2023 NHL Entry Draft

[Bure_Pavel]

10 minutes ago, HighOnHockey said:

Oh shit I almost missed this. Assumed from the look of it that it was just some media outlet mock and I skipped over it initially. Personally I'm much more interested to hear @Bure_Pavel's mock than I would someone like Wheeler or Pronman.

 

Looks very solid. Some similarities to my top 22 I posted so far. I agree Willander is probably going to go a little earlier than expected. At some point after McKenzie's final rankings come out I'm going to re-touch my top 22 and try to do a complete first round. So far my record is still 8 correct picks from the 2020 draft. 2nd best was 7 in the 2015 draft. Past couple I haven't fared so well, only hitting on 4 or 5.

After pick 8 for me it could have went a few different ways, St Louis is a hard team to predict what way they will go. I leaned towards them taking a speedy centerman. Still lots of really good talent that I couldnt fit in the first round like Strbak and Brindley as well. 

[Isam]

2 minutes ago, R3aL said:

Im curious if he will be  a Russian willing to play in the AHL and get PP time.

It will be interesting on the contract situation with him, but I would imagine teams would want to get him over here as soon as possible

[Alflives]

1 minute ago, NUCKER67 said:

Good point about Hronek, they needed to make a trade to bring in a Top 4D. Petey, Hughes, Demko want to start winning now.

 

I wonder which player (that would be available at #11) would be ready for the team (NHL) in 1-2 years? 

 

Barlow

Wood

Danielson

Sale 

Honzek 

?

 

Could the Canucks be targeting a player that will make an impact sooner rather than later? 

I think Allvin directs his scouts to list the players according to who they think will be the most impactful player when he’s developed. Like they did with Lekkerimaki last draft. Willander might be that guy? 

[HighOnHockey]

6 minutes ago, Bure_Pavel said:

After pick 8 for me it could have went a few different ways, St Louis is a hard team to predict what way they will go. I leaned towards them taking a speedy centerman. Still lots of really good talent that I couldnt fit in the first round like Strbak and Brindley as well. 

For me the connection between St. Louis head scout amateur Tony Feltrin being an Isand native with Victoria and Nanaimo roots was too much to allow Wood to fall past the Blues.

 

Edit: But I guess you had him already gone by St. Louis. I'm not quite as bullish on Wood as you are.

Edited June 13, 2023 by HighOnHockey

[R3aL]

1 minute ago, NUCKER67 said:

Good point about Hronek, they needed to make a trade to bring in a Top 4D. Petey, Hughes, Demko want to start winning now.

 

I wonder which player (that would be available at #11) would be ready for the team (NHL) in 1 year? 2024/25 season

 

Barlow

Wood

Danielson

Sale 

Honzek 

?

 

Could the Canucks be targeting a player that will make an impact sooner rather than later? 

I think Barlow and Danielson will be closest to NHL ready.

 

Wood needs solid time at C and time to get stronger, and improve his skating. 

 

Honzek needs time to learn C if thats what he is going to play too. And I think he just needs time or hes going to be an Aman type if rushed, imo

 

Sale I dont think he is physically strong enough to endure an NHL season and I think the pace would overwhelm him. IT would ruin him imo.

 

Barlow situationally could make the jump but I dont know he and Danielson I think are most NHL ready but they are in awkward spots where going back to the CHL wont be amazingly beneficial but they still could improve themselves there.

 

I believe due to ND age and seasons played he can make the jump to AHL after 1 more season? (I am not sure about this I am terrible with the CHL rules if someone can confirm?)

 

It would be an ideal path for ND to play in JR one more year but be traded to a better team and have an absolute monster season, world JR and a playoff push. Then make the jump to the AHL and have a season there and be ready to push for a roster spot right after.

 

Barlow has lots more to work on. But with his physical maturity and his shot he could make a team. What's best for him I dont know I am hes one of the scarier picks for me.

