Prospect Info: 2022 Post-Deadline Devils-Centric Mock Draft 2.0 (thru NJ 2nd round)
- Thread starter StevenToddIves
- Start date
-
HFBoards is well aware that today is election day in the US. We ask respectfully to focus on hockey and not politics.
Captain3rdLine
Registered User
- Sep 24, 2020
- 7,616
- 8,857
Seattle is up 1 with 3 left. Philly won and are now 3 points ahead. Something of note with Seattle is that they have the the tiebreaker if we end up tied with them. So they’re 4 back, possibly 2 soon and would then just need to tie us to pass us.
Captain3rdLine
Registered User
- Sep 24, 2020
- 7,616
- 8,857
NJDevilsFan21
Trade Everyone!!
- Nov 10, 2006
- 1,501
- 725
If there isn't anyone obvious at whatever spot we end up, I think we should consider trading down for depth.
We lose Jack and we're demoted to an AHL squad. Tampa loses Stamkos and they still go on to win the cup.
We lose Jack and we're demoted to an AHL squad. Tampa loses Stamkos and they still go on to win the cup.
Guadana
Registered User
It`s a shame I didn`t know how to spell masochism as NJ fan. It's like not knowing how to spell Brodeur.
- May 8, 2010
- 21,719
- 38,285
Tampa has elite goaltending. Our goalies give up 2-3 more than expected every game.
The offense was fine tonight, and it was last game against the Rangers too, we got our chances. We also only allowed 4 shots in 2 periods against the Rangers but somehow got outscored.
The only way I trade our first is for an elite, established goaltender.
Lou Bloom
Registered User
- Oct 14, 2020
- 1,046
- 1,998
No, Kakko had 38 points in 45 games (.84 PPG) in the same league and broke the record for goal scoring u18 in Liiga, while also having a great WJC u20 and WC in international play. And it isn't like Kakko was just an offense only prospect, his blend of size, puck protection and offensive skillset made him a rare prospect.
Now that doesn't mean that Slafkovsky won't end up the better NHL player, Mikko Rantanen wasn't a better prospect than Kakko and that hasn't mattered at the NHL level so far.
These are not really comparable players, outside of size and skating.
Breaking them down a bit, Kakko was -- at Slafkovsky's age -- a big, competitive two-way player who pretty much had checks across the board in terms of tools, while really not being elite in any one singular ability. One of my arguments against his being considered a top 2 pick for the 2019 draft was the fact that Kakko was really not top 5 in any tool at all for the 2019 draft class, unless we were considering size a tool. On the other hand, Kakko really lacked any discernible weakness and it was easy to project him as, at the very least, a good NHL power winger.
Slafkovsky to me would have to be considered the superior prospect, simply because he possesses a trio of tools which would have to be considered elite -- his passing/vision, his hands and his hockey IQ, especially in the offensive zone. He's also a bit bigger than Kakko and plays with a bit more edge, in my opinion.
While I still think Kakko will be a very good NHL player, I am quite confident that Slafkovsky will be an absolutely special one. So, not only would I say it's not comparable in terms of style between these two, but I'd also give Slafkovsky the clear edge in talent and upside.
There will be someone obvious at whatever spot the Devils wind up in, unless they get ridiculously hot over the final 10 games and win them all.
At 1/2 overall -- and perhaps #3 -- LW Slafkovsky would be the perfect compliment to a top 6 as his skill can match anyone in the Devils organization aside from Hughes while his size and power would create room for the other young Devils star Fs.
From #3-#6, the Devils will be able to fill a gaping organizational hole at RD with one of Jiricek or Nemec.
From #7-#9, the Devils can get the Matt Tkachukiest player in the draft in power LW Cutter Gauthier, who plays with a rare combination of nasty/physical and has 48 goals in 60 games thus far for the US-NTDP.
Does Miroshchinenko (spelling?) fall all the way to the second round?
Miroshnichenko (or just "Miro", because typing that all the time is excruciating) is the bazillion dollar question for the 2022 draft.
