GDT: 2023 NHL ENTRY DRAFT June 28 and 29. First round and then rounds 2-7. (ESPN, NHL network, SN, TVA sports 4pm and 8am Pacific Time)

[Grinner]

Looks like we'll be in a good position at 36 to draft another good prospect
Ethan Gauthier RW
Kasper Haltunnen RW
Riley Heidt C/LW
Etienne Morin D
Jakub Dovrak D
Maxim Strbak D

In no particular order.
I'm pulling for Strbak

 

[NiWa]

LW: Cristall -> BPA, but Grier may stay away due to 5'10 with 'normal' compete levels
C: Heidt -> Weak Compete, Grier will likely stay clear.
RD: Dragicevic (weaker skater, but good playmaker thanks to high hockey IQ & good shot. Needs to improve defensively for NHL), Akey
LD: Cagnoni (small, but good skater, hockey sense and shot), Morin (fantastic shot, good PMD, but defense needs refinement).
RW: Brindley (undersized, but great skating and very high compete), Ziemmer (weak skater w/ pro frame, good playmaking and shot), Gauthier (good playmaker with great compete)
G: Hrabal

 

[STL Shark]

Smith better be working on his Defensive game or he's gonna run into problems once he becomes NHL ready. I give the pick a B- only due to the fact that it wasn't an obvious reach. I'm also liking how he handles himself in interviews and such, he just comes across as someone who is going to become a fan favorite and someone who will be heavily involved in the community, which is great. Michkov is gonna wind up the better player for sure.

Musty was a Home Run. A+ pick there.

"Obvious reach" as every team identified the 4 centers as the first 4 picks in the draft. This is nonsense.

Dang, I think Grier is opening himself up to criticism by even talking about ‘concerns’ re: Michkov. Just deflect and say he’s a great player, but we’re really excited to have Smith. I think he could’ve answered the question without bringing down Michkov.

So just ignore the question asked? Yeah, that makes the situation even better optically.

 

[mogambomoroo]

BPA at #36 (probably a forward) imo when there is some gems still left. As important as it is to get very good goaltending and defence, i think if we gather a respectable forward group, it's easier to focus on defence and goaltending after that. Of course there could be an argument that defence and goaltending need a longer time to develop, but if there is not a sure fire D or G, you draft the F.

I'm sure MG has a good plan and we are going to see a trade up at some point, probably with multiple late round draft picks.

 

[weastern bias]

Work is so f***ing insane right now I'm only half checked in

Glad we got the guys with the funny names, bodes well for the future

 

[ISharkted]

Yeaaaah… but I’d honestly rather have Smith. We have time to find our future goalie and the potential of a flashy 1C is too good to pass up.

Musty - Smith - We’ll See
Eklund - We’ll See - Guschin
Lund - Bystedt - we’ll see

…is a good start for the future!

So far, really happy with Grier.

This team desperately needs top 6 talent and as you’ve noted in your lines, we now potentially have two top line players. Smith we’ve all talked about a lot, but from what I’ve read, Musty is on the very young side for his draft year, and I’ve seen him ranked as high as 11th best prospect in the entire draft class. Can’t wait to see prospect camp and we still have a ton of picks to go. There are still guys out there with second line potential, and goalies obviously have not been touched so we’d get our pick. Or go forward and snag a potential second line wing.

 

[OffSydes]

Sounds like he made it clear he would not come over for some teams and the Sharks were probably one of them. Still I blame MG for not picking him

 

[Hodge]

So what does our updated top 10 prospect ranking look like heading into day 2? I think I would peg it at something like:

1. Smith
2. Eklund
3. Mukhamadullin
4. Bystedt
5. Musty
6. Thrun
7. Lund
8. Gushchin
9. Bordeleau
10. Havelid

Hopefully we pick up 1-2 more guys who belong on this list today.

 

[LadyStanley]

Sharks Hockey Digest dropped a number of podcast episodes overnight. SJHN and Locked on Sharks as well.

 

[ISharkted]

So what does our updated top 10 prospect ranking look like heading into day 2? I think I would peg it at something like:

1. Smith
2. Eklund
3. Mukhamadullin
4. Bystedt
5. Musty
6. Thrun
7. Lund
8. Gushchin
9. Bordeleau
10. Havelid

Hopefully we pick up 1-2 more guys who belong on this list today.

I agree with this list and most important is how far we’ve come in terms of prospect quality and bullpen depth in such a short time under GMMG’s leadership.

 

[Kcoyote3]

Good morning everybody

 

[Alaskanice]

Good morning everybody
View attachment 723418

Good morning to you. Any buzz going on in the air??

 

[Kcoyote3]

Good morning to you. Any buzz going on in the air??

People are saying lots of pick swapping going to go down but that’s what people speculated last night too lol real buzz not too much yet

 

[matt trick]

There's a lot of interesting guys at this point in the draft.

As always, lots of talent but each player has a clear flaw. Dragicevic, Cristall, Hrabal, Heidt look to have plenty of upside, but all three have reasonably high bust upside as well. Feel like in Smith and Musty we got two pretty high upside, lower (not no) risk top 6 forwards. I wouldn't mind going for Cristall. If his skating is fixed he could be a high end top 6 player. Very risky though.