 

I do not think we will target a player based on NHL readiness.  At least I hope not I want the best playerrrrr

[Nucker 67]

1 minute ago, Alflives said:

I think Allvin directs his scouts to list the players according to who they think will be the most impactful player when he’s developed. Like they did with Lekkerimaki last draft. Willander might be that guy? 

Yeah, I watched some of Willander scouting report video and he's a great skater, smart, puts in the effort. He may have had a knockout interview dinner as well and they might really like him. He's got some decent size and can play a bit physical. Maybe they feel he would make it quicker than some due to his skating, size and smarts? ASP, for example, may require a lot of development time before he's ready for the NHL. 

 

 

[Isam]

6 minutes ago, NuckLuck19 said:

Farber was on Halford and Brough this am and said Barlow is a player who could push for a spot in the NHL next year. Not sure how knowledgeable Farber is so take it for what its worth.

Barlow is smart enough, but look for his d plus season to break through.wood is another interesting case but his knock knee skating scares me, but the iq and skill is there like robertson

[R3aL]

8 minutes ago, NuckLuck19 said:

Farber was on Halford and Brough this am and said Barlow is a player who could push for a spot in the NHL next year. Not sure how knowledgeable Farber is so take it for what its worth.

Faber had some draft takes I did not agree with at all so I dont know take it with a grain of salt. But I do think Barlow is closer to NHL ready than a lot of players just due to physical maturity and an NHL Shot

[R3aL]

10 minutes ago, NuckLuck19 said:

Interesting take on Halford and Brough this morning, not sure how knowledgable Chris Faber is but he was saying that Barlow is so pro ready he could push for a spot next year. Interesting....

 

And on the same show, Linden was on. They mentioned he doesn't like talking about the reason for his exit from the Canucks in depth, that he has preferred to be diplomatic. They also said, they wouldn't be doing their job if they didn't probe. Linden basically ended up saying the reason he left was due to a difference is what the team needed to do, and that he had a more long term view and 'others within the organization didn't share the same view, that they wanted to retool on the fly.

So there you have it, finally out, Linden wanted to tear it down, and Acqua man didn't and benning listened to his boss. Sad.

That was the report for a long time since it even happened.

 

https://www.vancouverisawesome.com/courier-archive/news/the-rehabilitation-of-trevor-lindens-reputation-has-begun-3080228

 

He wanted to rebuild properly and stockpile young assets. JB sold Aquaman what he wanted to hear that he was 1-2 moves away form a rebuild and that he was a draft wizard and didn't  need more draft picks.

 

He still has never gotten into the details or ever said anything negative about anyone. That was the most hes ever said about it but it did just confirm what we all knew already.

 

So it wasn't really anything new as much as they tried!

[HighOnHockey]

14 minutes ago, R3aL said:

Ya its hard to be upset with Benson at 11. But like yourself I have seeds of doubt that he could be the BPA or best fit for us too.

 

I am impressed on your openness and that @hammertime influenced your view on Dvorsky. 

 

My Top 20 Tiers right now are:

 

Bedard

-

Fantilli / Carlsson / Smith / Michkov

-

Leonard / Dvorsky / Willander / Danielson

-

Reinbacher / Wood / Simashev / Benson 

-

Moore / ASP / Sale / Barlow

-

Stenberg / But / Yager

 

I've honestly drank the KOOLAID for Willander's play, interviews, path I just think he and Simashev are going to be the best dmen out the draft. Followed by Reinbacher and Bonk.

 

I cant wait to see what Willander does in the NCAA and hes going to get the opportunity to really develop his offensive game. I also love the green line rivalry he will get against the BIG US Program Line: Perreault-Smith-Leonard

 

And I am pretty happy comfortable taking any player from my tiers in our draft range:

 

Leonard / Dvorsky / Willander / Danielson

-

Reinbacher / Wood / Simashev / Benson 

 

We are getting a great player.

 

I might tweak my tiers as I really like all of these 8 players and I have had a hard time ranking them. I want all of them..

