Draft 2022

[NWTHabsFan]

Let’s not forget that Roy is a month away from being a 2022 pick. An incredible turnaround from a kid two years from being the darling of the Q amateur draft. Give him a year more to get faster and develop those other skills, and then look out in the AHL. The kid clearly wants it now. Get Adam Nicholas working on his skating in the summer and boom.

[folatre]

Thanks, NW. I forgot that Roy will not be old enough to play in Laval next season. Yeah, the main thing is to hook him up for some summer skating refinement with Nicholas.

[NWTHabsFan]

Let’s chat about a few players from some of the remainder nations. The top player is skilled and feisty Austrian centre Marco Kasper who plays for Rögle in the SHL. He is also the 1C for Austria at the mens Worlds in Finland. He is expected to go mid first round. The top defender is hulking LHD Lian Bichsel from Switzerland who plays for Leksand in the SHL. The top goalie from “other” countries is Belarusian goalie Ivan Zhigalov who plays for Sherbrooke in the QMJHL. The Habs will have seen lots of him as he plays alongside Joshua Roy in Sherbrooke. He is the second ranked NA goalie this draft, behind only Tyler Brennan. Another Austrian who should go on the second day is speedy centre Vinzenz Rohrer who plays for Ottawa in the OHL. He also suited up at the CHL Top Prospects game a few months ago. Finally, German LW Julian Lutz plays for Munchen in the DEL and he was a prominent part of the German U18 team at the latest world championships in April/May.

[seventeen]

Another of our prospects who maybe should be getting a little more attention is Arber Xhekaj. OT winning goal last night to move Hamilton into the next  round.  Xhekaj's goal sequence starts around 3:05. 

One wish.   Arber, please change your last name.  It's murder to spell.  How about "Sue"? Works for me. 

ontariohockeyleague.com/gamecentre/25589/boxscore

[NWTHabsFan]

An absolutely beautiful set up by Austria’s Kasper today against the USA. There are lots of really talented kids coming out of Europe and USA this year that the casual draft observer do not get to see play very easily. This may be a bit of the reason that I think the draft is getting very under appreciated and pegged as not strong nor deep. It is just fine on both fronts IMO. Oh, and Marty Lapointe is watching this game amongst a bunch of other NHL scouts and GMs.

[Willie Dog]

May 14, 2022 14:04:48 GMT -5 seventeen said:

Another of our prospects who maybe should be getting a little more attention is Arber Xhekaj. OT winning goal last night to move Hamilton into the next  round.  Xhekaj's goal sequence starts around 3:05. 

One wish.   Arber, please change your last name.  It's murder to spell.  How about "Sue"? Works for me. 

ontariohockeyleague.com/gamecentre/25589/boxscore

Been watching Arber for a while, he should be on the habs d for a long time, tough kid, timely plays, standup guy

[Habs_fan_in_LA]

May 14, 2022 12:29:44 GMT -5 NWTHabsFan said:

Let’s chat about a few players from some of the remainder nations. The top player is skilled and feisty Austrian centre Marco Kasper who plays for Rögle in the SHL. He is also the 1C for Austria at the mens Worlds in Finland. He is expected to go mid first round. The top defender is hulking LHD Lian Bichsel from Switzerland who plays for Leksand in the SHL. The top goalie from “other” countries is Belarusian goalie Ivan Zhigalov who plays for Sherbrooke in the QMJHL. The Habs will have seen lots of him as he plays alongside Joshua Roy in Sherbrooke. He is the second ranked NA goalie this draft, behind only Tyler Brennan. Another Austrian who should go on the second day is speedy centre Vinzenz Rohrer who plays for Ottawa in the OHL. He also suited up at the CHL Top Prospects game a few months ago. Finally, German LW Julian Lutz plays for Munchen in the DEL and he was a prominent part of the German U18 team at the latest world championships in April/May.

