Prospect Info: 2023 NHL Draft - Potential Selection Discussion

[diehardleafsfan9878]

Fingers crossed michkov falls all the way down

 

[darrylsittler27]

Hard to know what the Leafs will target but if a star falls, move up and go for it. It's a strong draft.

 

[Racer88]

Hey @darrylsittler27 would Austin Matthews get injured less frequently is he were bigger?

Nope just if he was tougher and more resilient

 

[Scion]

As part of my job I watch a ton of OHL games, and I know he isn't projected to go in the first round but Nick Lardis is as good as anyone I've seen in the OHL this year U18. His game is similar to Nick Robertson, but with better agility.

 

[TheMadHatTrick]

I havent followed the draft this year. Who do Morgs, Sticky, or Sob want?

 

[Morgs]

I havent followed the draft this year. Who do Morgs, Sticky, or Sob want?

I think Brindley is my favourite realistic pick right now. Dream pick with how his stock is taking a bit of a hit is Yager, but I doubt he falls close to far enough. Danielson, Reinbacher, and Musty are a few of my other current realistic favourites.

 

[RunItBackAgain]

Guys, we're not drafting until the 5th round. Dubas will move our first to get rid of Murray and sign Korpisalo and O'Reilly.

 

[SeaOfBlue]

I havent followed the draft this year. Who do Morgs, Sticky, or Sob want?

I am going to assume that all of my top 25 guys are gone by the time we pick, so my "#26" is Dmitri Simashev.

Brindley is fine too.

Although in all honesty, I would probably trade down. Outside of Simashev or someone out of my top 25 dropping, I think you can get the same caliber guy at 40 as you could at 28 or later. A lot of high end complimentary winger types (Ziemmer, Cataford, Pitre, Lind, Stenberg), a few raw large-body with boom-bust potential (Stramel, Halttunen, Honzek), a couple of skilled undersized play-drivers (Nadeau, Perron) and then a whole lot of average-sized variations of solid puck movers with slight variations in their style of play (Akey, Willander, Lindstein, Bonk, Morin, Molendyk, Price, Brzustewicz) with a couple of more raw larger guys thrown in too (Strbak, Gibson). Of course you could also look at Hrabal or Bjarnason (or one of the other goalies) but I don't think they are 1st round caliber.

So it is a great range for defensemen or wingers. Not great for centers. Ironically the opposite of the high end of the draft, which has no defensemen but a ton of centers.

I think there are some sneaky good pickups in the late 2nd/early 3rd so if we could get a pick in there after trading down, we could make out with a couple of solid prospects.

Guys, we're not drafting until the 5th round. Dubas will move our first to get rid of Murray and sign Korpisalo and O'Reilly.

Yeah, no. It won't.

UFA market sucks. Trade market sucks. And there are a lot of teams that need goaltending.

 

[Damisoph]

I would rather just keep the first tbh.

I hope they identify the guys they want and work some magic to trade back and get more picks to get more prospects. The 30th ranked guy doesn't move the needle much more than the 60th ranked guy, even in this deep of a draft

 

[Racer88]

I also think if Dubas survives the purge he will certainly trade the first pick

 

[TMLAM34]

I doubt he drops or we trade up, but Nate Danielson would be a fantastic pick.

 

[Thornbury]

Guys, we're not drafting until the 5th round. Dubas will move our first to get rid of Murray and sign Korpisalo and O'Reilly.

That's absurd. To get rid of two years of Mrzek at $3.5 we traded down 13 slots in the last draft. It won't cost an outright first to dump Murray. A buy out could be a possibility, but without Muzzin (5.5) and Kerfoot (3.5), hopefully we'll have the cap flexibility to resign Bunting and O'Reilly.

 

[Morgs]

I hope they identify the guys they want and work some magic to trade back and get more picks to get more prospects. The 30th ranked guy doesn't move the needle much more than the 60th ranked guy, even in this deep of a draft

Yeah I think if they don't get their guy, they'll move back. Apparently it was obvious on draft day 2022 that their guy was Öhgren (my personal fav), and when Minny took him they decided to use the pick to get out of the Mrazek contract.

I doubt he drops or we trade up, but Nate Danielson would be a fantastic pick.

Don't think I've ever been so sure that if a guy drops to us that we'd take him. He's got Dubas-type pick written all over him.

 

[CantLoseWithMatthews]

Gavin Brindley is my guy. What a game for him tonight
One of those players that has everything in spades except size, and will be hopefully available at our pick because of it

 

[diehardleafsfan9878]

What does everyone think of this guy?

