2024 Entry Draft

[Hammertime]

6 hours ago, Smashian Kassian said:

 

I was surprised to see Jecho so high. Big player but don't see top 6 upside at all.

 

Zether at 42 amongst Euro's seems ridiculous, that would be a steal for a 6'3 C with offensive talent (whos already playing SHL). I also like Pettersson, seems like a really solid all-around 3C/Bottom 6 player. 

 

Its going to be interesting this year, I think from late 1st into late 2nd/early 3rd you could get guys slip through the cracks. Alfons Freij is a Dman rated 23 Euro who has some size, skates really well & handles the puck well. Pretty raw (maybe like Marcus Pettersson was) but has really intriguing tools if developed properly. I like him in that area too. 

Agree'd on all points. 

 

There has to be some inside info when it comes to Zether and Hutson. 42 and 57 put's them likely in the 3rd round. Which seems insane to me. Zethers skating doesn't look thaaaaaat bad and Hutson is just completely baffleing.

[Hammertime]

Shout out to Noel Fransen who it appears didn't even crack central scoutings top 135 euro skaters. 

[Ilunga]

22 minutes ago, Hammertime said:

Shout out to Noel Fransen who it appears didn't even crack central scoutings top 135 euro skaters. 

 

PPG player in the J20, 1 goal in 2 games in the SHL. 

Hmmm 

 

Recruit scouting has him as a potential first rounder.

 

https://www.recruitscouting.com/leo-sahlin-wallenius-and-noel-fransen-2024-nhl-draft-defensive-class/

 

 

 

[Hammertime]

The top 5 guys I'm currently most interested in with the 32nd overall pick. 

 

1 LHD Matvei Shuravin Big smooth skating calm stay home D who can make a crisp outlet pass or carry the puck himself. 

2 LHD Cole Hutson I think he will make it he's feisty. Huge upside.

3 C Simon Zether Power C dominating down low.

4 C Michael Hage Size speed combo right shot C

5 C/LW Tanner Howe Motor motor motor. 

[isam]

18 hours ago, Hammertime said:

The top 5 guys I'm currently most interested in with the 32nd overall pick. 

 

1 LHD Matvei Shuravin Big smooth skating calm stay home D who can make a crisp outlet pass or carry the puck himself. 

2 LHD Cole Hutson I think he will make it he's feisty. Huge upside.

3 C Simon Zether Power C dominating down low.

4 C Michael Hage Size speed combo right shot C

5 C/LW Tanner Howe Motor motor motor. 

Howe will be a lw in the show, but a glorious shit disturber with some pop. Love the kid. Looking at Mews and hemming myself. I think private sites are gonna change on Hage. Kid has way to good of a game to be ranked as low as he is.

[Hammertime]

5 hours ago, isam said:

Howe will be a lw in the show, but a glorious shit disturber with some pop. Love the kid. Looking at Mews and hemming myself. I think private sites are gonna change on Hage. Kid has way to good of a game to be ranked as low as he is.

I think Hemming goes top 20 we might have a shot at Mews. Really think Shuravin and Hutson are among the very best D in this class though. 

[Ilunga]

The Bleacher Report mock draft after the world juniors 

 

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/10104443-updated-2024-nhl-mock-draft-after-the-world-junior-championship

 

 

[MatchesMalone]

4 hours ago, Hammertime said:

I think Hemming goes top 20 we might have a shot at Mews. Really think Shuravin and Hutson are among the very best D in this class though. 

 

The NTDP this year is lacking truly elite offensive forwards outside of Hagens and Eiserman. There's never been any question as to who is the number three guy their powerplay runs through. Simply an electric offensive talent, but he's 5'10 standing on a phone book and 160 lbs with change in his pockets. NHL GMs probably aren't going to take him as early as fans will think he should go, but I could see him really surging up a lot of rankings with 5 Nations and U18s coming up.

