Prospect Info: 2023 NHL Draft - Potential Selection Discussion

[horner]

Honestly if Bonk available we better off drafting him then trading pick unless they are set on guy or two in 2nd. I think Bonk might be the steal at the draft he quietly put up good numbers

Bonk remins

Honestly if Bonk available we better off drafting him then trading pick unless they are set on guy or two in 2nd. I think Bonk might be the steal at the draft he quietly put up good numbers

I think Bonk his game is like TJ Brodei
Consistant and steady

 

[ITM]

Otto Stenberg is a name I have heard the Leafs are interested in.

I also wouldn't be surprised if Dubas pulled another Mrazek special with Murray.

That's the name I posted a while ago.

Stenberg's two-way game is what impresses me. Can't have enough of that determination on a team.

 

[Dog]

That's the name I posted a while ago.

Stenberg's two-way game is what impresses me. Can't have enough of that determination on a team.

I would guess he gets drafted before leafs choice. If he does not be interested in him or Bonk.

 

[ITM]

I would guess he gets drafted before leafs choice. If he does not be interested in him or Bonk.

I suspect so. Unfortunately his name is being mentioned more often now.

 

[as Pure as Evil]

Personally i would to snag halttunen and or danill but (6'4 left winger but this front office has been doing fantastic in the drafting scheme

 

[Morgs]

Brayden Yager falling was not something I expected, but he's a guy I'm trading up for if he's magically available around 20.

 

[Stephen]

Bonk and Willander will not be BPA at that spot. If you trade down, sure... And there will be plenty of options to choose from.

In that range specifically, now that Dragicevic has probably lost some of his appeal after a very inconsistent WJC, you are probably looking at Gulyayev or Simashev. Otherwise you trade down and you are looking at arguably a dozen really good quality defenders: Bonk, Willander, Lindstein, Price, Molendyk, Brzustewicz, Akey, Dragicevic, and Morin. If you stretch just a bit, then Dvorak, Gibson, Allen, Cagnoni, and Strbak are also considerations but I would not reach for Allen and Cagnoni especially. Allen reminds me of Salomonsson (and he still has a long way to proving he is going to reach his lofty upside) and Cagnoni is more of a pure offensive guy and has question marks with his skating while being 5'10". Not a good combination even though he does have a lot of appeal.

I'll be honest, I think trading down is the most attractive option for us. Most of the centers in our range have played well enough to move out of our range. Bradly Nadeau may be the only one around that range and he doesn't get me super excited. The Russians are the only defensemen in our range and they may available even if we trade down due to being Russian. Not convinced any of the goalies in this draft are 1st round quality, so that would be another trade down.

Really what we are left with are wingers. Good quality wingers, but that is the last thing we need. Brindley, Gauthier, Honzek, Halttunen, Stenberg, Musty, and maybe even Sale and Perreault. I'd rather just trade down into the late 30's or early 40's, get some more picks in a draft where we only have 3, and we are right in the middle of the range where those great defensemen and goalies like Bjarnason, Augustine, Fowler, Ratzlaff, and maybe even Hrabal should be BPA. Or worst case, you are still going have access to some pretty good wingers: Rehkopf, Ziemmer, Cataford, Stramel, Lardis, Perron. Probably won't be many centers there, but whatever pick we get for trading down should be in a range with a bunch of good centers: Gardiner, Edstrom, Fisker Molgaard, Terrance, Misiak, Nelson, Dower Nilsson, Wahlberg, Nilsson, Lipinski, De Luca... Maybe even Pinelli and Sawchyn.

I would actually consider trading up vs down on draft day depending on how things shake out. We need to be flexible.

Reason being we will need to find impact ELC players to start supporting and replacing the Big 4 over the next handful of years. If there’s a bluechipper within range that is a good fit I think you pounce on it.

Sort of the difference between consolidating your picks into something like a McAvoy in the teens or a Pastrnak in the early 20s that got Boston’s retool back on track vs getting a few more Minten level prospects. One is good housekeeping and playing the percentages. The other is trying to hit that home run to keep the window open.

 

[ChicagoBullsFan]

28 used to be a good range for some defensemen and centers. Now they have all either fallen off to the 30's and 40's or have risen to the early 20's/late teens. Most of the guys around our area are probably wingers, and that is now what we need.

