2023 NHL Entry Draft

[SlafySZN]

Smith & Leonard ready for the U18!

 

[Jabba11]

Smith has a punchable face...looks like a brat. Prefer Benson, thank you.

 

[MrNasty]

I can't wait for May 8!!!!!

Who would you pick? (if we don't win the lottery for Bedard or Fantilli or Leo Carlsson... ; Michkov could be a great pick but also a very complicated one...and one that involves a lot of waiting..maybe?).

Reinbacher (videos of him are pretty impressive, imo)
Smith (any comparisons to any current or ex-NHLers?)
Benson (another Zach Parise??).
Dvorsky (Slafkovsky-Dvorsky-Mesar)
Leonard? (any comparisons with NHLers?)
Yager?
Moore?

Tough one, but maybe I'd go for Reinbacher (or Smith...or Benson!). Dvorsky...maybe? Or...maybe the Habs make a deal with Winnipeg for P-L Dubois?? (or this is with the Florida pick?).

These are the player comparisons that Pronman used for these guys

Reinbacher : Pesce
Smith : Kuznetsov
Benson : Marchessault
Dvorsky : Strome
Leonard : Lehkonen
Yager :Konecny
Moore : Newhook

Certainly not a consensus here but he has Danielson @5, But @8, Honzek @10

 

[WeThreeKings]

Smith has a punchable face...looks like a brat. Prefer Benson, thank you.

Tbf Benson with that Mullett looks punchable too

 

[Ozmodiar]

That's fair.

It's some PTSD from the Habs being smurfs for so long and getting manhandled for years too.

Put him on a line with Dach and Slaf or Anderson (or Dubois) and he’ll be fine.

I wouldn’t shy away from the small players if they have top line skill / potential.

Dont look now but KK finished his season with 18 goals and 44 points as a defensive 2C, not exactly flaking out.

the Habs are gonna want more than 3rd line production from this top 5 pick. Another bad pick like KK would be a disaster.

 

[Sam de Mtl]

You know they say that all teams are created equal, but you look at us and you look at Anaheim and you can see that statement is not true. See, normally if you go one on one with another team, you got a 50/50 chance of drafting Bedard. But we're genetic freaks and we're not normal! So you got a 25%, AT BEST, at drafting Bedard. Then you add Chicago, Columbus and San Jose to the mix, your chances of winning drastic go down. See the 5 way at the 2023 NHL Draft lottery, you got a 20 chance of winning, but we, we got a 80 chance of winning, because Chicago, Columbus and Chicago KNOW they can't beat us and they're not even gonna try!
So Anaheim, you take your 20 chance, minus our 25% chance and you got an -5 chance of winning at the 2023 NHL Draft lottery. But then you take our 75% chance of winning, if we was to go one on one, and then add 80 per cents, we got 155 chance of winning at the 2023 NHL Draft lottery. See Ducks, the numbers don't lie, and they spell disaster for you at the 2023 NHL Draft lottery.

Numbers don't lie.

Congrats, your post got more impressive as it went along.

 

[FrankMTL]

Smith & Leonard ready for the U18!

View attachment 688231

Ryan Leonard looks like a hockey player

 

[morhilane]

the Habs are gonna want more than 3rd line production from this top 5 pick. Another bad pick like KK would be a disaster.

Outside of Bedard and Fantilli, no one else taken in the top 5 should be put in the NHL until they are 20-21 years old with a big year of adaption after that. Which brings them to 21-22 years old and usually when prospects start to put things together unless they are generational. We saw it with Dach and Caufield this season.

And Carolina saw it with KK, this is his 22 years old season and he's been on a 59 pts per 82 games pace since January.

 

[Jaynki]

Man, we are gonna get an excellent prospects aren't we. Its exciting.

Benson would be such a fit. Reinbacher also. Smith would be an exciting offensive player. Michkov would be a very exciting risk. Maybe one of Carlsson or Fantilli will fall to us. Maybe we win the lottery.

If we acquire PLD and draft Benson, i think our offense would be set for a while.

GHG!

 

[waitin425]

I decided to do a top 10 mock. Sorry guys, I ran a tankathon and nothing changed in the order. 5th it is.

