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Pre-Game Talk: 2023 Draft Discussion

King'sPawn said:
With the draft two weeks away now, there are a lot of resources to help you get primed. I'll put a few links if you would like to buy any of the draft guides along with some of my own thoughts (take my thoughts for what it's worth, of course; some of these can be pricey and just want to give you suggestions). Hopefully screenshots will help provide context and info:

Elite Prospects: 2023 Elite Prospects NHL Draft Guide
Comes with your monthly subscription to EliteProspects (I think it's $11.99 a month?), but you should be able to get it for a month. They have a top 136 ranking but have profiles on 400+ players. They contain your basic information on players (height, weight, etc), player cards of some basic analytics, and they rank 6 skillsets (Skating, Shooting, Passing, Puckhandling, Hockey Sense, Physical), and they rank these skillsets on a 1-9 scale. There are then paragraphs more in depth about how they see and evaluate the player. Then there are quotes from scouts they spoke to as well as their own internal reports. They have over 1600+ pages. If you can get this with one month subscription, and you needed just one, this is arguably the most comprehensive and cost-effective guide.
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Future Considerations: Home - FCHockey
More in-depth with their rankings, as well as additional general articles. However, their analysis and profiles of players are a lot leaner. They rank players up to 300. Once they get to the players, you have 6 profiles per page in column format (like a newspaper). For me, it's a harder read because of this format. For the profiles they have, they have write-ups on the top 200 prospects they ranked.
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McKeen's Hockey: Home
Prospects ranked up to 224 with accompanying profiles, as well as quite a few fluff articles and mock drafts. In their player write-ups, they have a scouting report on the player as well as a ranking of the player's Skating, Shot, Skills, Smarts, Physicality, and "OFP" (on a scale of 20-80). No explanation on how they define/rank any of these, so it's a little bit less user-friendly.
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Draft Prospects Hockey: DRAFT PROSPECTS HOCKEY – AN INDEPENDENT SCOUTING SERVICE EVALUATING THE GAMES NEXT GENERATION OF TALENT
Rankings of up to the top 240, but have write-ups on the top 224. The top 64 also has a little bit more information, listing their strengths and weaknesses as well as how they would score their Skating, Shooting, Hands, Hands, Physical, and Defense. At the end they also have a list of the 32 organizations, their current picks for the draft (round only, not specific position), as well as the top 10 prospects for each organization and their U-23 players.
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Hockey Prospect: HockeyProspect.com - Hockey's Future Stars
I'll be honest. I'm a bit biased as this is my favorite. But I also know it's not for everyone, so I'll try not to oversell it. They try to set up their guide and go through the process each year like they are an NHL team trying to run their own organization. They rank a player's Ceiling, Floor, Hockey Sense, Compete, Skill, Skate, Misc on a scale of 3-9 (these are the actual rankings that an unnamed NHL team uses). What I like most of all is they are very clear in their intro as far as what each ranking is based on. They ranked the top 112 players as if they were an NHL team; but have profiles on around 300 players. They also have rankings for their current top 2024 and 2025 prospects. There is no fluff in this book - but it probably gives you the best insight/process of how their scouts evaluate players and how a team may see the draft. The downside is it's the most pricey at $40.
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Hopefully this isn't too much of a copyright issue as it's all about the same prospect that the Kings aren't taking anyway that you'd read each time.

As far as accuracy of their rankings, I don't put a whole lot of weight on that since we all know that teams develop players differently which would have a huge impact on how a player actually turns out.

If anyone wants to add their own thoughts, or other guides I might have missed, please feel free to add. I know there's Grant McCagg's Recrutes draft guide as well - I haven't taken a look at it yet, but I would have to make a new account to purchase a book and not use that account for anything but to buy it... so, I'm not sure. At least I still make use of the EliteProspects premium subscription.

I also like The Draft Analyst when his comes out. But I don't even think his came out last year till after the draft. It's usually the least expensive if you are just looking for a writeup provided by one dude's observations. That's not out yet.
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I didn't realize Bedard was so young.

On top of being the best prospect, he's also the youngest (of the top prospects). That makes him all the more impressive.
 
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Lenni Hameenaho


Probably wouldn't be anyone's favorite. Not incredibly high skilled, but plays an NHL-type game at a young age. He's one of those players you know will "get it" but wouldn't be a gamebreaker. But this is a projectably defensive forward.
 
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Statto said:
I thought it was simply that he expected to have more picks. From the tone I felt it was more about Blake getting additional picks due to a roster player of 2 moving (we’ve discussed that need frequently).

It was a very good listen though.
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I agree, roster players for picks or moving up in conjunction with additional picks.
 
King'sPawn said:
Lenni Hameenaho


Probably wouldn't be anyone's favorite. Not incredibly high skilled, but plays an NHL-type game at a young age. He's one of those players you know will "get it" but wouldn't be a gamebreaker. But this is a projectably defensive forward.
Click to expand...

It’s exactly the kind of forward this organization is brimmed with, and probably don’t need any more of.

