2023 NHL Entry Draft

[Addik04]

If they take a forward, it's almost certainly one of those 2, or Michkov. Reinbacher seems like a real possibility.

I can't remember the exact quote, but a Habs scout said if taking him (Slaf) now means not picking for size later, let's do it.

Now, I can't remember if he specifically mentioned the 22 draft, or not, but seems to make sense.

If I am not mistaken, it was Chris Boucher, director of hockey analytics.

 

[Habs Icing]

Would have ended 2nd in points behind Suzuki...just sayin'.

2nd in points on a team that finished 5 OA in the lottery run. Okay! And you really think he would have as many points on the Habs as he had with Carolina? There were more offensive weapons there that he could leech off.

 

[Jaynki]

Yes but Smith bring something different that what we have with the Habs

Yes absolutely. I am not trying to argue Dvorsky over Smith. I am trying to argue Dvorsky as a legit, solid option at 5. To me they both have upside as top 6C with potential for true 1C. They botth have red flagd and things to improve on. They both have a nice floor where as we can see Dvorsky more as a middle six player and Smith as a top 6 lw. Its a matter of preference at this point, i think they are in the same tier of prospects

 

[Paddy17]

Ideally I'd like to keep both the FLA pick and CGY pick. But for the 2025 version I believe we would need both CGY and FLA to be in the bottom 10 for us to get a top 10 pick out of it, and the odds of that happening are probably unlikely. So at that point it kind of becomes a time value calculation, do we prefer the 17th pick now or a 10-20 pick 2-3 years from now?

It would be great if we could keep both but not sure the feasibility of that, we'll see what HuGo can do (or if we even acquire Dubois at all).

Personally I slightly lean to keeping the FLA pick, we know with the depth in this draft we can get a real high quality forward (Heidt, Honzek, Perrault, Wood, Danielson, Cristall,). That player should be near ready by the time we even draft with the CGY pick, which we would have to wait another 2-3 years longer for that player. At that point we're talking up to 6 years from now that player is stepping in.

No, Florida only needs to miss the playoffs for us to have Calgary's pick by default, no matter where it lands, except 1.

 

[LesHabitants]

It ONLY happens if Ottawa wins the Bedard lottery. They can only move up 10 spots, so #2. If we then win the 2nd lottery, we can't just take their win away, so Montreal gets the next best spot #3. Anaheim stays at #1.

The chance of that happening is 0.3%.

So you're saying there's a chance.

 

[Sam I Am]

I’d prefer to grab Smith if he’s on the board as he’d be a more natural 1C in the future and push Suzuki down the lineup where he can be used more as the 2-way guy.

I think Dvorsky is a safeish pick, but it’s not the type of sexy pick fans like to see at #5. I’d be openly critical of the pick, if Smith/Benson/Reinbacher/Yager are still there.. which worst case we pick 7th? One will be there.

Smith before Dvorsky...agreed. The upside is Smith is just too high to pass up. But I wouldn't say the same about Benson or Yager who are

I’d prefer to grab Smith if he’s on the board as he’d be a more natural 1C in the future and push Suzuki down the lineup where he can be used more as the 2-way guy.

I think Dvorsky is a safeish pick, but it’s not the type of sexy pick fans like to see at #5. I’d be openly critical of the pick, if Smith/Benson/Reinbacher/Yager are still there.. which worst case we pick 7th? One will be there.

Smith over Dvorsky...okay. Smith's talent and upside would be hard to ignore. The other three--I am not so sure. Especially, Benson and Yager who are both small.

 

[SlafySZN]

Smith before Dvorsky...agreed. The upside is Smith is just too high to pass up. But I wouldn't say the same about Benson or Yager who are

Smith over Dvorsky...okay. Smith's talent and upside would be hard to ignore. The other three--I am not so sure. Especially, Benson and Yager who are both small.

Yager is 6’

 

[ReHabs]

Randomly got suggested this interview with Arpon Basu on YT. Pretty insightful comment he made regarding the Juraj Slafkovsky selection last year and how it might impact this year's draft.

