2023 NHL Entry Draft

[HighOnHockey]

5 minutes ago, Bure_Pavel said:

In my opinion the top 5 team draft performances in 2023 (not in order) were:

 

Philly

Seattle

Washington (limited picks)

Columbus

Buffalo

 

They all knocked it out of the park

Loved Buffalo's draft too. I had Strbak and Wahlberg both ranked right on the cusp of the first round. Miedema at 109 was pretty stunning.

 

Also low-key loved what Dallas did with some late picks - Angus MacDonell is a competitor, it's about damn time someone drafted Tiefensee, Minnetian could be the gem of the draft, and Bertucci looks like he could have some upside too.

 

 

[MikeyD]

3 minutes ago, Dr. Crossbar said:

We need more young D. We need to remake our D. We need to focus on D. We have too many forwards.

 

But wait ... we should have taken Benson.

 

Can't have it both ways. 

I always love when everybody screams that we have too many forwards.

 

Which prospects are pushing onto our team? We all act as if there's a log jam and that in a couple years all of our wingers are going to be with the team. 

[MaxVerstappen33]

Buffalo drafted another small skilled forward. This is the rut that Edmonton fell into. They really should have taken someone else. 

 

Hoglander isn't really a prospect imo. He was an NHL roster player that got moved down bc the team was a mess. 

 

1)Silovs 

2)Willander

3)Raty

4)Klim

5)Petterson

6)Brz

7)Lekkerimai

[Devron]

4 minutes ago, Dr. Crossbar said:

We need more young D. We need to remake our D. We need to focus on D. We have too many forwards.

 

But wait ... we should have taken Benson.

 

Can't have it both ways. 

But we could if we didn’t focus on trading for a top 4 Dman. Oh wait.. the only top 4 Dman we had before the trade was Quinn Hughes 

[Bure_Pavel]

3 minutes ago, NUCKER67 said:

Who are the Top 10 Prospects now?

 

1. Hoglander

2. Silovs

3. Willander

4. Lekkerimaki

5. Raty

6. Klimovich

7. Brzustewicz

8. Woo

9. Pettersson

10. McDonough

 

?

For me:

 

1. Willander

2. Lekkerimaki

3. Raty

4. Klimovich

5. Pettersson

6. Silovs

7. Hoglander

8. Johansson

9. Brzustewicz

10. McDonough

[Bure_Pavel]

5 minutes ago, HighOnHockey said:

Loved Buffalo's draft too. I had Strbak and Wahlberg both ranked right on the cusp of the first round. Miedema at 109 was pretty stunning.

 

Also low-key loved what Dallas did with some late picks - Angus MacDonell is a competitor, it's about damn time someone drafted Tiefensee, Minnetian could be the gem of the draft, and Bertucci looks like he could have some upside too.

 

 

I hate how well Seattle did, they made some high upside picks, if they hit they could be a pain for us. 

[Nucker 67]

1 minute ago, Bure_Pavel said:

For me:

 

1. Willander

2. Lekkerimaki

3. Raty

4. Klimovich

5. Pettersson

6. Silovs

7. Hoglander

8. Johansson

9. Brzustewicz

10. McDonough

Lots of excitement with the new kid, but he is going to be really good. Skating, IQ, size, RD. Great pick.

 

Could even consider Karlsson and Bains, maybe honourable mentions

[iinatcc]

10 minutes ago, NUCKER67 said:

Who are the Top 10 Prospects now?

 

1. Hoglander

2. Silovs

3. Willander

4. Lekkerimaki

5. Raty

6. Klimovich

7. Brzustewicz

8. Woo

9. Pettersson

10. McDonough

 

?

You know how bad the prospect was wen #1 was someone demoted to the AHL and 2 of the top 5 was just drafted the last 2 days

[Devron]

4 minutes ago, Bure_Pavel said:

For me:

 

1. Willander

2. Lekkerimaki

3. Raty

4. Klimovich

5. Pettersson

6. Silovs

7. Hoglander

8. Johansson

9. Brzustewicz

10. McDonough

I think we can exclude Hogz if Podz is not on the list? 

[NewbieCanuckFan]

5 minutes ago, Bure_Pavel said:

I hate how well Seattle did, they made some high upside picks, if they hit they could be a pain for us. 

They inherited a great farm system so they had a head start until Jim Benning.