I have heard the mock drafts of numerous so called experts. You are my most trusted source. What is your top 32 ranking in order?

[folatre]

LA, I am not sure when NW is releasing his, however if you are a viewer of the NHL Network apparently Cosentino and Lawton are running through their top 32 kids on Saturday (4 pm ET).

[NWTHabsFan]

I am trying to finalize mine. Still working with the bottom half of the first round (lots of guys in this group) and trying to cut off at 32 (not as easy as it sounds). I will probably update again before the draft after CHL playoffs end.

[Habs_fan_in_LA]

May 24, 2022 18:38:26 GMT -5 folatre said:

LA, I am not sure when NW is releasing his, however if you are a viewer of the NHL Network apparently Cosentino and Lawton are running through their top 32 kids on Saturday (4 pm ET).

Thx!

[NWTHabsFan]

A one on one with Shane Wright. There is a video attached to the written article that shows the whole interview. Interesting stuff.

[Habs_fan_in_LA]

May 24, 2022 18:52:32 GMT -5 NWTHabsFan said:

I am trying to finalize mine. Still working with the bottom half of the first round (lots of guys in this group) and trying to cut off at 32 (not as easy as it sounds). I will probably update again before the draft after CHL playoffs end.

Simplistically looking at the stats and wondering why Ben King at 6'3" 200+ lbs fills the net and gets no love. What am I missing? Could he be a Phil Esposito who collects garbage and snaps it into open nets from the paint. He is a WHL player.

[NWTHabsFan]

May 27, 2022 9:00:32 GMT -5 Habs_fan_in_LA said:

May 24, 2022 18:52:32 GMT -5 NWTHabsFan said:

I am trying to finalize mine. Still working with the bottom half of the first round (lots of guys in this group) and trying to cut off at 32 (not as easy as it sounds). I will probably update again before the draft after CHL playoffs end.

Simplistically looking at the stats and wondering why Ben King at 6'3" 200+ lbs fills the net and gets no love. What am I missing? Could he be a Phil Esposito who collects garbage and snaps it into open nets from the paint. He is a WHL player.

He has been passed over the draft twice now. Quite frankly, I thought he would get picked last year despite such a short WHL season. He has nice size, decent mobility, and put up a ton of points. He and linemate Bains carried the Rebels offense. I saw him live as recently as the last WHL playoff round against the Oil Kings. He and Bains got to see a whole lot of Guhle that series!

I would use a late rounder on him. He can play in the minors as early as next year.

[jkr]

May 14, 2022 14:04:48 GMT -5 seventeen said:

Another of our prospects who maybe should be getting a little more attention is Arber Xhekaj. OT winning goal last night to move Hamilton into the next  round.  Xhekaj's goal sequence starts around 3:05. 

One wish.   Arber, please change your last name.  It's murder to spell.  How about "Sue"? Works for me. 

ontariohockeyleague.com/gamecentre/25589/boxscore

Spelling? How about pronunciation?

[Willie Dog]

May 27, 2022 10:01:00 GMT -5 jkr said:

May 14, 2022 14:04:48 GMT -5 seventeen said:

Another of our prospects who maybe should be getting a little more attention is Arber Xhekaj. OT winning goal last night to move Hamilton into the next  round.  Xhekaj's goal sequence starts around 3:05. 

One wish.   Arber, please change your last name.  It's murder to spell.  How about "Sue"? Works for me. 

ontariohockeyleague.com/gamecentre/25589/boxscore

Spelling? How about pronunciation?

lol Arbur Jack-eye

Good story on him and his family.

www.thespec.com/sports/bulldogs/opinion/2022/01/21/hamilton-bulldogs-defenceman-arber-xhekaj.html

[folatre]

Cosentino and Lawton's run through their top 32 yesterday was solid, though not overly insightful. The top five was Wright, Slafkovsky, Cooley, Jiricek, and Nemec. I was a little surprised, given the geopolitical situation, that there were still four Russians in the first round.