Miro entered the season as a pretty universal top 5 overall pick, with some having him as high as #2. He's a big, strong wing with an incredible and rare combination of speed and skill. But his inconsistent play early in the season dropped him down draft boards. The question we must ask is: was his sub-par play the result of his coming down with Hodgkin's disease? And then we must also ask what the risks are of not fully recovering from such a horrible affliction.
Of course, the most important thing is that all our best wishes go out to Miro and his family during the battle of his life. But when he does recover -- he will certainly want to jump back into hockey.
Miro's upside is a big, fast power winger who puts up PPG numbers for an NHL first line. As such, a team may want to roll the dice on him late in the 1st round -- especially a team with multiple picks like Buffalo or Arizona. But then, we also must add into the equation the New Russian Factor -- which may drop all Russian prospects down the draft boards.
So could Miro drop to the 2nd round? Absolutely. It's possible. Several teams have been notoriously reticent to draft Russians in the past (looking at you, Ottawa) and more could join in this lamentable trend starting with the 2022 draft. But if I'm Buffalo or Ottawa with 3 first round picks each, there's no way I let him fall so far. Because a healthy Miro in a few years could wind up the steal of the 2022 draft. Either way, we'll have to wait and see.
- Dec 20, 2018
- 22,675
- 50,599
Maybe? I don’t know the what the potential long term effects of Hodgkin’s Lymphoma are.
Mario Lemieux came back after his 1993 diagnosis, and played pretty well, but they caught it early and he’s, you know, Mario Lemieux. It’s a different medical case and it’s a kid who’s not an all-time great who completely dominated with endless ailments. I don’t know of any other players who had that particular cancer.
Maybe a team like Tampa takes a swing on getting elite talent they don’t get many shots at or Arizona uses one of it’s many picks on him. It depends on how he’s doing and how much medical information teams have too.
In general, what exactly the “Russian factor” ends up being in this draft is a big question. I can’t even guess at this point what it will be like July.
He is not. To me he’s a worse Kakko. That doesn’t mean he’ll translate that way but it’s gotten me very nervous. I’m on the Jiricek train and if it’s not him I’d rather Cooley as a forward over Slafkovsky
Captain3rdLine
Registered User
- Sep 24, 2020
- 7,616
- 8,857
He’s quite a different player than Kakko. Kakko could very possibly still turn out very well too. Kakko was probabky considered a better prospect coming in mostly because of his production but I like Slafkovsky’s skillset including his IQ more. He’s very smart and is great at using his body. If we have the opportunity to take him we should not pass it up. I’d take him over Cooley any day. And he’s a great fit because we don’t have any forwards like him at all.
I would also rather Nemec than Jiricek. I’m not convinced on Jiricek.
Captain3rdLine
Registered User
- Sep 24, 2020
- 7,616
- 8,857
Current bottom of standings
1- Coyotes, -5 pts (likely ahead if tied) 14.5
2- Canadiens, -3 pts (likely behind if tied) 14.1
3- Kraken, -2 pts (ahead if tied) 15.3
4- Devils 18.3
5- Flyers, +3 pts, (tiebreaker is close) 19
6- Senators, +4 pts, -1 GP (ahead if tied) 18.2
7- Chicago, +5 pts, (behind if tied) 19.3
All have 11 games left except for Ottawa who has 12.
The number at the end is the average standing of that teams remaining competition. The bottom 3 teams all have the harder schedules.
I think it is unlikely that we get passed by the Coyotes or that we pass Chicago or Ottawa at this point. We’ll probably finish in the 2-5 range although I would bet that we end up closer to bottom of that if we continue losing like we have been lately. Montreal has been much better of late and could definitely make up the 3 point gap. Seattle is just 1 win behind and they will be ahead if tied. The devils have also been worse than them lately. Our game against them next week will be huge. The devils may realistically finish second last.