[MatchesMalone]

1 hour ago, Ilunga said:

The Bleacher Report mock draft after the world juniors 

 

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/10104443-updated-2024-nhl-mock-draft-after-the-world-junior-championship

 

 

 

Solid ranking. After number one everything is so wide open this year that I don't give too much grief to any rankings I see; opinion, philosophy, need are going to play a bigger role this year than the typical draft. What I mean is there are some drafts where I look at certain rankings and I'm just like "nah they're objectively wrong", but this year I look at some that are very different than mine and I'm like "yeah I dunno, maybe." I like that this one does have the same top two defensemen as me though, in Levshunov and Buium. If Buium hadn't already forced his way up every ranking with his NCAA production this year, his World Juniors made it impossible to ignore.

 

Perhaps their most interesting placement is Artamonov as early as 14. He's been an interesting one to follow this year, as Larionov threw him on the top line with Kovalenko out of the gate, and early on he pumped up his numbers but really did look like a passenger out there. Kovalenko has been a hurt a lot this year and Artamonov also saw time with Atanasov. Now with Kovalenko and Atanasov both out recently, Artamonov has been taking on more and more responsibility offensively and is starting to show that he can actually drive play at the KHL level with some success. He's gonna be more NHL-ready than a lot of other players drafted in the same range, but then the question becomes about getting him over.

Edited January 17 by MatchesMalone

[Ilunga]

1 hour ago, MatchesMalone said:

 

Solid ranking. After number one everything is so wide open this year that I don't give too much grief to any rankings I see; opinion, philosophy, need are going to play a bigger role this year than the typical draft. What I mean is there are some drafts where I look at certain rankings and I'm just like "nah they're objectively wrong", but this year I look at some that are very different than mine and I'm like "yeah I dunno, maybe." I like that this one does have the same top two defensemen as me though, in Levshunov and Buium. If Buium hadn't already forced his way up every ranking with his NCAA production this year, his World Juniors made it impossible to ignore.

 

Perhaps their most interesting placement is Artamonov as early as 14. He's been an interesting one to follow this year, as Larionov threw him on the top line with Kovalenko out of the gate, and early on he pumped up his numbers but really did look like a passenger out there. Kovalenko has been a hurt a lot this year and Artamonov also saw time with Atanasov. Now with Kovalenko and Atanasov both out recently, Artamonov has been taking on more and more responsibility offensively and is starting to show that he can actually drive play at the KHL level with some success. He's gonna be more NHL-ready than a lot of other players drafted in the same range, but then the question becomes about getting him over. 

 

I think it's kinda surprising that Aron Kiviharju isn't in their top 32.

I know he hasn't played since October however most ranking sites have him anywhere between as high as number, 10 TSN Bob McKenzie, low as 21, Elite prospects / SMAHT Scouting.

[MatchesMalone]

3 hours ago, Ilunga said:

 

I think it's kinda surprising that Aron Kiviharju isn't in their top 32.

I know he hasn't played since October however most ranking sites have him anywhere between as high as number, 10 TSN Bob McKenzie, low as 21, Elite prospects / SMAHT Scouting.

 

Oh man. Didn't even notice he wasn't there. Kiviharju has to be one of (maybe the) most interesting and hard-to-rank prospects in recent years. He's been on everyone's radar for so long and has been so dominant at lower levels playing under-age and even double under-age. But he just hasn't shown much of anything at the pro level. Didn't do much in Liiga last year, but it's a tough league for any 16 year-old, and then he was barely able to get started this year. He also missed the entire '21 covid season (4 played 4 games), and now most of this season. When you consider the upside and how far he is behind his peers in his development, he might end up being the steal of the draft, and if that's the case the teams that passed him over will be asking themselves how the hell they let it happen when we already knew how good he was since he was 10 years old.

[Hammertime]

5 minutes ago, MatchesMalone said:

 

Oh man. Didn't even notice he wasn't there. Kiviharju has to be one of (maybe the) most interesting and hard-to-rank prospects in recent years. He's been on everyone's radar for so long and has been so dominant at lower levels playing under-age and even double under-age. But he just hasn't shown much of anything at the pro level. Didn't do much in Liiga last year, but it's a tough league for any 16 year-old, and then he was barely able to get started this year. He also missed the entire '21 covid season (4 played 4 games), and now most of this season. When you consider the upside and how far he is behind his peers in his development, he might end up being the steal of the draft, and if that's the case the teams that passed him over will be asking themselves how the hell they let it happen when we already knew how good he was since he was 10 years old.