1

Connor Bedard
https://www.tankathon.com/nhl/players/connor-bedard
Obvious pick for obvious reasons

2

Adam Fantilli
https://www.tankathon.com/nhl/players/adam-fantilli
Chicago Steel to the Chicago Blackhawks. The replacement for Toews

3

Leo Carlsson

Columbus gets the big rangy skilled centre they covet

4

David Reinbacher

Somebody has got to go off the board, and I think it is San Jose. Their defence is aging out and they have very little in the pipeline. A shock that they didn't take Matvei, but I have alterior motives here that you will see below!

5

Matvei Michkov

Habs run to the podium and select the second best player in this draft....by a hair. Patience is a virtue my friends and we will have to be patient waiting for Michkov to come over. With Suzuki, Dach and hopefully PLD in the fold, we are set down the middle. Michkov and Caufield on separate lines gives us an elite scoring punch that is spread out and tough to defend against.

6

Zach Benson
https://www.tankathon.com/nhl/players/zach-benson
Benson simply pairs well with Cooley and Guenther. Becomes an elite scoring threat for Arizona. They could have used Smith here for a second top tier centre, but I have a feeling they will stand firm with Cooley, Barret Hayton (who is starting to emerge) and Geekie as their third line centre of the future.


7

Will Smith

Philly is more than happy to acquire the top ranked American prospect.

8

Dalibor Dvorsky
https://www.tankathon.com/nhl/players/dalibor-dvorsky
Caps secure a centre for the future


9

Oliver Moore

Seems like a Red Wings kind of player. They are building something nice and Moore has high upside


10

Eduard Sale - Simply the BPA at this point.


Bonus pick.......

via FLORIDA

Hard to predict what happens with this pick. Part of me hopes we trade this in a package for PLD. If we have it around 17....I would take aim squarely at Axel Sandin Pellikka. Reinbacher has separated himself from the rest of the defencemen in this draft, but I would still be looking to score a top D-man. Another option, assuming we don't trade it for PLD is take the best centre available. Yager....if he falls, could be this drafts Matthew Barzal. A 60-70 pts speedster. I'd take that.

 

[Hannibal]

Benson or Leonard for me. No question.

And a Dubois trade and i’ll would be a happy camper!

 

[MarkovsKnee]

Ryan Leonard looks like a hockey player

He definitely does.

 

[Hope Of Glory]

Let's not underrate the fact that we also clinched the 37th pick. Should have plenty of good players left.

What are your top candidates for the pick?

For me: One of the goalie if still there (Bjarn, Hrabal, maybe Fowler), Sawchyn, Dower-Nilsson, Akey, Willander. Maybe Rehkopf.

I'm assuming Morin and Lardis will be gone by then otherwise they'd be on the list.

 

[MarkovsKnee]

Let's not underrate the fact that we also clinched the 37th pick. Should have plenty of good players left.

What are your top candidates for the pick?

For me: One of the goalie if still there (Bjarn, Hrabal, maybe Fowler), Sawchyn, Dower-Nilsson, Akey, Willander. Maybe Rehkopf.

I'm assuming Morin and Lardis will be gone by then otherwise they'd be on the list.

Yeah, tough to know who will be there:

Jacob Fowler (G)
Jesse Kiiskinen (W)
Oskar Fisker Molgaard (C)
Felix Nilsson (C)
Beau Akey (RD)
Plus whoever falls out of 1st round (Charlie Stramel?)

 

[KevSkillz4]

Ryan Leonard looks like a hockey player

He is very very good. Close what Zach Benson bring on the table. Same type of hard work and talent. 1st liner potential, for sure. I'm a big fan of him. Benson, Smith and Leonard are my favorite at 5-6-7 for Habs. I will understand if they go with different direction, except the only player that I yould be upset it's Daniil But.... lol. If they go with Yager, Dvorsky, Moore or Reinbacher aswell... I will be 100% confident what scouts see on these players. Yager will be my favorite pick between Dvorsky and Reinbacher, for sure.

 

[SwiftyHab]

You know they say that all teams are created equal, but you look at us and you look at Anaheim and you can see that statement is not true. See, normally if you go one on one with another team, you got a 50/50 chance of drafting Bedard. But we're genetic freaks and we're not normal! So you got a 25%, AT BEST, at drafting Bedard. Then you add Chicago, Columbus and San Jose to the mix, your chances of winning drastic go down. See the 5 way at the 2023 NHL Draft lottery, you got a 20 chance of winning, but we, we got a 80 chance of winning, because Chicago, Columbus and Chicago KNOW they can't beat us and they're not even gonna try!
So Anaheim, you take your 20 chance, minus our 25% chance and you got an -5 chance of winning at the 2023 NHL Draft lottery. But then you take our 75% chance of winning, if we was to go one on one, and then add 80 per cents, we got 155 chance of winning at the 2023 NHL Draft lottery. See Ducks, the numbers don't lie, and they spell disaster for you at the 2023 NHL Draft lottery.