I can talk about forwards and defensemen later, but I can quickly touch on goalies at a high level and then go into detail at another time.

It is not a weak draft for goalies in the sense of the fact that Augustine, Ratzlaff, Hrabal, Bjarnason, Fowler, and Gajan are all fairly solid options with good upside. But it is pretty shallow. I can maybe stretch it out to 15 goalies overall, but there are already some long shots included in there. I like the top 7 NA goalies (everyone listed above plus Stephen Peck; haven't watched him but he had the best numbers at Avon since Quick so he may be worth a shot when there is not much else).

Musser is not good and I have no idea why he is ranked so high. Spunar's and Suchanek were fine, but as OAers (or double OAer in Suchanek's case), they may not be good enough... And Suchanek was excellent in the U20's. Everyone outside of the top 10 is generally bad. If I had to choose some, it would probably be Miller, Bowen, Urban, maybe Meneghin, maybe Korpi, and maybe unranked Rhett Stoesser (it is too bad he got hurt). Bowen had some really promising moments where he was even outplaying Brochu in London, but fell off at the end. I am surprised Stoesser went unranked because he was practically splitting the net with a fairly good Kyle Kelsey in Red Deer (one of the best teams in the WHL this year) before getting hurt and he has a .910 with some solid size. Came out of nowhere a bit this year, but that is not much unlike Bjarnason (went undrafted in the WHL before winning a backup job with Brandon in his D-1 year).

In Europe, Hellnemo is an OAer and top ranked. Pretty weak crop if he is #1 but he should be a decent mid-round option. I like Clara and Zavragin. Zavragin had a bit of an off-year but he was excellent last year and has some nice upside. Wish we could see him internationally, since I would bet he would have been Russia's starter in the U18's. Clara is raw but also has nice upside. 6'6", carrying Italy's junior teams the past two years (and may be their men's starter as soon as next year), and did a solid job with Farjestads while also starting in most of their games. That is probably it from Europe (I don't think Jatkola is worth it as a D+3, Vali is too small and rightfully or wrongfully was not given a chance when Eemil Vinni struggled hard this year, and the rest just don't have the numbers). You can probably throw in a couple of random Russians that teams may take a stab at but once again, we are scraping the bottom after Hellnemo, Clara, and Zavragin for me.

So that gives me 10 guys I like enough to draft at some point and another 5-10 I could probably list if you desperately wanted a goalie but I would probably just recommend passing on at this point.

Eemil Vinni is draft eligible 2024 due to late birthday.

Jatkola was good last August's U20 WJC's and key player of Finland's U20 WJC silver.
So he should get drafted this year he was also good in SM liiga this past season
and debuted Finnish men's national team in February's EHT tournament

But unfortunately injury ended his season too early during the liiga playoffs
so he couldn't compete roster spot to Finland's IIHF worlds roster.

 

[rocketman588]

The odds we trade the fist pick for two seconds are like 90% it's what we do

 

[SeaOfBlue]

Eemil Vinni is draft eligible 2024 due to late birthday.

Jatkola was good last August's U20 WJC's and key player of Finland's U20 WJC silver.
So he should get drafted this year he was also good in SM liiga this past season
and debuted Finnish men's national team in February's EHT tournament

But unfortunately injury ended his season too early during the liiga playoffs
so he couldn't compete roster spot to Finland's IIHF worlds roster.

Yeah. I had high hopes for Vinni next year but he had a really rough go this year. Hopefully he does better in his draft year.

I don't see the Leafs having interest in Jatkola. Some team may give him a chance in the late rounds similar to Veini Vehvilainen but VV had much better numbers and it is not like Jatkola is much bigger (both are on the smaller side). It is a shallow draft for goalies (although there is a nice top end) but there are some teams who always like to add one so we are probably going to see some odd names come up. If that is the case, no reason why Jatkola, who should at least be on radars if not some lists, could go.

 

[LaPlante94]

Brayden Yager falling was not something I expected, but he's a guy I'm trading up for if he's magically available around 20.

You serious? My god that'd be a mistake by many teams.

 

[SeaOfBlue]

Brayden Yager falling was not something I expected, but he's a guy I'm trading up for if he's magically available around 20.

You serious? My god that'd be a mistake by many teams.