That being said, welcome to LA Lenni!
 
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Underneath this years nhl draft Christmas tree, Florian Xhekaj!

Can you give me ONE GUY who plays with balls.

Now I understand our team need to continue to stock up on the usual center and RHD and draft nothing else.
 
Pronman 7 round mock draft

54: Jakub Dvorak D
78: Nick Lardis LW
118: Brady Cleveland D
150: Stephen Peck G
182: Ryan Conmy RW

Have no clue on any of these past Dvorak. As for goalies he has Hrabel at 26, Bjarnason at 51, Augustine at 52 and Gajan at 56.
 
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Docgonzo said:
Pronman 7 round mock draft

54: Jakub Dvorak D
78: Nick Lardis LW
118: Brady Cleveland D
150: Stephen Peck G
182: Ryan Conmy RW

Have no clue on any of these past Dvorak. As for goalies he has Hrabel at 26, Bjarnason at 51, Augustine at 52 and Gajan at 56.
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Cleveland is a Matt Greene type of player. Stay at home. Physical. Limited offensive upside. A video I made of him should be somewhere in this thread.

Dvorak is a very reasonable selection there.
 
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Docgonzo said:
Pronman 7 round mock draft

54: Jakub Dvorak D
78: Nick Lardis LW
118: Brady Cleveland D
150: Stephen Peck G
182: Ryan Conmy RW

Have no clue on any of these past Dvorak. As for goalies he has Hrabel at 26, Bjarnason at 51, Augustine at 52 and Gajan at 56.
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IMO, no way he lasts until 78. Love his game, especially after the trade to Hamilton. Great hands and can put the puck in the net. Like his awareness in the offensive zone. I think he goes mid second round, at worst.

He is going to have a huge year next season for Brantford.
 
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YEah a couple of those guys will surge

it's always fun to go back and look what happens in mocks vs reality, most of mine from rd 3 on went a round higher on average
 
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I asked who are the toughest players in the draft and was give this list. Any of these players ranked high?

Brady Cleveland

Florian Xhekaj

Axel Landen

Terrell Goldsmith

Djibril Toure

Cody Croal

Daniil Karpovich

Rodwin Dionicio

Matthew Henry - toughest in draft

Ashton Cumby

Matteo Mann

Kristian Kostadinski
 
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kovacro said:
IMO, no way he lasts until 78. Love his game, especially after the trade to Hamilton. Great hands and can put the puck in the net. Like his awareness in the offensive zone. I think he goes mid second round, at worst.

He is going to have a huge year next season for Brantford.
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Also, Lardis is a July BDAY, so he's on the younger side.
Once he was traded to Hamilton, his scoring really went up and he led them in playoff scoring;
6 games, 5 goals, 5 assists.

25 goals in his last 33 OHL games...projects for 50+ goals.
If he's available at 54, I would take him. Read the article below...seems he has to work on battling with bigger competition, (compete?) but he was 17 and has a ways to go to get bigger and stronger.That can develop - whereas how many 17 year olds, can be on the board at 40-55 range, that can score 50 goal level, in CHL? I also like that he produced in the playoffs.
Anyone in the 50+ range, has a wart or a few.

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good article on Lardis:

www.dailyfaceoff.com

The sky’s the limit for Nick Lardis after incredible 2023 NHL Draft season

One of the biggest risers for the draft, Lardis’ potential is intriguing.
www.dailyfaceoff.com www.dailyfaceoff.com

...
 
Johnny Utah said:
I asked who are the toughest players in the draft and was give this list. Any of these players ranked high?

Brady Cleveland

Florian Xhekaj

Axel Landen

Terrell Goldsmith

Djibril Toure

Cody Croal

Daniil Karpovich

Rodwin Dionicio
Click to expand...
Of those, Cleveland is often the only one ranked (via quick glance). Though in McKeen's, they rated them like this:
Cleveland - 121
Xhekaj - unranked
Landen - 118
Goldsmith - unranked
Toure - unranked
Croal - unranked
Karpovich - 137
Dionicio - 172

However, looking at their rankings, these are how they rate the best body checker/most physical:
1. Maxim Strbak
2. Jakob Dvorak
3. Ty Hendricks
4. Coulson Pitre
5. Justin Kipke
6. Andrew Strathmann
7. Andrew Gibson
8. Gavin McCarthy
9. Nico Myatovic
10. Brady Cleveland

At least 2 of the above will be briefly mentioned in an article or two once Hoven gets through editing - what was originally going to be one large article is being broken up a bit for easier reading.

Elite Prospects has their 5 hardest hitters:
- Brady Cleveland
- Kasper Halttunen
- Ryan Leonard
- Dmitri Simashev
- David Reinbacher

Of the above, Reinbacher is a consensus first-round pick and may even go top-10.
 
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Toughness,fighting...gone the way of Dodo bird!Rather a highly skilled offensive line up and stout Defense

With LA having traded RD-men Faber,Grans and now Durzi I expect the Kings to draft 2-3 RD-men in 2023 draft
 
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