So…the ducks are giving us a prospect?

 

[WeThreeKings]

Let's not underrate the fact that we also clinched the 37th pick. Should have plenty of good players left.

What are your top candidates for the pick?

For me: One of the goalie if still there (Bjarn, Hrabal, maybe Fowler), Sawchyn, Dower-Nilsson, Akey, Willander. Maybe Rehkopf.

I'm assuming Morin and Lardis will be gone by then otherwise they'd be on the list.

It really depends on the board, but here's my range from 30-40

Tom Willander​	RHD​	SHL​
Otto Stenberg​	C​	SHL​
Oskar Fisker Molgaard​	LW​	SHL​
Calum Ritchie​	C​	OHL​
Theo Lindstein​	LHD​	SHL​
Beau Akey​	RHD​	OHL​
Etienne Morin​	LHD​	QMJHL​
Aydar Suniev​	C​	BCHL​
Lenni Haamenaho​	RW​	Liiga​
Adam Gajan​	G​	USHL​
David Edstrom​	C​	SHL​

 

[Hope Of Glory]

Yeah, tough to know who will be there:

Jacob Fowler (G)
Jesse Kiiskinen (W)
Oskar Fisker Molgaard (C)
Felix Nilsson (C)
Beau Akey (RD)
Plus whoever falls out of 1st round (Charlie Stramel?)

It really depends on the board, but here's my range from 30-40


[TABLE=collapse]
[TR]
[TD]

Tom Willander​

[/TD]

[TD]

RHD​

[/TD]

[TD]

SHL​

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]

Otto Stenberg​

[/TD]

[TD]

C​

[/TD]

[TD]

SHL​

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]

Oskar Fisker Molgaard​

[/TD]

[TD]

LW​

[/TD]

[TD]

SHL​

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]

Calum Ritchie​

[/TD]

[TD]

C​

[/TD]

[TD]

OHL​

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]

Theo Lindstein​

[/TD]

[TD]

LHD​

[/TD]

[TD]

SHL​

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]

Beau Akey​

[/TD]

[TD]

RHD​

[/TD]

[TD]

OHL​

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]

Etienne Morin​

[/TD]

[TD]

LHD​

[/TD]

[TD]

QMJHL​

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]

Aydar Suniev​

[/TD]

[TD]

C​

[/TD]

[TD]

BCHL​

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]

Lenni Haamenaho​

[/TD]

[TD]

RW​

[/TD]

[TD]

Liiga​

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]

Adam Gajan​

[/TD]

[TD]

G​

[/TD]

[TD]

USHL​

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]

David Edstrom​

[/TD]

[TD]

C​

[/TD]

[TD]

SHL​

[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]

Those are all great picks, but yeah it's really hard to figure out who'll be there. Seems harder this year but I remember thinking the same thing last year too.

There's a ton of good options out there for sure. I think I'd swing for the fence with the guy with the highest upside, no matter the bust potential. We have so many quality prospects already, and safe ones too.

Maybe we should ask the opposite question: which pick would make you mad at 37?

 

[Mrb1p]

Put him on a line with Dach and Slaf or Anderson (or Dubois) and he’ll be fine.

I wouldn’t shy away from the small players if they have top line skill / potential.


the Habs are gonna want more than 3rd line production from this top 5 pick. Another bad pick like KK would be a disaster.

Hes 22 and you take what you get

 

[MarkovsKnee]

It really depends on the board, but here's my range from 30-40


[TABLE=collapse]
[TR]
[TD]

Tom Willander​

[/TD]

[TD]

RHD​

[/TD]

[TD]

SHL​

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]

Otto Stenberg​

[/TD]

[TD]

C​

[/TD]

[TD]

SHL​

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]

Oskar Fisker Molgaard​

[/TD]

[TD]

LW​

[/TD]

[TD]

SHL​

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]

Calum Ritchie​

[/TD]

[TD]

C​

[/TD]

[TD]

OHL​

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]

Theo Lindstein​

[/TD]

[TD]

LHD​

[/TD]

[TD]

SHL​

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]

Beau Akey​

[/TD]

[TD]

RHD​

[/TD]

[TD]

OHL​

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]