Is he really falling? He is still 11th on CSS for NA (and could easily go before 2 or 3 guys ranked above him) and there are only 2 guys in Europe who are clearly above him (Carlsson and Michkov). Seems like he still has a really good chance to go top 15, or soon after that... And I don't see us trading up that high for him.

 

[ChicagoBullsFan]

Bonk and Willander will not be BPA at that spot. If you trade down, sure... And there will be plenty of options to choose from.

In that range specifically, now that Dragicevic has probably lost some of his appeal after a very inconsistent WJC, you are probably looking at Gulyayev or Simashev. Otherwise you trade down and you are looking at arguably a dozen really good quality defenders: Bonk, Willander, Lindstein, Price, Molendyk, Brzustewicz, Akey, Dragicevic, and Morin. If you stretch just a bit, then Dvorak, Gibson, Allen, Cagnoni, and Strbak are also considerations but I would not reach for Allen and Cagnoni especially. Allen reminds me of Salomonsson (and he still has a long way to proving he is going to reach his lofty upside) and Cagnoni is more of a pure offensive guy and has question marks with his skating while being 5'10". Not a good combination even though he does have a lot of appeal.

I'll be honest, I think trading down is the most attractive option for us. Most of the centers in our range have played well enough to move out of our range. Bradly Nadeau may be the only one around that range and he doesn't get me super excited. The Russians are the only defensemen in our range and they may available even if we trade down due to being Russian. Not convinced any of the goalies in this draft are 1st round quality, so that would be another trade down.

Really what we are left with are wingers. Good quality wingers, but that is the last thing we need. Brindley, Gauthier, Honzek, Halttunen, Stenberg, Musty, and maybe even Sale and Perreault. I'd rather just trade down into the late 30's or early 40's, get some more picks in a draft where we only have 3, and we are right in the middle of the range where those great defensemen and goalies like Bjarnason, Augustine, Fowler, Ratzlaff, and maybe even Hrabal should be BPA. Or worst case, you are still going have access to some pretty good wingers: Rehkopf, Ziemmer, Cataford, Stramel, Lardis, Perron. Probably won't be many centers there, but whatever pick we get for trading down should be in a range with a bunch of good centers: Gardiner, Edstrom, Fisker Molgaard, Terrance, Misiak, Nelson, Dower Nilsson, Wahlberg, Nilsson, Lipinski, De Luca... Maybe even Pinelli and Sawchyn.

Few comments on Halttunen.
He truly struggled with scoring in HIFK this season.
But it was more HIFK's serious lack of playmaking center depth than skill lack on Halttunen's game.

HIFK was entire SM liiga's low scoring team in autumn 2022 and it truly showed.
In U18 WJC's Halttunen was Finland's captain and top scorer scoring 6+4=10 points in 5 games.
Halttunen has very good shot and he's natural scorer but too often he tries too much by himself.

Halttunen is signed to HIFK next season but it is widely open does HIFK has room for him.
HIFK is going all in to win SM liiga championship title next season so i cannot say for sure
will Halttunen play much in HIFK's liiga roster next year.

Halttunen needs big minutes and scoring role to being useful player.
And if HIFK cannot give him that then it is better to consider seriously reporting to OHL.
London Knights drafted Halttunen last years CHL import draft.

So if Halttunen would be Maple-Leafs prospect after 2023 NHL draft
your management should recommend Halttunen reporting to London Knights
and Mark Hunter is your contact in London so 1+1=2 or is it.

That's for sure playing into A juniors ( HIFK's U20 team )
isn't right place for Halttunen next year if he cannot get liiga minutes in HIFK
and there isn't possibility to loan Halttunen to mestis or other SM liiga team.

 

[LaPlante94]

Is he really falling? He is still 11th on CSS for NA (and could easily go before 2 or 3 guys ranked above him) and there are only 2 guys in Europe who are clearly above him (Carlsson and Michkov). Seems like he still has a really good chance to go top 15, or soon after that... And I don't see us trading up that high for him.

Idk, some teams might value the better skating players with just as much upside maybe. Always 1 or 2 players who are potentially ranked that high who fall so maybe some feel he could be the one this year.

 

[Morgs]

You serious? My god that'd be a mistake by many teams.

I thought he was a top-10 lock, but not being in Bob's top-12 threw me (dropped at least 6 spots from mid-terms). I'm still assuming he's a top-15 guy like SeaOfBlue said, but if he's bordering on 15, 20 is possible, and maybe he can be a Leaf.