Wonder if we can package both thirds for a late 2nd so we can maybe grab a goalie. I swear I'm allergic to sharks third round picks.

 

[Hodge]

I agree with this list and most important is how far we’ve come in terms of prospect quality and bullpen depth in such a short time under GMMG’s leadership.

Yup, 6 of the top 7 brought in by Grier in less than 12 months.

 

[likewall32]

Yup, 6 of the top 7 brought in by Grier in less than 12 months.

As someone who really only knows prospects based on what this board says (for better or for worse), do you think that tidbit speaks more to Mike Grier's ability in his year at the helm, or how terrible things were when Doug Wilson left?

 

[Hodge]

As someone who really only knows prospects based on what this board says (for better or for worse), do you think that tidbit speaks more to Mike Grier's ability in his year at the helm, or how terrible things were when Doug Wilson left?

Little column A, little column B. Essentially all of the 2018 through 2021 picks except Eklund and Gushchin falling flat certainly makes the more recent picks rank higher in a list like that:

 

[llamanby]

As someone who really only knows prospects based on what this board says (for better or for worse), do you think that tidbit speaks more to Mike Grier's ability in his year at the helm, or how terrible things were when Doug Wilson left?

Yes

 

[Levie]

As someone who really only knows prospects based on what this board says (for better or for worse), do you think that tidbit speaks more to Mike Grier's ability in his year at the helm, or how terrible things were when Doug Wilson left?

I think there's no denying that the previous 3-4 years the Sharks were one of, if not the worst, drafting teams in the league.

 

[LadyStanley]

As someone who really only knows prospects based on what this board says (for better or for worse), do you think that tidbit speaks more to Mike Grier's ability in his year at the helm, or how terrible things were when Doug Wilson left?

Rusanowsky talked with scout Pat Funk and this was one of the questions discussed in podcast.

 

[Juxtaposer]

So what does our updated top 10 prospect ranking look like heading into day 2? I think I would peg it at something like:

1. Smith
2. Eklund
3. Mukhamadullin
4. Bystedt
5. Musty
6. Thrun
7. Lund
8. Gushchin
9. Bordeleau
10. Havelid

Hopefully we pick up 1-2 more guys who belong on this list today.

That top-6 is suddenly looking pretty respectable. Still a ways to go but I don’t think we’ve ever had a group of prospects with that much potential in the fifteen years I’ve been a die-hard Sharks fan.

As much as I love Smith, I see him as the Nico Hischier of our rebuild (not as a player comp, but as the first core piece with a Hughes/Nemec still to come).

Eklund-XXX-XXX
Musty-Smith-XXX
XXX-Bystedt-XXX

Thrun-XXX
Mukhamadullin-XXX

 

[Hodge]

That top-6 is suddenly looking pretty respectable. Still a ways to go but I don’t think we’ve ever had a group of prospects with that much potential in the fifteen years I’ve been a die-hard Sharks fan.

As much as I love Smith, I see him as the Nico Hischier of our rebuild (not as a player comp, but as the first core piece with a Hughes/Nemec still to come).

Eklund-XXX-XXX
Musty-Smith-XXX
XXX-Bystedt-XXX

Thrun-XXX
Mukhamadullin-XXX

Getting either Celebrini or Levshunov next year would be huge.

 

[Jargon]

That top-6 is suddenly looking pretty respectable. Still a ways to go but I don’t think we’ve ever had a group of prospects with that much potential in the fifteen years I’ve been a die-hard Sharks fan.

As much as I love Smith, I see him as the Nico Hischier of our rebuild (not as a player comp, but as the first core piece with a Hughes/Nemec still to come).

Eklund-XXX-XXX
Musty-Smith-XXX
XXX-Bystedt-XXX

Thrun-XXX
Mukhamadullin-XXX

You forgot future all-star, Daniil Guschin.

 

[Juxtaposer]

Getting either Celebrini or Levshunov next year would be huge.

Agreed. Next year looks like the year to get a D (I like Levshunov best so far but who knows how the year goes) unless we get lucky and win Celebrini. But this is the Sharks, we all know that’s not going to happen.

You forgot future all-star, Daniil Guschin.

Yunno, it’s not that I’m writing off Gushchin by any means, it’s just hard for me to place him in a future Sharks lineup. He doesn’t have first line upside, he doesn’t quite fit with Musty/Smith stylistically (I’d prefer to have them get a more hard-nosed forechecker), and he doesn’t have the defensive game I’d like for a bottom-6 guy. But I could also be okay with him on a soft-minutes offensive third line with Bystedt if our future franchise C has a strong defensive game. Too hard to predict, so I left him off the roster for now.

 

[PacificOceanPotion]

1. Smith
2. Eklund
3. Mukhamadullin
4. Musty
5. Bystedt
6. Laroque
7. Lund
8. Thrun
9. Bordeleau
10. Guschin

Love your list Hodge. This would be mine. Just a personal preference for Laroque over Havelid. I put him up that high at 6 because I really feel like he’s gonna be a stud and was a steal. Havelid has a ways to go imo. I love Guschin and Bords but rounding out a pretty solid top 10 prospects isn’t anything to feel bad about. Hopefully they continue to develop and come off this board for good sooner than later.