Assuming Hughes does not try to move up with Calgary's pick, some of names around #27 were Perevalov, Gaucher, Luneau, Miroshnichenko, Kulich, and Del Bel Belluz. Miroshnichenko could be a worthwhile homerun swing. It surprised me to see Kulich in the 25-30 range because frankly I thought he turned heads in international competition and will likelier go in the 18-22 range.

According to Cosentino and Lawton, two other kids I really like, Mateychuk and Kasper, will be long gone before Montreal uses the Flames' pick.

The combine is right around the corner and the draft is not far off now. Hopefully, Gorton and Hughes have a good handle on their top 75-100 prospects because the Habs need to hit on most of the picks in rounds 1-3.

[Habs_fan_in_LA]

May 27, 2022 9:17:39 GMT -5 NWTHabsFan said:

May 27, 2022 9:00:32 GMT -5 Habs_fan_in_LA said:

Simplistically looking at the stats and wondering why Ben King at 6'3" 200+ lbs fills the net and gets no love. What am I missing? Could he be a Phil Esposito who collects garbage and snaps it into open nets from the paint. He is a WHL player.

He has been passed over the draft twice now. Quite frankly, I thought he would get picked last year despite such a short WHL season. He has nice size, decent mobility, and put up a ton of points. He and linemate Bains carried the Rebels offense. I saw him live as recently as the last WHL playoff round against the Oil Kings. He and Bains got to see a whole lot of Guhle that series!

I would use a late rounder on him. He can play in the minors as early as next year.

My feeling at this point is we have a lot of numbers of good prospects filling the line but few great ones. I have no problem picking longshots with very high upsides who may never develop into NHL'ers. A kid who can go directly into the AHL or be stuck in Russia for a few years doesn't take a roster space while taking time to develop into stardom. Fourth liners have never been our problem. Cap space is. A kid can learn positional play but teaching a 5'9 kid to be 6'3" is impossible.
An aside is Josh Anderson skates like the wind, is strong and has a good shot but lacks puck control. 3 on 3 against Fin land he coughs up the puck after getting into trouble. Hockey takes situational positional smarts too.

[seventeen]

There was a good point made on Twitter yesterday, on the continuing saga of who the Habs should pick at #1. The issue was the strong reviews Slafkovsky is getting for his play. (There are also comments from some questioning his decision making and his tendency to keep the puck a lot). The point made by the tweeter is how come Slafkovsky is getting so much praise for his play at the WC, when a guy like Armia is also playing extremely well, yet we know he's just not that good at the NHL level. It seems a valid point.

Coincidentally, I found it humourous that Slafkovsky's tendency to "do it all on his own" is the opposite of Shane Wright's 'pass first' mentality. There are legitimate questions around Wright, with much of it being nitpicking because he's been under the microscope for so long, but I keep seeing criticism about his play style, which is very similar to Patrice Bergeron's. Bergeron is an extremely smart player who uses passing and vision to create space and time for himself and others. That is exactly what scouts say about Wright. Wright also has a legitimate NHL shot, perhaps better than Bergeron's. You don't see Bergeron taking the puck behind his net and skating through everyone to score a highlight reel goal (unlike MacKinnon or McDavid). He uses those around him to create chances. In my soccer life I was never a guy who could beat 3 or 4 defenders. Not nearly enough speed or moves, but I used passing (making actual passes or faking passes) to beat people. Once you beat a guy individually (no matter how you do it) you have created space, forcing defenders to move away from their preferred positions.

Wayne Gretzky was the best at that. Yes, he could beat people one on one, but most of the time he beat people by knowing where to be before the puck arrived at that spot, and having terrific vision and a marvelous passing touch to free up space for his teammates. So if the Habs are going to pass up Wright and pick Cooley or Slafkovsky, it shouldn't be because Wright passes too much.