 

[SeaOfBlue]

Few comments on Halttunen.
He truly struggled with scoring in HIFK this season.
But it was more HIFK's serious lack of playmaking center depth than skill lack on Halttunen's game.

HIFK was entire SM liiga's low scoring team in autumn 2022 and it truly showed.
In U18 WJC's Halttunen was Finland's captain and top scorer scoring 6+4=10 points in 5 games.
Halttunen has very good shot and he's natural scorer but too often he tries too much by himself.

Halttunen is signed to HIFK next season but it is widely open does HIFK has room for him.
HIFK is going all in to win SM liiga championship title next season so i cannot say for sure
will Halttunen play much in HIFK's liiga roster next year.

Halttunen needs big minutes and scoring role to being useful player.
And if HIFK cannot give him that then it is better to consider seriously reporting to OHL.
London Knights drafted Halttunen last years CHL import draft.

So if Halttunen would be Maple-Leafs prospect after 2023 NHL draft
your management should recommend Halttunen reporting to London Knights
and Mark Hunter is your contact in London so 1+1=2 or is it.

That's for sure playing into A juniors ( HIFK's U20 team )
isn't right place for Halttunen next year if he cannot get liiga minutes in HIFK
and there isn't possibility to loan Halttunen to mestis or other SM liiga team.

I don't know how much of a relationship the Leafs have with London anymore. Seems like Hunter doesn't exactly like us after he got snuffed for the GM job in favour of Dubas.

Although I doubt he cares much if he is getting a high end talent like Halttunen out of it.

Halttunen is certainly risky. Loved him at the U18's. Put the team on his back when few others were consistently productive. But there are some concerns with him as well, and while he is a power winger with size and skill, the Leafs are fairly flush with quality wingers right now and seemingly can find them outside of the first round. If we move down and Halttunen is still available, I think it is more of a strong possibility.

 

[Green Snow Storm]

Brayden Yager falling was not something I expected, but he's a guy I'm trading up for if he's magically available around 20.

No brainer.

 

[SeaOfBlue]

I thought he was a top-10 lock, but not being in Bob's top-12 threw me (dropped at least 6 spots from mid-terms). I'm still assuming he's a top-15 guy like SeaOfBlue said, but if he's bordering on 15, 20 is possible, and maybe he can be a Leaf.

With our lack of picks, I do not see us moving up... And our best bet for a "faller" at center would probably be Riley Heidt. Would be an excellent pick in the late 1st even though his U18's were not lack-lustre at best.

There are a ton of power wingers (and other types of wingers) available at our pick, and perhaps some defensemen as well, but I think unless a guy drops, we should be looking to move back. Bradly Nadeau is the only natural center who looks like he is a fit in that range, and he is not my first choice for a guy. Certainly a lot to like and has upside, but guys dominating the BCHL do not exactly translate to high end NHL players (no offense to Newhook, Jost, Fabbro, Heinen and others but it has been 15+ years since Jamie Benn and Travis Zajac and those are probably the best two guys to come out of the BCHL) and he is going to the University of Maine, which is not exactly renowned for developing high end offensive talent (short of Gustav Nyquist).

If we want to go for a real homerun swing, then there should be Simashev, Gulyayev, and Dragicevic available (or you could go for Hrabal, but that would be a reach). All three have top pairing upside in my books, but they will need to iron a decent amount out to get there and we have limited access to Simashev and Gulyayev for the next few years. However, these three have arguably the highest upside out of any defenseman in draft (including Reinbacher and Sandin Pellikka).

 

[ChicagoBullsFan]

I don't know how much of a relationship the Leafs have with London anymore. Seems like Hunter doesn't exactly like us after he got snuffed for the GM job in favour of Dubas.

Although I doubt he cares much if he is getting a high end talent like Halttunen out of it.

Halttunen is certainly risky. Loved him at the U18's. Put the team on his back when few others were consistently productive. But there are some concerns with him as well, and while he is a power winger with size and skill, the Leafs are fairly flush with quality wingers right now and seemingly can find them outside of the first round. If we move down and Halttunen is still available, I think it is more of a strong possibility.

Only risk what Halttunen might have
is related on that concussion which he got last October against Kalpa
when Colby Sissons hit Halttunen straight on the head.