Elmeri Laakso - Stats, Contract, Salary & More

Eliteprospects.com hockey player profile of Elmeri Laakso, 2004-07-19 Joensuu, FIN Finland. Most recently in the Liiga with SaiPa. Complete player biography and stats.

www.eliteprospects.com

11 points in 32 games in Liiga

 

[SeaOfBlue]

What does everyone think of this guy?

Elmeri Laakso - Stats, Contract, Salary & More

Eliteprospects.com hockey player profile of Elmeri Laakso, 2004-07-19 Joensuu, FIN Finland. Most recently in the Liiga with SaiPa. Complete player biography and stats.

www.eliteprospects.com

11 points in 32 games in Liiga

Pass. He is maybe bottom pairing if everything works out, and that bottom pairing would be no better than guys we routinely find in later rounds or in free agency. I haven't watched him this year, but last year he didn't have anything that stood out and needed work on a bunch of things to even get to bottom pairing upside.

If nobody drafts him and he continues to progress well over the next 3 or 4 years, then we can re-evaluate.

 

[Cor]

Guys, we're not drafting until the 5th round. Dubas will move our first to get rid of Murray and sign Korpisalo and O'Reilly.

Why would we give up a first to trade Murray when he’s been half decent this year and his buyout cost is barely anything

 

[Kiwi]

I'm not even looking at the guys potentially available around the #30 pick

I'd put money on us trading down so I'm thinking mid to back of the 2nd and early 3rd?

Those are the guys I'm looking through

 

[SeaOfBlue]

I'm not even looking at the guys potentially available around the #30 pick

I'd put money on us trading down so I'm thinking mid to back of the 2nd and early 3rd?

Those are the guys I'm looking through

We'd need to pick up a pair of picks in the top 75 if we are moving down from ~30 to the mid-2nd.

 

[nuck]

A goalie for a change (Hrabel perhaps) or possibly C Charlie Stramel from Wisconsin, it kind of depends how far the Bruins go. I don't like Danielson as much as some but he will be gone by 25. I like Otto Stenberg so of the guys I think will be there when the Leafs pick he's is my guy. This was a good year to retain #30. Good on Kyle.

 

[Kiwi]

We'd need to pick up a pair of picks in the top 75 if we are moving down from ~30 to the mid-2nd.

#40-#55 + #65-#75 for #30 is how I'd imagine it would look

 

[RunItBackAgain]

Why would we give up a first to trade Murray when he’s been half decent this year and his buyout cost is barely anything

2.7M in our cap crunch year is not barely anything. But I agree he's been half decent

 

[Thornbury]

Why would we give up a first to trade Murray when he’s been half decent this year and his buyout cost is barely anything

Agreed, worst case scenario is you retain a portion of Murray's salary and move him for a mid to late round pick.

A goalie for a change (Hrabel perhaps) or possibly C Charlie Stramel from Wisconsin, it kind of depends how far the Bruins go. I don't like Danielson as much as some but he will be gone by 25. I like Otto Stenberg so of the guys I think will be there when the Leafs pick he's is my guy. This was a good year to retain #30. Good on Kyle.

I don't want to take a goalie with our first. We finally have organizational depth in goal with Woll, Hildeby and the two Russians.

 

[nuck]

Why would we give up a first to trade Murray when he’s been half decent this year and his buyout cost is barely anything

Not sure he has any positive trade value as an injury prone goalie who continues to get injured but not a 1st to move him for sure. Prior to the Ottawa game his 2023 was a debacle but his resume is enough that it definitely isn't a Mrazek situation. I do think that they have to commit to Woll as the #2 next year so MM is gone somewhere no matter what. A couple more good starts could still restore some more shine and even if not, the buyout number is doable as you say.

If they retain the $700k the first year buyout would cost basically a Mrazek salary for a guy with way more potential and with only a year left rather than two so that pushes and negative trade cost way down. Of course it would be nice if Ottawa wasn't a just a blip and he showed us the Nov-Dec Murray. That guy would be a playoff asset and cheap to move after the Cup is wo.

 

[nuck]

Agreed, worst case scenario is you retain a portion of Murray's salary and move him for a mid to late round pick.


I don't want to take a goalie with our first. We finally have organizational depth in goal with Woll, Hildeby and the two Russians.

It depends where they see the actual potential of those Euro goalies. There are a ton of players with good numbers at lower levels, but the Russians are playing in sub ECHL leagues and Hildeby's numbers are not close to the smaller sample of his draft year. I'm not writing them off but I don't think the organization has them pegged as any kind of a solution without a ton of further growth. If they took Hrabel in the 1st it would be because he is a guy with a legit NHL upside and it would indicate they probably aren't as sure of the org depth as you are or they think he is a lot bigger talent then you do. If they think he is BPA or perhaps best goalie they have had a whiff at since Rask then they need to do it.