The bolded is a really interesting point. Mark your calendars if he is in fact drafted by the Canucks. Only do me a favor and don't forget to mention Minnnetian is going to BC too. Not someone you want to fail to mark in your gameplan, one could almost argue it was a 4-man forward unit at times this season with Leonard-Smith-Perreault-Minnetian. I recently watched the THN Tony Ferrari game tape interview with Minnetian and Ferrari mentioned Minnetian was 1st among NTDP in zone exits, 1st among D in zone entries, and 3rd overall in entries, although he didn't mention which two forwards were ahead of him (I'm assuming Smith and Moore).

[hammertime]

15 minutes ago, HighOnHockey said:

Right but as I discussed with another poster earlier, he's played 25 games this season in international tournaments. According to the equivalnecy chart (https://towardsdatascience.com/nhl-equivalency-and-prospect-projection-models-building-the-nhl-equivalency-model-part-2-6f275a45e22) the quality of the U18 tournament is about on par with the CHL leagues. Granted it was a little lower than usual this year because of no Russia, but he also fared quite well at 4N, 5N and WJAC. 4N and 5N are on average pretty significantly higher QualComp than the IIHF U18s because you don't have the Latvias and Norways to rack up numbers against, and the WJAC is a U19 tournament. That was maybe the most interesting performance from him for me, with no ASP there as he was at World Juniors, Willander really carried the load for Sweden against a little bit older players.

 

I don't want to sound like I'm taking too much of a side in this debate. I don't have Willander ranked quite that high. I could see him going around 15. 11 would surprise me, but I wouldn't be particularly disappointed so much as intrigued. I remember an interview with Robert Kron where he mentioned he had 40(!)+ viewings on Sebastian Aho his draft year. Between International competition and league games I'd bet Gradin has at least 30+ viewings a piece on Willander, ASP and Lindstein. And you can bet Allvin, Harvey and Delorme were at an awful lot of those international tournaments with Gradin nudging them saying check out [insert whichever one Gradin likes best].

That's fair as I said I really hope they've done their homework I certainly don't have enough viewings to make a fair assessment. Though when I have seen him I'm not banging the table saying we need this guy like I am with Simachev, Reinbacher.

[Nucker 67]

Barlow's impressive stache makes him look more NHL ready  Can't wait to see that playoff beard.

 

Actually, his 79 points (46 goals) in 59 games was pretty darn good too. 

 

Kuzmenko - Pettersson - Beauvillier

Barlow - Miller - Mikheyev

Hoglander - X - Podkolzin

[Isam]

7 minutes ago, NUCKER67 said:

Yeah, I watched some of Willander scouting report video and he's a great skater, smart, puts in the effort. He may have had a knockout interview dinner as well and they might really like him. He's got some decent size and can play a bit physical. Maybe they feel he would make it quicker than some due to his skating, size and smarts? ASP, for example, may require a lot of development time before he's ready for the NHL. 

 

 

Wilander has his warts on the defensive end.  You can get him chasing or overcomitting on the center which led to some ugly play by rogle this year

[NuckLuck19]

5 minutes ago, R3aL said:

That was the report for a long time since it even happened.

 

https://www.vancouverisawesome.com/courier-archive/news/the-rehabilitation-of-trevor-lindens-reputation-has-begun-3080228

 

He wanted to rebuild properly and stockpile young assets. JB sold Aquaman what he wanted to hear that he was 1-2 moves away form a rebuild and that he was a draft wizard and didn't  need more draft picks.

 

He still has never gotten into the details or ever said anything negative about anyone. That was the most hes ever said about it but it did just confirm what we all knew already.

 

So it wasn't really anything new as much as they tried!

True but I didn’t think he ever admitted that was the issue 

[Isam]

27 minutes ago, R3aL said:

Ya its hard to be upset with Benson at 11. But like yourself I have seeds of doubt that he could be the BPA or best fit for us too.