This is incredibly true. A year or 2 ago he was a penciled to go top 10. I don't have him in my top 32 rn and I could have egg all over my face. I just haven't seen him take the next step. It doesn't help that he's injured but when I have had the chance to watch him he hasn't been confirming the confidence I once had in him.  The D are tricky to rank. 

 

After watching a bit of both Silyayev and Shuravin at the KHL level I find myself leaning towards Shuravin. Hutson's getting ranked in the 3rd round by CS so what do I know. This year my list is bonkers compared to most rankings. 

 

[Hammertime]

Current list. First time actually trying to write it down. 

 

I don't quite have my top 10 figured. I haven't been putting much thought to it since we won't be making that pick unless we do something crazy like trade one of the core 4.

 

The top 4 looks something like Celebrini, Levshunov, Eiserman, Demidov, 

The next best 6 I think are  Jiricek, Catton, Lindstrom, Nygard, Buium, Parekh

 

11 Sam Dickinson

12 Tij Iginla

13 Konsta Henenius

14 Emil Hemming 

15 Anton Silayev

16 Matvei Shuravin

17 Cole Hutson

18 Simon Zether

19 Michael Hage 

20 Tanner Howe

21 Liam Greentree

22 Carter Yakemchuk

23 Trevor Connolly

24 Henry Mews

25 Sacha Boisvert

from here on I'm not quite sure obviously I'm hoping for one of the above players. But I would still be pretty happy with any of the following guys. 

26 Igor Chernyshov

27 Lucas Pettersson

28 Veeti Vaisanen

29 Andrew Basha

30 Sebastian Soini

31 Nikita Artamonov

32 Beckett Sennecke 

 

*HM Aron Kiviharju, Alfons Freij, Noel Fransen

Edited January 19 by Hammertime

[Ilunga]

10 hours ago, MatchesMalone said:

 

Oh man. Didn't even notice he wasn't there. Kiviharju has to be one of (maybe the) most interesting and hard-to-rank prospects in recent years. He's been on everyone's radar for so long and has been so dominant at lower levels playing under-age and even double under-age. But he just hasn't shown much of anything at the pro level. Didn't do much in Liiga last year, but it's a tough league for any 16 year-old, and then he was barely able to get started this year. He also missed the entire '21 covid season (4 played 4 games), and now most of this season. When you consider the upside and how far he is behind his peers in his development, he might end up being the steal of the draft, and if that's the case the teams that passed him over will be asking themselves how the hell they let it happen when we already knew how good he was since he was 10 years old.

 

I was going to state the obvious that if he does fall to us, he would be the steal of the draft. 

Like nearly all prospects, one is never 100 percent certain however if we are picking in the late twenties or deeper and he is still there, gotta take the punt IMO.

[Bure_Pavel]

21 hours ago, Hammertime said:

Current list. First time actually trying to write it down. 

 

I don't quite have my top 10 figured. I haven't been putting much thought to it since we won't be making that pick unless we do something crazy like trade one of the core 4.

 

The top 4 looks something like Celebrini, Levshunov, Eiserman, Demidov, 

The next best 6 I think are  Jiricek, Catton, Lindstrom, Nygard, Buium, Parekh

 

11 Sam Dickinson

12 Tij Iginla

13 Konsta Henenius

14 Emil Hemming 

15 Anton Silyayev

16 Matvei Shuravin

17 Cole Hutson

18 Simon Zether

19 Michael Hage 

20 Tanner Howe

21 Liam Greentree

22 Carter Yakemchuk

23 Trevor Connolly

24 Henry Mews

25 Sacha Boisvert

from here on I'm not quite sure obviously I'm hoping for one of the above players. But I would still be pretty happy with any of the following guys. 