1- Coyotes, -5 pts (likely ahead if tied) 14.5
2- Canadiens, -3 pts (likely behind if tied) 14.1
3- Kraken, -2 pts (ahead if tied) 15.3
4- Devils 18.3
5- Flyers, +3 pts, (tiebreaker is close) 19
6- Senators, +4 pts, -1 GP (ahead if tied) 18.2
7- Chicago, +5 pts, (behind if tied) 19.3
All have 11 games left except for Ottawa who has 12.
The number at the end is the average standing of that teams remaining competition. The bottom 3 teams all have the harder schedules.
I think it is unlikely that we get passed by the Coyotes or that we pass Chicago or Ottawa at this point. We’ll probably finish in the 2-5 range although I would bet that we end up closer to bottom of that if we continue losing like we have been lately. Montreal has been much better of late and could definitely make up the 3 point gap. Seattle is just 1 win behind and they will be ahead if tied. The devils have also been worse than them lately. Our game against them next week will be huge. The devils may realistically finish second last.
To give an idea about a solid draft mindset, I just re-used the latest draft simulator with trades: Draft Simulator
Needless to say, I won the lottery. I traded down to #2 and then down again to #3, since Arizona was picking and they need a center, I figured I still had a chance for Slafkovsky at #3. My plan worked, and I made a series of other trades throughout the draft to get guys at positions of NJ organizational need and high-upside prospects. Of course, the draftprospects.com rankings suck, and someone should provide a mock draft engine using the McKenzie rankings, which have been proven time and time again to be the most accurate. My draft:
3 LW Juraj Slafkovsky -- NJ gets a future 1st-line superstar power F to pair with Hughes forever.
34 RD Ryan Chesley -- no way he falls here in real life, the best shut-down D in draft likely goes top 15
37 RW Alexander Perevalov -- this is actually possible with the New Russian Factor, and Perevalov has superstar, top-line upside as a ultra-competitive and high-scoring elite-skill winger
41 C Nathan Gaucher -- I solve the Devils problems in the face-off circle (Gaucher is among best in draft), future 3C (Gaucher is a two-way beast) and physicality up front (Gaucher is very, very mean)
49 RD Sam Rinzel -- very raw prospect, but trying to build up the organizational RD with a 6'4 skilled two-way guy who skates like the wind seems like a good idea in the 2nd
69 LW Reid Schaefer -- if there's a Tom Wilson in the draft, it's him -- an incredibly tough 6'3-215 beast who topped 30+ goals in the WHL for Seattle
94 G Tyler Brennan -- considered by some the best G in the draft, 6'4 and athletic
95 RW Gleb Trikozov -- even with the New Russian Factor it's doubtful he falls so low, but since he was there I traded 3 picks to move up and get this high-skill, high-upside high-scorer
113 RD Noah Warren -- 6'5, mobile and physical with puck skills, I set out with the goal of bolstering RD and with Chesley/Rinzel/Warren we can put a big-time check-mark here
124 LW Kirill Dolzhenkov -- 6'6-240 LW with puck skills and skates, my #2 job after RD was bolstering the physicality and interior play of the Fs, and with Perevalov/Gaucher/Schaefer/Dolzhenkov we can put a check here as well.
Though I don't feel a draft this amazing is humanly possible, it was fun. If I failed in one place, it was collecting more center depth for the prospect pool, but at least I stole Gaucher in the 2nd round. If this was for real, I would've dealt a spare part like Johnsson for a 6th round pick and grabbed over-age C Logan Morrison, who is one of my favorite sleepers in the 2022 draft.
