at 15 anyway so double win for me. We needed goal-scoring. I was stoked for DeBrincat though.

Give me Daniil But over Matthew Wood or Samuel Honzek. A lot of talk about the latter two and whether they could play center. But just screams center to me. Defensive play, distribution, evasiveness. He could be pretty special.

To me high risk/high reward is the compromise. All things being equal I want a player with a high floor who also has the potential for big upside. To me for this draft I'm looking at Dvorsky, Sale, Leonard, Wood. I'm a little hesitant about Barlow or Danielson's upside, but even Stenberg and Yager have some kind of intriguing potential. By the way, I've noticed people have been going crazy about Perreault since U18s and even McKenzie had him top ten, but am I the only one who'd be nervous as hell about drafting this guy? He just drives you crazy watching him, with the hail mary pass attempts and skating the puck directly into traffic. Wouldn't be my preferred pick at 11.

As a trio they do play a fair amount apart. Lekkerimaki and Ohgren play together by far the most. They just mesh together so well, as Lekkerimaki is so good at making plays in that area around the corners, but he's not strong enough to be able to handle the board play. So Ohgren gets in there and does the dirty work and Lekkerimaki picks up the puck, they work the cycle so well down there together. Ostlund started the season on the top line while Lekkerimaki and Ohgren played on the third. After a few games they were all put together for a while on the third line, but then shortly after Lekkerimaki's injury Ohgren was moved to the first line with Kruger and remained there pretty much the rest of the season. Once Lekkerimaki came back they threw him on the top line there with Ohgren and Kruger and that was the line the majority of playoffs. Anyway, I'd much rather see him in the AHL next year, but if he/they don't think he's physically ready, a loan to an SHL team would be fine. It's just a lot of room to work with out of the corners on that wide ice. I'd like to start getting him used to the smaller space.

I posted my top ten hockey leagues ranking a little while ago and I think some people found it helpful. Appreciate @hammertime for actually using it as a reference tool. Thought some people might find it useful if I post my junior league rankings too. Rather than tying to split hairs between some that are very close, I'll just list them as tiers, although within each tier I'll list them in very rough order. As a note, this is the first time I've ever ranked USHL in the same tier as the big three. I might be jumping the gun a bit there but the USHL has been gradually closing the gap for years and now feels like the right time. Tier I OHL, WHL, MHL, USHL Tier II J20 Nationell, QMJHL, SM Sarja Tier III BCHL, Czechia U20 Tier IV NAHL - CCHL - AJHL - OJHL Tier V SJHL - QJAAAHL - MJHL - GOJHL - NOJHL I probably should have stopped after tier III or IV as you're never going to find legit NHL prospects coming straight out of any of the tier IV or IV leagues, but whatever, there it is. If anyone is curious about my methodology - for the higher ranked NA and European junior leagues, I mostly compared prospects from the same league with similar stats and then how they did the following years when they went to college or other higher leagues (sometimes the European players play in multiple leagues in the same season, which was very helpful). For the junior A leagues I looked at which ones got the most players committed to NCAA DI schools first, then for the even lower leagues I looked at which ones got the most players in to DIII, USports, etc. Unfortunately I just haven't done the research yet on the lower European junior leagues like Slovakia, Germany, etc. I'm sure I'll get around to it someday.

Thanks for that. Good to hear. There are a number of reasons he's flying so under the radar: 1. The big four up front take up a lot of people's attention. 2. This team rolls their lines and especially D pairs very evenly. We saw some defensemen at the U18s play 27 or 30+ minutes some games. Buium's 22:49 in the gold medal game was USA's tournament high. 3. He's the youngest full-time player on the team. Most fans are watching for current draft-eligible players. Outside of that, the full under-agers rightfully tend to get the hype, while late birthdays can slip between the cracks. Was a bit different with Beniers his U18 year because he was the best forward on that team by such a wide margin. 4. He's not as flashy as some other defensemen. As the converted forward, Minnetian was the guy lifting people out of their seats carrying the puck through the neutral zone. Buium was much more likely to use his teammates and pass it up ice. Buium is much better than Minnetian at the skill sets more specific to defensemen - positional defending, and walking the offensive blueline. 5. He was replaced by Hutson as the top PP point man for the biggest stage of the year. 6. I'm not sure I've ever seen a defense prospect so seamlessly move back and forth from left side to right from one shift to the next. You'd just never know where he'd be lining up so if you're trying to scout him in particular you'd have to keep an eye on both sides. Kind of a pain in the ass. Kiviharju, Parekh, Buium, all three of them walk the offensive blueline like very few defense prospects I've seen in recent years - better than any D I've seen for this draft. Parekh broke the all-time OHL record this year for most goals by a U17 defenseman.

Braden Schneider? You mean literally the worst defenseman in the league according to analytics? Why would you want him? Lafreniere has been underwhelming so far; the risk isn't worth the price they'll be asking.