26 Igor Chernyshov

27 Lucas Pettersson

28 Veeti Vaisanen

39 Andrew Basha

30 Sebastian Soini

31 Nikita Artamonov

32 Beckett Sennecke 

 

*HM Aron Kiviharju, Alfons Freij, Noel Fransen

One player I have a bit higher is Carter Yakemchuk, would love if the Canucks got the chance to call him name at the draft. A RD with the size, the shot, and the physicality. His defensive game could use some work but I like the potential there. Moulded in the fires of Fort McMurray. Downsides include being one of the older players in the draft and playing for the Hitman.  

[Hammertime]

On 1/18/2024 at 9:53 AM, Bure_Pavel said:

One player I have a bit higher is Carter Yakemchuk, would love if the Canucks got the chance to call him name at the draft. A RD with the size, the shot, and the physicality. His defensive game could use some work but I like the potential there. Moulded in the fires of Fort McMurray. Downsides include being one of the older players in the draft and playing for the Hitman.  

Definitely bad Hitman Mojo

 

Maybe I'm too critical. I really like all the players I have around him though. I keep going back and forth with him and Mews, Trevor Connolly has top 10 potential he's probably too low too, Greentree would love to get a PWF in the system. Yak's in really good company. 

Edited January 20 by Hammertime

[MatchesMalone]

Two players I think are getting slept on the worst this year are Cole Beaudoin and Ygor Chernyshov. Beaudoin is a two-way power center who can skate, comparable to Nate Danielson or Zach Bolduc from recent drafts. Ygor Chernyshov is a 6'2 winger with equal parts power and dynamic elements, in the mould of a Miroshnichenko, Ohgren or Yurov.

 

Both are guys who are gonna be able to handle bumps and protect pucks at high speeds at the NHL level.

[Hammertime]

How far will Jiricek fall due to injury? Move up territory?

 

 

[MatchesMalone]

40 minutes ago, Hammertime said:

How far will Jiricek fall due to injury? Move up territory?

 

 

We all hoped that in '21 about Hughes or '22 about his older brother, and it just didn't happen. I dunno, I'll be shocked if he falls out of the top 15.

 

There's really not another player like him in this draft, save for maybe Dickinson - defensemen with utmost confidence to be aggressive and jump up both offensively but also defensively to kill plays at the blueline or earlier. I just think Jiricek has better decision-making about it than Dickinson.

[Hammertime]

4 hours ago, MatchesMalone said:

We all hoped that in '21 about Hughes or '22 about his older brother, and it just didn't happen. I dunno, I'll be shocked if he falls out of the top 15.

 

There's really not another player like him in this draft, save for maybe Dickinson - defensemen with utmost confidence to be aggressive and jump up both offensively but also defensively to kill plays at the blueline or earlier. I just think Jiricek has better decision-making about it than Dickinson.

[DownUndaCanuck]

Bottom of the first in an average draft isn't going to be pretty, this is the time to trade the pick, but if we keep it I hope we go for an offensive-minded center because we really lack one in our prospect pool. Raty is looking like a future 2C at best but really probably will be a career 3C kind of guy. Once Miller's gone in a few years we'll probably need a trade/UFA 2C but it'll be nice to start grooming someone now to get in there to help Petey out.

 

Misa, Hage and Howe could fit that bill for us but doubt any of them will ever be any good.

[Rypien-Punch]

I see EJ Emery didn't make the list 

[smithers joe]

On 1/12/2024 at 7:42 AM, smithers joe said:

where does michael hage fit in to most lists?

i like this player for us, but really know nothing about all his skills.

[Coconuts]

Doubt it'll happen but it'd be neat to have an Iginla

 

 

 

[Ilunga]

On 1/21/2024 at 12:17 AM, smithers joe said:

i like this player for us, but really know nothing about all his skills.

 

Here you go Joe, a couple of scouting reports.

 

https://draftprospectshockey.com/2024-nhl-entry-draft-draftpros-first-glance-at-the-american-talent-part-1/

 

 

https://sportsillustratedprospects.com/hockey/player-profiles/player-profile-michael-hage/