Needless to say, I won the lottery. I traded down to #2 and then down again to #3, since Arizona was picking and they need a center, I figured I still had a chance for Slafkovsky at #3. My plan worked, and I made a series of other trades throughout the draft to get guys at positions of NJ organizational need and high-upside prospects. Of course, the draftprospects.com rankings suck, and someone should provide a mock draft engine using the McKenzie rankings, which have been proven time and time again to be the most accurate. My draft:
3 LW Juraj Slafkovsky -- NJ gets a future 1st-line superstar power F to pair with Hughes forever.
34 RD Ryan Chesley -- no way he falls here in real life, the best shut-down D in draft likely goes top 15
37 RW Alexander Perevalov -- this is actually possible with the New Russian Factor, and Perevalov has superstar, top-line upside as a ultra-competitive and high-scoring elite-skill winger
41 C Nathan Gaucher -- I solve the Devils problems in the face-off circle (Gaucher is among best in draft), future 3C (Gaucher is a two-way beast) and physicality up front (Gaucher is very, very mean)
49 RD Sam Rinzel -- very raw prospect, but trying to build up the organizational RD with a 6'4 skilled two-way guy who skates like the wind seems like a good idea in the 2nd
69 LW Reid Schaefer -- if there's a Tom Wilson in the draft, it's him -- an incredibly tough 6'3-215 beast who topped 30+ goals in the WHL for Seattle
94 G Tyler Brennan -- considered by some the best G in the draft, 6'4 and athletic
95 RW Gleb Trikozov -- even with the New Russian Factor it's doubtful he falls so low, but since he was there I traded 3 picks to move up and get this high-skill, high-upside high-scorer
113 RD Noah Warren -- 6'5, mobile and physical with puck skills, I set out with the goal of bolstering RD and with Chesley/Rinzel/Warren we can put a big-time check-mark here
124 LW Kirill Dolzhenkov -- 6'6-240 LW with puck skills and skates, my #2 job after RD was bolstering the physicality and interior play of the Fs, and with Perevalov/Gaucher/Schaefer/Dolzhenkov we can put a check here as well.
Though I don't feel a draft this amazing is humanly possible, it was fun. If I failed in one place, it was collecting more center depth for the prospect pool, but at least I stole Gaucher in the 2nd round. If this was for real, I would've dealt a spare part like Johnsson for a 6th round pick and grabbed over-age C Logan Morrison, who is one of my favorite sleepers in the 2022 draft.
Cooley has, um... cooled in the latter part of the year, and I'm not sure I rank him ahead of US-NTDP teammates Nazar or Gauthier at this point. Cooley's skating is undoubtedly exceptional, but he's more of an exterior forward than the other two, and this does not fill the Devils desperate need for interior forwards.
I must repeat that comparing Slafkovsky to Kakko is inaccurate aside from size and skating, where they in fact compare pretty well. But where Kakko had great skills across the board, none were elite. This was my foremost argument when saying Byram might have been the best pick at #2 overall in 2019 (although the concussions for Byram have clouded this, admittedly).
Slafkovsky however? He's an elite passer, with elite hands and elite IQ. When you combine this with his size and power game, he becomes a match-up impossibility for the opposition. He can not only win pucks, then he can immediately use the hands to get a few inches, and then the reach and IQ to create time and space for himself. So, we're dealing with a player who cannot only create passing lanes, but can also see them before they appear with his high-end vision.
In a nutshell, Kakko always -- and still -- possessed the ability to be great. But Slafkovsky's skill-set is potentially in the neighborhood of not just great but unstoppable. He's simply a better prospect. The only argument against him is the numbers, which are -- as they often are -- quite deceiving. After tearing up the Finnish juniors in a brief stint, he was brought up to Liiga where he was scarcely utilized as an offensive player. It may have been a mistake to leave Slovakia, because whereas Finnish coaches may overplay a struggling prospect to improve his draft status if they're Finnish (see: Lambert, Brad), there is less of a compunction to do so if it's a Slovakian kid who barely speaks the same language as anyone on the team.
Since the Olympics, Slafkovsky has been, quite simply, the best prospect for the 2022 draft in the entire class, bar none. He performed quite well in the Liiga playoffs since being upgraded to more of a middle 6 role for TPS.
