Prospect Info: 2023 NHL Draft - Potential Selection Discussion

[LaPlante94]

Dubas won’t be here.

Oh he will be. If we fail again Keefe will be gone before Dubas.

 

[Superstar]

Ladies and gentlemen, scouting in a nutshell.

View attachment 681548

I think the guy is looking for his glasses...

 

[Dayjobdave]

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

Yeah it’s tough to get our hopes up.

The worst part is if the Leafs keep the pick until draft day, then we sit all Friday night getting stoked based on whos left, just to have them move the pick when their turn comes around.

 

[RoadWarrior]

Oh he will be. If we fail again Keefe will be gone before Dubas.

Dubas isn’t under contract past June.

 

[Peasy]

I know a lot of people have said they don't want a goalie, but if Milic is still otb with their 5th round pick i would consider heavily taking him. Was really impressed with him during the WJC and he has done really well in the WHL this year and has been dominate so far in the playoffs.

Hes already 2 years further along than a first year eligible goalie, and could even join the marlies next season if Woll gets an NHL spot.

 

[Leaf Fans]

The new GM is going to dump the first round pick to unload Murray’s contract.

What new GM? Why would they do that when they can buy him out cheeply?

 

[francis246]

What new GM? Why would they do that when they can buy him out cheeply?

it's not cheaply the second year of the buyout would be a big hit on the salary cap. Year 2 we'd be hit with a 2 million cap penalty.

Keep the pick, try and add a player on our roster to move him out with

 

[Nineteen67]

What new GM? Why would they do that when they can buy him out cheeply?

Cap hit to buy him out is600 k next year and 2 mill the year after.

Let him go on LTIR

 

[Leaf Fans]

Cap hit to buy him out is600 k next year and 2 mill the year after.

Let him go on LTIR

If he is injured - sure, but no GM is going to use a first to get rid of the contract - new or not.

 

[kb]

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.

This take is old, and so out of touch with reality that I hate to see people reading this crap.

Mrazek had 2 years and cost the Leafs 13 spots in the draft....and he BLOWS when healthy.

Far cry from Murray's situation.

 

[Menzinger]

This take is old, and so out of touch with reality that I hate to see people reading this crap.

Mrazek had 2 years and cost the Leafs 13 spots in the draft....and he BLOWS when healthy.

Far cry from Murray's situation.

Yep. I'm surprised at the assumption that Murray would cost more or even close to the same given the term difference. If they need to pay to move Murray it'll be around what they got for him in the first place - a mid round pick or something of equivalent value at wordtn

 

[horner]

Jacob Julien C 6' 3" 170 lbs
A late bloomer
As a london knights I have been watching him alot wasn't even rated for the draft at the beginning of the yr
Really skates well for a big player has a good shot .
He will probably be a late rd pick.
I see huge upside in this player.
London Junior Knight
41 gp 19 goals
London Knight
Regular season
40 gp 9 g 7 a 15 pts
Playoffs
5 gp 3 pts

 

[LaPlante94]

Anyone think Michkov drops into the 10-20 range? Guys probably 2nd best player in the draft but I'm sure teams might pass on him for some reason. Probably like a 1% chance but we'd be stupid not to go all in and trade up if he does right?

 

[hockeywiz542]

 

[Jacquestrapless]

So Leafs draft 28 unless traded.

Anybody got some names I can research, that is, look up their point totals on EliteProspects?

 

[New Liskeard]

So Leafs draft 28 unless traded.

Anybody got some names I can research, that is, look up their point totals on EliteProspects?

Thought I had seen an article today that the Boston pick would be no higher than 24th? Hard to see how the Boston first slots when there are still many teams that will be eliminated throughout the playoffs.

 

[mikeyz]

So Leafs draft 28 unless traded.

Anybody got some names I can research, that is, look up their point totals on EliteProspects?

Is that Boston's pick? How is it not 24th or lower? They got eliminated in the 1st round.

 

[blue stick]

 

[Canada4Gold]

Thought I had seen an article today that the Boston pick would be no higher than 24th? Hard to see how the Boston first slots when there are still many teams that will be eliminated throughout the playoffs.

Is that Boston's pick? How is it not 24th or lower? They got eliminated in the 1st round.

The final 4 teams get 29-32, all the other playoff teams are slotted 17-28 based on record with the caveat that division winners go last if they didn't make the final 4. Losing in round 1 or round 2 has no draft distinction. Boston was the best team that didn't make the final 4 so their pick is 28th

 

[supermann_98]

So Leafs draft 28 unless traded.

Anybody got some names I can research, that is, look up their point totals on EliteProspects?

Riley Heidt C
Lukas Dragicevic RD
Koehn Ziemmer RW

My 3 favorites around the 25th-28th range

 

[New Liskeard]

The final 4 teams get 29-32, all the other playoff teams are slotted 17-28 based on record with the caveat that division winners go last if they didn't make the final 4. Losing in round 1 or round 2 has no draft distinction. Boston was the best team that didn't make the final 4 so their pick is 28th

Thanks

 

[Mitch nylander]

Obviously you go with the BPA. But I would rather pick a defender at this point as Brodie/Giordano will age out and Sandin is no longer here.

Guys I like at that range on defence:

• Mikhail Gulyayev - Great skating dman who has produced well offensively.
• Oliver Bonk - Solid reliable dman with a safer game. Great hockey IQ, and makes smart outlet passes.
• Tom Willander- Quick, creative two way dman.

 

[SeaOfBlue]

Obviously you go with the BPA. But I would rather pick a defender at this point as Brodie/Giordano will age out and Sandin is no longer here.

Guys I like at that range on defence:

• Mikhail Gulyayev - Great skating dman who has produced well offensively.
• Oliver Bonk - Solid reliable dman with a safer game. Great hockey IQ, and makes smart outlet passes.
• Tom Willander- Quick, creative two way dman.

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.

 

[SeaOfBlue]

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.

 

[AcerComputer]

So Leafs draft 28 unless traded.

Anybody got some names I can research, that is, look up their point totals on EliteProspects?

Almost certainly we trade down to replenish some of the lost picks. We may even have to do it to unload Matt Murray.