 

I am impressed on your openness and that @hammertime influenced your view on Dvorsky. 

 

My Top 20 Tiers right now are:

 

Bedard

-

Fantilli / Carlsson / Smith / Michkov

-

Leonard / Dvorsky / Willander / Danielson

-

Reinbacher / Wood / Simashev / Benson 

-

Moore / ASP / Sale / Barlow

-

Stenberg / But / Yager

 

I've honestly drank the KOOLAID for Willander's play, interviews, path I just think he and Simashev are going to be the best dmen out the draft. Followed by Reinbacher and Bonk.

 

I cant wait to see what Willander does in the NCAA and hes going to get the opportunity to really develop his offensive game. I also love the green line rivalry he will get against the BIG US Program Line: Perreault-Smith-Leonard

 

And I am pretty happy comfortable taking any player from my tiers in our draft range:

 

Leonard / Dvorsky / Willander / Danielson

-

Reinbacher / Wood / Simashev / Benson 

 

We are getting a great player.

 

I might tweak my tiers as I really like all of these 8 players and I have had a hard time ranking them. I want all of them..

 

I would have moore ranked higher r3al

[R3aL]

36 minutes ago, hammertime said:

What gives me the willies pun intended. Is there is no body of work. He had a good U18 playing 2nd pair behind the ASP show. But beyond that. Really really meh. Up until this season he'd done pretty much nothing. Nil points in 12 J20 Nat games rocking a -10 and a further nil in 5 J18 Nat games prior to this season. This season sure a bit better 29pts in 45 with a +11 but J20 Nat is still a solid step down from say the OHL. I guess what I'm saying is man oh man I reaaaaaaly hope they've done their homework on him if they pick him because prior to this year I don't think anyone anywhere had him in their top 250 for this draft class. 

Id say he has a large body of work for being a very strong defender in shutting down players and clogging up the neutral zone.

 

What hes did this year is really showcase how much his game has grown, how strong of a skater he is and that he is working on his puck skills and offensive game and has committed to a path to develop this side of his game best.

 

Watching him defend reminds me of Tanev too.

 

Like if Tanev was a better skater and had actual offensive upside.

 

He literally clogs up the zone making zone entries look almost impossible around him. And hes got wheels for puck retrievals too. He has all the markers to me of an all around modern mobile top 4 RHD.

 

Which really excites me.

 

[R3aL]

Just now, Isam said:

I would have moore ranked higher r3al

That's for your rankings then lets see!

 

I I still really like him but I like the others in the tiers above Moore. hehe

[Isam]

2 minutes ago, R3aL said:

That's for your rankings then lets see!

 

I I still really like him but I like the others in the tiers above Moore. hehe

Take me a bit to look through my notes, but I think I can get one sometime tomorrow if work doesn't kick my as again. Be fun

[Bure_Pavel]

18 minutes ago, HighOnHockey said:

For me the connection between St. Louis head scout amateur Tony Feltrin being an Isand native with Victoria and Nanaimo roots was too much to allow Wood to fall past the Blues.

 

Edit: But I guess you had him already gone by St. Louis. I'm not quite as bullish on Wood as you are.

Yeah I'm higher than most on Wood, I think the skill, size, shot package is very enticing. He also just seems like the kinda guy who's idea of a good time on a Saturday night is firing off pucks in his garage. 

[DeNiro]

4 hours ago, flat land fish said:

It’s a pretty subjective type thing,  arguably a guy like podkolzin is more valuable than a caufield in the playoffs where truculence starts to trump finesse.    Who’s winning battles on the wall more often, wearing down the other teams best players

Podz hasn’t even shown he can be a regular in the lineup in the regular season let alone win battles in the playoffs.

 

Caufield put up 12 points in the playoffs in his first season on the way to the finals.

 

Comparing the two is silly. Caufield has way

more value than Podz and was a miss by management. That doesn’t mean Podz can’t be a good role player for us but there’s no debate on who the better player is.