The argument for drafting Jiricek over Slafkovsky -- if both were available where the Devils picked -- has some merit, as the Devils have a very strong top 6 as is and a tremendous need organizationally at RD. Also, everything about Jiricek's game would make him the perfect pairing partner for Luke Hughes down the road, and he's a tremendous two-way force in his own right. But Cooley? Not even close. Cooley's only edges would be skating and the ability to play center. Slafkovsky beats him in literally every other imaginable sense. Granted, Cooley's skating is no joke -- he may be alongside Lambert the best skater in the entire 2022 class. And he's also an excellent player. But he's not the unique talent which Slafkovsky represents.
There won't be any debate if the Devils are picking #2 or #3 with both Slafkovsky and Cooley available. Slafkovsky would be the pick. Anyone who says otherwise is both not paying attention to Tom Fitzgerald's words and player moves, or just plain kidding themselves.
I'm going to disagree with you, however, on Jiricek vs. Nemec. Though I'm quite high on both and Nemec is the better player right now, Jiricek offers equivalent upside offensively and far more defensively. I think it harkens back to last year, when Brandt Clarke was better than Luke Hughes and Simon Edvinsson, who both offered more upside. Already -- just one year later -- it's pretty safe to say both Hughes and Edvinsson have passed Clarke. And Jiricek isn't exactly "raw" himself -- he was terrific in the Czech men's league before injury struck him down.
I'm still working on my spring rankings (I kill myself over the rankings) but right now it looks like my top three will include Wright, Slafkovsky and Jiricek, though I'm still struggling over what the final order will be.
Captain3rdLine
Registered User
- Sep 24, 2020
- 7,616
- 8,857
Their size isn’t even really that comparable. Kappo Kakko was 6’2” 195lbs going into the draft and Slafkovsky was last listed at 6’4” 218lbs. So 2 inches and about 25lbs heavier. I will say I think I liked certain aspects of Kappo Kakko’s skating better when he was coming in and he may have been a little faster. And I’d say he was a better goal scorer than Slafkovsky has shown to be so far.
I was vocally skeptical of Slafkovsky's shooting ability at the outset of the season, but those concerns have eased. I'll now say he has an above-average to good shot -- the accuracy is very much improved, and the power has raised a notch. With his ability to carry the puck down low and be immoveable in the crease, I don't doubt he has 30+ goal upside.
Power forwards usually take a bit longer to develop, and I feel Slafkovsky is just scratching the surface. But right now I must say he's in the conversation for #1 overall. His upside is simply tremendous. I don't think I've seen a winger with his combination of size/strength/IQ/puck skills since maybe Jagr. Of course, obviously this is an extremely unfair comparison for any player, but my point is that Slafkovsky is a pretty unique talent in his own right.
Captain3rdLine
Registered User
- Sep 24, 2020
- 7,616
- 8,857
I agree.
And although I think they’re very different, even if we were talking about a Kappo Kakko type prospect I would still really want him and take him over Cooley all day.
And Kappo Kakko could still turn out really well.
Eggtimer
Registered User
God no. Massive overpayment. Massive.
I say this all the time about Kakko -- I still really like him. However, I think the Rangers deal either Kakko or Lafreniere this off-season to address other areas of need, primarily center depth.
What we can say about Kakko is that he's an excellent young player, and it should not be held over him that he was one of the more over-rated draft prospects in recent NHL history. In a 2019 re-draft, there's no way he goes over Hughes/Seider/Zegras and probably also falls below names like Boldy, Knight and Caufield. But he's still a top 10 pick, and in a very strong draft year there is a lot to be said for that.
Captain3rdLine
Registered User
- Sep 24, 2020
- 7,616
- 8,857
I don’t think the rangers will risk doing something like that and they may not be too worried about the center position if they feel that Copp can somewhat keep up his hot start with them long term and they can resign him. He has 10 points in his first 9 games and has looked good from what I’ve seen. Strome also isn’t terrible. But I don’t think they would risk or could afford to risk trading a way a highly talented 2nd or 1st overall pick who will only be 20-21 and could still turn into a great player. Although he has definitely fallen behind some of those players he could still turn in to one of the best players in the draft class in the right situation.