Etienne Morin​

[/TD]

[TD]

LHD​

[/TD]

[TD]

QMJHL​

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]

Aydar Suniev​

[/TD]

[TD]

C​

[/TD]

[TD]

BCHL​

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]

Lenni Haamenaho​

[/TD]

[TD]

RW​

[/TD]

[TD]

Liiga​

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]

Adam Gajan​

[/TD]

[TD]

G​

[/TD]

[TD]

USHL​

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]

David Edstrom​

[/TD]

[TD]

C​

[/TD]

[TD]

SHL​

[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]

Yeah, that looks good. I have Hameenaho as a late 2nd rounder. And I'm not sure Stramel or Ritchie falls to 2nd, but it's definitely not unthinkable that they do too.

Gajan is definitely going 2nd round.

Willander is now projected to go 1st round.

I've been hoping Montreal could pick up another 2nd around 50-ish range. Don't think it happens now.

Take a player with our pick, goalie with the 50-ish pick, OR get a late 1st to pair with our high 2nd.

We need another pick in that 25-50 range, imo.

 

[waitin425]

It really depends on the board, but here's my range from 30-40


[TABLE=collapse]
[TR]
[TD]

Tom Willander​

[/TD]

[TD]

RHD​

[/TD]

[TD]

SHL​

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]

Otto Stenberg​

[/TD]

[TD]

C​

[/TD]

[TD]

SHL​

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]

Oskar Fisker Molgaard​

[/TD]

[TD]

LW​

[/TD]

[TD]

SHL​

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]

Calum Ritchie​

[/TD]

[TD]

C​

[/TD]

[TD]

OHL​

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]

Theo Lindstein​

[/TD]

[TD]

LHD​

[/TD]

[TD]

SHL​

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]

Beau Akey​

[/TD]

[TD]

RHD​

[/TD]

[TD]

OHL​

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]

Etienne Morin​

[/TD]

[TD]

LHD​

[/TD]

[TD]

QMJHL​

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]

Aydar Suniev​

[/TD]

[TD]

C​

[/TD]

[TD]

BCHL​

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]

Lenni Haamenaho​

[/TD]

[TD]

RW​

[/TD]

[TD]

Liiga​

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]

Adam Gajan​

[/TD]

[TD]

G​

[/TD]

[TD]

USHL​

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]

David Edstrom​

[/TD]

[TD]

C​

[/TD]

[TD]

SHL​

[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]

What happened with Ritchie? A top 10 pick at the start of the season. Has it really been that bad?

 

[Hope Of Glory]

Yeah, that looks good. I have Hameenaho as a late 2nd rounder. And I'm not sure Stramel or Ritchie falls to 2nd, but it's definitely not unthinkable that they do too.

Gajan is definitely going 2nd round.

Willander is now projected to go 1st round.

I've been hoping Montreal could pick up another 2nd around 50-ish range. Don't think it happens now.

Take a player with our pick, goalie with the 50-ish pick, OR get a late 1st to pair with our high 2nd.

We need another pick in that 25-50 range, imo.

We're already full staffed on F, D and G for next year, without even having to count on rookies making the team. And we have so many decent/good prospects in the system that we might have a hard time developping them all at the same time. We definitely have assets to make a move, for a pick or a player. Or both.

 

[BergevinBurner]

Smith has a punchable face...looks like a brat. Prefer Benson, thank you.

I'm not the only 1 that sees it then lol.
He has a Marner thing going on and that might be enough reason to avoid him

 

[WeThreeKings]

What happened with Ritchie? A top 10 pick at the start of the season. Has it really been that bad?

Yeah, his production really didn't hit another level this year.

For all the "Smith's motor".. Ritchie just really is uninvolved almost every where. He's like Joe Colborne if people remember, someone who has nice tools, frame, etc. but just doesn't seem to get it.

Middle 6 center if things go well, but I can't shake that his perimeter play will frustrate teams.

 

[Egresch]

Let's not underrate the fact that we also clinched the 37th pick. Should have plenty of good players left.

What are your top candidates for the pick?

For me: One of the goalie if still there (Bjarn, Hrabal, maybe Fowler), Sawchyn, Dower-Nilsson, Akey, Willander. Maybe Rehkopf.

I'm assuming Morin and Lardis will be gone by then otherwise they'd be on the list.

Maxim Strbak is a good candidate for that spot. RHD with good size and skill set. Steadily improving over last couple seasons, I would be really surprised if does not make it to NHL.