This is going to be a really interesting draft and it feels like we could get a couple of decent prospects at 27 and 33. I'd feel quite happy with McGroarty at 27 and a flyer like Lane Hutson at 33.

[NWTHabsFan]

Minnesota gets an extra compensatory pick for not signing their 2018 first round pick. This will not impact the draft order of the Habs first three picks, but it will drop all picks from the EDM second rounder onwards down one extra spot.

Here are the Habs picks (so far and as of right now):

1-1 MTL
1-26 CGY
2-33 MTL
2-62 EDM
3-66 MTL
3-75 ANA
3-92 CAR
4-98 MTL
4-127 NYR
4-128 TB
5-130 MTL
6-162 MTL
7-194 MTL
7-216 STL

Edit: All the picks locked in now that the finals are over.

[NWTHabsFan]

Well, the WHL finals are set. Seattle triumphed over Kamloops in game 7 to advance. Draft watchers will get to see three very exciting draft eligible players on the Thunderbirds. Kevin Korchinski (CSB#7) is a fleet footed defender that is a big draft riser right now. He likely gets taken mid first in between the Habs two picks. Reid Schaefer (CSB#32) from just outside Edmonton is a big power forward LW who scored 39 goals this season and has been rising on draft lists too. Finally, fast skating and agile 5’10” centre Jordan Gufstafson (CSB#43), from Ardrossan (not far from Edmonton) is another to watch. Definitely a guy who might be a solid consideration as the late second and third round emerge. I get to see all three live for the first time. I had only seen them on tv prior.

Had Kamloops won, then the draft trio would have been defender Lindgren and forwards Minton and Seminoff. In the WHL this year, Seattle, Kamloops, Moose Jaw and Winnipeg were all must watch tv due to both the quality and quantity of draft eligible prospects they had, including a couple of high ranked guys for 2023 not named Bedard.

The schedule does have one weird twist. Due to scheduling conflicts in Seattle, the series will follow an unorthodox 2-2-3 format. If it goes all seven games, five will be played in Edmonton. My hot take of the day: it is not going seven games. Don’t make me eat crow Seattle 😆.

[seventeen]

It would be nice if some of the games were on Sportsnet or TSN, whichever carries the Memorial Cup. Thanks NWT for the rundown on which picks we hold. Amazing to have a second round pick that's almost a first rounder and so on. Silver linings.

As an aside, some of Gorton's picks with the Rangers are suddenly looking better. Chytil, Lafreniere and Kakko are all looking like solid players at the very least. Lafreniere is making smart plays that are easy to overlook, but the puck is ending up in the net. Tampa wasn't expecting that kid line to pose as difficult a challenge as they are.

[NWTHabsFan]

Jun 1, 2022 23:41:38 GMT -5 seventeen said:

It would be nice if some of the games were on Sportsnet or TSN, whichever carries the Memorial Cup. Thanks NWT for the rundown on which picks we hold. Amazing to have a second round pick that's almost a first rounder and so on. Silver linings.

As an aside, some of Gorton's picks with the Rangers are suddenly looking better. Chytil, Lafreniere and Kakko are all looking like solid players at the very least. Lafreniere is making smart plays that are easy to overlook, but the puck is ending up in the net. Tampa wasn't expecting that kid line to pose as difficult a challenge as they are.

TSN will show games three onwards of the three league championship series. See my post on this in the Prospects thread.

The Rangers team that Gorton built does look pretty good. Sure, Drury has made some nice deadline deals and stars like the Breadman and Fox did land on their lap, but drafting and development did build a good core. In addition to the kid line that you mentioned, Miller (Gorton moved up in the draft for him) and Schneider are forming part of a very solid and mobile defense corps. Lundkvist may get there at some point too. And their fourth rounder in 2014, Igor the Czar, is looking pretty nice holding down the Fort.