[Angry Goose]

35 minutes ago, MikeyD said:

Always interesting hearing why they think their prospects are worthy of a pick. Everybody from round 4 on was, "yeah, not where you want them to be yet but we think they'll get better" lol. 

 

What about them makes you think they can get better? Because they're tall? Lol

pr they’ve actually spent time in the rink watching them, unlike yourself.

 

Like Todd said, they look strongly at attributes. Its a long shot either way but they are banking on developing those attributes.

 

[Seannnp]

2 hours ago, R3aL said:

Might be our best overall D draft of all time? Dont remember a year we took this many D let alone 3 RHD!

 

Only 1 Winger and hes a BIG BOY

 

Overall I am pretty happy with our result.

 

With Tom being the crown Jewel and Hunter being basically like a 2nd round pick 

This is what stood out for me in the entire draft is that we got insane value for Hunter. From reports he was easily a 2nd round pick but fell to us in the 3rd. We got our 2nd round selection despite trading away our 2nd for Hronek. Great job. 

[Bure_Pavel]

4 minutes ago, Devron said:

I think we can exclude Hogz if Podz is not on the list? 

Yeah probably safe to graduate him

[MikeyD]

3 minutes ago, Angry Goose said:

pr they’ve actually spent time in the rink watching them, unlike yourself.

 

Like Todd said, they look strongly at attributes. Its a long shot either way but they are banking on developing those attributes.

 

Obviously but would it kill them to make it sound as if they have seen them play? Lol

 

What's it hurting if they talk about what is good about their game and what could use some development? 

[stawns]

9 minutes ago, iinatcc said:

You know how bad the prospect was wen #1 was someone demoted to the AHL and 2 of the top 5 was just drafted the last 2 days

He was demoted to preserve his waiver exemption status.  He was too good for the AHL

[Angry Goose]

1 minute ago, MikeyD said:

Obviously but would it kill them to make it sound as if they have seen them play? Lol

 

What's it hurting if they talk about what is good about their game and what could use some development? 

He did….

[Provost]

I definitely don’t think we crushed this draft.

 

Wallinder is a fine pick, probably a little high but there really doesn’t seem to be a lot of difference between pick 11 and pick 20… all pretty much the same tier, and lots of them that would likely be top

ten picks in a weaker draft class.

 

Hunter B. (I am not spelling that) and Mynio seem like reasonable picks… 

 

4th round kind of fell apart.  Conventional wisdom (and it is conventional because it works), is that in later rounds you pick a guy with a high ceiling and some outstanding attribute that can translate to the NHL, and then work on the deficiencies.  Big, fast, elite shot, etc… any one of those.  We did get the big Swede, but he was so off the board he wouldn’t likely have been drafted.  If you are looking at bottom of the lineup guys in this range, a 6’6 guy who is going to play at 230-240lbs just has a better chance of carving out a bottom six role than an undersized guy.  The two over age, small centres are complete head scratchers.  IF everything goes well in their development they turn into players you can get on the waiver wire or for under $1 million any time you want.

 

I would have more happily used those picks to get rid of cap.  Three 4th round picks to move Garland?  Then use that cap space to snag a couple of RFAs who won’t be qualified but are better than what those 4th round picks are likely to become.

 

Celebrini was a fun pick because of being a local kid and his brother.  Maybe when we can eventually Re-unite two brothers down the road to take the sting out of losing Quinn to Jersey when he is eligible as a UFA.

Edited June 29, 2023 by Provost

[Seannnp]

2 hours ago, HKSR said:

 

Then there's guys from before... Rathbone, Jurmo, etc.

 

Dare I say it, but I don't think defensive prospects are the issue anymore.  It's centre prospects.  We're really thin when it comes to centres now.

2024 PA will take care of that for sure

[Dr. Crossbar]

20 minutes ago, MikeyD said:

I always love when everybody screams that we have too many forwards.

 

Which prospects are pushing onto our team? We all act as if there's a log jam and that in a couple years all of our wingers are going to be with the team. 

I think it's more born out of the fact that we've have so many longstanding issues on D that people just automatically go the extreme with forwards. 

 

 

[HighOnHockey]

Ugh, some of this stuff I'm reading is pretty embarrassing. "Duhhhh, the media rankings didn't have those guys ranked that high. Terrible picks. Those journalists obviously know way more than NHL scouts. All hail the media rankings."

 

I'm not going to be one of those people who says "just trust our scouts". But to assume that journalists know more than them is patently absurd.