That caused concussion and it kept Halttunen out at least a month.
I saw that hit on the video in youtube and damn it was nasty.

But there was fault in Halttunen too.
He was trying to drive into net and try to score some wrap-around goal
and he didn't keep his head up and watch where he was skating and Sissons hit came
straight on the head.

Sissons got suspended 6 games but it doesn't matter so much
because if Halttunen wants to seriously play in NHL he needs to learn keep his head up
and watch where he's skating because into NHL game is so much faster than into SM liiga
and NHL doesn't give suspensions easily if hit comes straight into head and player gets injured.

 

[ChicagoBullsFan]

Yeah. I had high hopes for Vinni next year but he had a really rough go this year. Hopefully he does better in his draft year.

I don't see the Leafs having interest in Jatkola. Some team may give him a chance in the late rounds similar to Veini Vehvilainen but VV had much better numbers and it is not like Jatkola is much bigger (both are on the smaller side). It is a shallow draft for goalies (although there is a nice top end) but there are some teams who always like to add one so we are probably going to see some odd names come up. If that is the case, no reason why Jatkola, who should at least be on radars if not some lists, could go.

Vinni didn't have best season this year that's true.
But i wouldn't blame Vinni on Finland's U18 WJC quarterfinal elimination against Slovakia.
Finland's entire defense was a cheese defense and dmans didn't gave much help to Vinni.

Also the coaching staff crap into bed
because they didn't have any game-plans etc tactics into defense.

Vinni is signed to HIFK's liiga roster next year but his role will be 3rd goalie.
I don't know exactly what the development plan is for Vinni next year and i'm a bit worried of that.

If it was up on me and my will Vinni would've played into Mestis
this whole year instead of A juniors Vinni is promising goalie that's not a question
but it is a question what HIFK will do with him next year.

If some CHL team decides to draft Vinni this years CHL import draft
then he should absolutely report to CHL to his draft season and play there
because 3rd goalie is not getting much games in SM liiga team and Vinni if any prospect
what HIFK has needs lots of playing time and if liiga team cannot give that then Mestis
should be number 1 option because A juniors is totally wrong place for Vinni in his draf season.

I truly hope that HIFK GM Tobias Salmelainen understands that
but i wouldn't hod my breath on it because Salmelainen screwed up so badly
this past season in HIFK so it is a miracle he still has a job.

 

[Peasy]

Would this board lose their mind if they took Cristall

 

[Byron Bitz]

Would this board lose their mind if they took Cristall

The Knies pick has bought our scouts enough leeway for me to not criticize their selection immediately after the draft. That said he certainly wouldn’t be my pick, nota fan of prospects that are both small and bad skaters.

 

[Peasy]

Personally wouldn't classify Cristall as a bad skater. He doesn't have the greatest straight line speed or acceleration but he has exceptional edges and is a very shifty skater.

 

[IceColdBear]

I would actually consider trading up vs down on draft day depending on how things shake out. We need to be flexible.

Reason being we will need to find impact ELC players to start supporting and replacing the Big 4 over the next handful of years. If there’s a bluechipper within range that is a good fit I think you pounce on it.

Sort of the difference between consolidating your picks into something like a McAvoy in the teens or a Pastrnak in the early 20s that got Boston’s retool back on track vs getting a few more Minten level prospects. One is good housekeeping and playing the percentages. The other is trying to hit that home run to keep the window open.

You can hit a homerun in the second and third rounds too, not just in the first round - trading down generally gets you the best odds at both quality and quantity.

Especially as we're in a position where we only have Bostons first and a fith and a sixth, it makes basically no sense to trade up unless the scouting staff thinks there's someone falling way below where they deserve to be taken.

 

[SeaOfBlue]

Would this board lose their mind if they took Cristall

Personally wouldn't classify Cristall as a bad skater. He doesn't have the greatest straight line speed or acceleration but he has exceptional edges and is a very shifty skater.

If he was taken at 28, I don't think so other than the people who would freak out about taking anyone small in this draft outside of Bedard. He looked terrible at the U18's but he still has some of the highest upside out of anyone in the draft and is arguably the best playmaker.

But his skating is pretty bad and it got really exposed in the U18's once he went up against defensemen who were good enough skaters to not get exposed by his edges and shiftiness. And his defensive game is a real mess too. He really could end up as Bracco 2.0.