When Dallas took Calgary down to the wire in the first round, I saw posted somewhere how big the 2017 draft was for their current playoff success. At third spot, they picked their stud D Heiskanen, at 26 their goalie Oettinger, and at 39 their exciting scoring forward Robertson. Those three draft picks look very similar in position to the Habs top three picks this draft, so a lot can turn around if they really nail these picks, and those high ones next year, and develop the good talent in the pipeline that Timmins/Lapointe have left them.

[folatre]

For sure, NW, Dallas made out like bandits in 2017 (how sick must Flyers fans feel to this day). And the Habs certainly need to hit on those first three picks this year. In reality, Hughes and Lapointe need to hit on at least a couple additional ones considering Montreal has another five picks in the second half of the top 100.

[NWTHabsFan]

Jun 2, 2022 10:16:45 GMT -5 folatre said:

For sure, NW, Dallas made out like bandits in 2017 (how sick must Flyers fans feel to this day). And the Habs certainly need to hit on those first three picks this year. In reality, Hughes and Lapointe need to hit on at least a couple additional ones considering Montreal has another five picks in the second half of the top 100.

They also have to “hit” on a number of guys in their pipeline too. For too long, their roster just has not had enough representation from organically drafted and developed players. They need to get a lot better at that. HuGo and MSL seem to be on the same page on how important that is to being a sustainable contender at some point.

When you look at the young guys not yet on the roster, they need a bunch of them to develop so they are pushing and competing for roster spots: Norlinder, Ylönen, RHP, Primeau, Barron, Heineman, Guhle, Xhejak, Mailloux, Farrell, Roy, Kidney, Myšák, Kapanen, Dobeš, Dichow, Harris, Struble to name a few. They won’t all make it, but they need some to be future core players and some to be solid trade bait (due to depth) to help continually feed that pipeline. I want the Habs to be one of those teams that drafts and develops well and can afford to give up on certain promising prospects knocking on the door because they are already crowded with proven young players that are already established. It is a future result I want this team to achieve.

[Tankdriver]

Agree. I find too many organizations hold on to their prospects and they lose their value. The trick is to know which to hold and which to sell. Ex: Tinordi and Juulsen. We lost bad on those two first round picks and got almost nothing in return.

[seventeen]

The better trick is to constantly have kids coming up ready to replace the already established veterans. Those expensive veterans (with established values) can be traded and replaced by the much cheaper kids That's how you have a continuous contender, but the key is to get more than the usual draft picks and then to use those better than anyone else. There should always be some core guys you keep, but replace the supporting cast with developing youngsters and hope some of those guys become your new core.

[NWTHabsFan]

Great news for the young man. He may not drop as much now! I was hoping for a steal late first!

[NWTHabsFan]

One month until day one of the draft. Four weeks and two days away.

Some miscellaneous draft tidbits from the Habs. They will be hosting their own draft combines for players that did not attend the NHL draft combine in Buffalo last week. There will be one in Brossard and one European combine (in Stockholm) like they did for a number of years before COVID. No idea if they will be able to get Russian kids to attend, as there are some real good ones that could be great value this draft. Romanov and Norlinder both attended the Euro combines in the past.

[folatre]

Yeah, the home stretch for draft prep is well under way. For a huge revenue club like Montreal, it makes great sense to hold additional combines.

That is very good news for the Russian kid. I too was hoping to grab Miroshnichenko at #26. It could still happen, but the positive medical report makes it less likely. It would not surprise me if Buffalo uses the pick from Vegas to select him.

[Tankdriver]

Jun 8, 2022 7:47:16 GMT -5 folatre said:

Yeah, the home stretch for draft prep is well under way. For a huge revenue club like Montreal, it makes great sense to hold additional combines.

That is very good news for the Russian kid. I too was hoping to grab Miroshnichenko at #26. It could still happen, but the positive medical report makes it less likely. It would not surprise me if Buffalo uses the pick from Vegas to select him.

We can always use the 26 pick with the 33rd or 62 pick to trade up if need be. I'm kind of expecting it to be honest.