There is much truth to what you say. Can't forget Zayne Parekh on the right side, might be my number two D so far after Kiviharju. Also Anthny Cristoforo, Thomas Lavoie, Charlie Elick are kinda interesting ... but then on the left Zeev Buium, Cole Hutson, Stian Solberg might all be more interesting. It's not easy to sort though exactly. Clearly the 2024 draft is much better on defense in general than the 2023 draft, but the weakness on D in this draft has more to do with the left side than the right, 2024 is stacked on both sides. As far as D with top end elite potential, I like Kiviharju (LHD) and Parekh (RHD) better than any defensemen in this draft. I think I might also have Buium (LHD) right up there with Reinbacher and Gulyayev. As much as I like Minnetian, Buium is the clear number one guy on that team, and before Hutson came up was usually the lone defenseman on the PP with their big four forwards (not to mention he's doing it as a December birthday). Those are the only ones I've seen enough to have strong opinions on so far, but long story short I think I agree with you. The RHD crop from this year is pretty respectable compared to next year, it's on the left side where 2024 leaves the 2023 class in the dust.

You're gonna have to elaborate. Why don't you value tournaments as much as me?

I didn't care for Cristall much at this tournament either, and it was my first substantial viewing so not high on my list at all right now. I'm still a fan of Barlow. Canada's coaching staff liked him a lot too, as he led all Canada forwards in ATOI. I've compared him before to Daniel Cleary (13th overall) and Martin Lapointe (10th overall). To one extent or another as prospects they brought that smash-mouth style that every winning team needs, plus enough upside to tantalize NHL scouts and GMs. Best case scenario would probably be something like Dustin Brown (13th overall) or Ryan Callahan, both hugely important players on good teams in their times. But might there be a little Jarome Igina (11th overall) there? I think the key for Barlow's development is going to be playing his own game. A lot of times teams and especially the players themselves can get anxious about the draft position lose sight of why they were drafted where they were. Whatever team drafts him needs to push him to play north-south, crash and bang, get around the net, and use his shot. If he does that, the offense will come over the long run. Barlow/Wood/Danielson is a tough call for me. If we think Wood is a center then he's at the top of that pile and should go top ten. If we expect he's a winger, it's tougher to decide, and I'd probably go with Barlow. I also think Edstrom, Honzek and But aren't far off from that conversation.

Yeah Burakovsky is a pretty good one. Burakovsky is the better skater but I think Sale is going to be better down low. Another comparison I saw on here I thought was really good was Matt Boldy. On the one hand, Sale plays one of the more translatable games of any player in this draft, so he shouldn't be too far off from NHL-ready, but on the other hand he's 30 lbs out from either of Burakovsky or Boldy. My best guess is he'll make the NHL fairly early (Maybe D+2) but will take a few years from there to start to approach his prime.

Ew no. I hope I never hear those two names in a sentence together again. I love Sale but Marian Hossa was the best defensive winger of the past two decades. Lucas Raymond has some Hossa in him, just lacks the size. I see a lot of Hossa in Gleb Trikozov as well, albeit a very flawed Hossa. But Sale? He's also not as explosive as Hossa. Sounds like lazy people making comparisons based on nationality. That said, I think I'd take him top ten, probably over Benson. Same reason I'm a sucker for Leo Carlsson and was for Miro and Trik last year; just love players that blend skill and power the way these guys do. I'm not sure I see another player quite like that in this draft (exclude Bedard, Fantilli, Michkov from this, they're all on a different level). Dvorsky, Barlow, Wood, Danielson, and some other 6'3 plus prospects are more powerful but I'm not sure any are on Sale's skill level. And then you have your more skilled prospects like Smith, Perreault and some 5'10 and under kids, but none that are going to be able to handle themselves down low like Sale can.

That's exactly it. What's he gonna be at 25 or 28. Brent Burns is a great example. Obviously he is on another level than Dragicevic in terms of size, but it took him many years to really come into his own and flourish after moving to defense after he was drafted. At least Dragicevic made the move a couple years earlier.

I'd kind of agree with both of you. I know QQ said initially Gulyayev would be his next preferred D after Reinbacher. From a purely hockey perspective I prefer Gulyayev, but if I'm the GM of an NHL team, I'd probably have to take ASP before Gulyayev. Wouldn't take either at 11 though to be honest. I still have Sandin-Pellikka around 15. Gulyayev I have around 10, based just on hockey. Miroshnichenko and Yurov both fell at least 10-15 spots last year. The cause of Miro's fall could be split between the Russia factor and his illness so it's hard to say exactly how much was what. For a recent reference Hendrix Lapierre fell maybe 5-10 spots due to long-term health concerns, albeit very different from Miro's. Jared Cowen, Brett Connolly, Alex Galchenyuk barely fell at all but I suppose it could be argued their injuries weren't expected to have lasting effects compared to Miro's cancer and Lapierre's concussions. All in all I suspect Miro's drop was less due to the health issue and more to the Russia factor. I had Yurov top 5 on my final list and there's zero doubt in my mind he was a top ten talent. So I'm expecting every Russian with the exception of maybe Michkov to fall upwards of 15 spots again this year from where they should go. Michkov will be really tough to pass up on any time after the first four or five picks. I doubt any of Gulyayev, Simashev or But go in the top 25, and some could even fall to the second round. Just for fun, figured I'd do my top 5 D at each position: LD Mikhail Gulyayev Dimitri Simashev Theo Lindstein Jakub Dvorak Etienne Morin (HM Caden Price, Tanner Molendyk) RD David Reinbacher Maxim Strbak Axel Sandin-Pellikka Aram Minnetian Lukas Dragicevic (HM Oliver Bonk, Beau Akey, Tom Willander