I'm paraphrasing:
"They looked at this year's draft and saw that no one really had the same amount of size and skill that Slaf had. They probably had Cooley 2nd overall last year (mentions he can't confirm it) But they had him at 2 cause he had a dynamic element to him that differentiates him. Because this year (2022) is a down year, let's just take the rarest specimen and take a highly skilled guy next year."

So maybe hope is not lost that we try and go for Smith/Benson.

What does Basu know, really? He’s a stenographer with zero inside information or even interest to dig in and get the goods.

He’s speculating based on the same PR videos we’ve all seen.

 

[Pazucha]

There is too much talk about Dvorsky in this thread for no reason. The Habs are not picking another Slovak born player with their 6th-5th first round pick. That would only put more pressure on all 3 of them and the management. Getting Strbak, Honzek or Gajan is much more likely than Dvorsky. Don't see them picking Sale either.


I think both Sale and Dvorsky will most likely outperform whoever the Habs pick at 6th-7th that's just how the universe works...

 

[River Meadow]

There is too much talk about Dvorsky in this thread for no reason. The Habs are not picking another Slovak born player with their 6th-5th first round pick. That would only put more pressure on all 3 of them and the management. Getting Strbak, Honzek or Gajan is much more likely than Dvorsky. Don't see them picking Sale either.


I think both Sale and Dvorsky will most likely outperform whoever the Habs pick at 6th-7th that's just how the universe works...

Absolutely.

It'll be like a Filip Forsberg situation where people question pre-draft if he will be a scorer in NHL... only to end up crushing it.

 

[Mrb1p]

Ill say that the people that think Smith has much higher potential than Dvorsky are out to lunch. Both have top 6 potential with fringe top line potential. Smith has the Hands and playmaking to make it and Dvorsky has the two way game, goalscoring and inside game to make it.

They have very similar potential IMO.

Their floor is 3rd line specialist, their ceiling is top line.

Yes but Smith bring something different that what we have with the Habs

Not really. Suzuki is a better package than Smith. Similar playmaking, hands and much, much better shooter.

 

[26Mats]

It ONLY happens if Ottawa wins the Bedard lottery. They can only move up 10 spots, so #2. If we then win the 2nd lottery, we can't just take their win away, so Montreal gets the next best spot #3. Anaheim stays at #1.

The chance of that happening is 0.3%.

Similarly, the chance of Columbus (they're a team that might pass on Michkov) drafting 4th and us drafting 5th, is about 1%. Because for columbus to draft 4th and us to not move back from 5th, chicago and San Jose would have to win the lotteries. A lot of typing spent on a very unlikely scenario.

 

[26Mats]

If they take a forward, it's almost certainly one of those 2, or Michkov. Reinbacher seems like a real possibility.

I can't remember the exact quote, but a Habs scout said if taking him (Slaf) now means not picking for size later, let's do it.

Now, I can't remember if he specifically mentioned the 22 draft, or not, but seems to make sense.

It's a hard balance.

The problem is if you pick for size and that player (Slaf) busts, then you have to keep picking for size and potentially keep missing out on better players.

But you can't have all small players. Good thing we got Dach and hopefully Dubois is on the way.

 

[Playmaker09]

We can talk in circles about the stylistic differences between Dvorsky/Benson/Smith all day, but comparing apples to apples, why would anyone take Dvorsky over Yager and to a lesser extent Moore?

Dvorsky's not a better two-way player, stickhandler, or creator than either. He doesn't have a better shot than Yager, though it is better than Moore.
Both players can skate circles around him and will only improve as they fill out their frame while Dvorsky is leveraging his 200+lbs against 18 year olds to be effective.

 

[Rob Sense]

Dvorsky still has a chance of becoming a 1C, but I just feel that because his offensive tools are lacking, his ceiling is just lower than Smith's (although Smith has a lower floor).

For years, we keep drafting safer players, but I really think we need a high-offensive player to take us to the next step, and to me that's not Dvorsky.

we drafted Caufield...prototype high-offense player

 

[Sam I Am]

Yager is 6’

Yager is 5'11" and a whopping 166 lbs according to hockey db. Don't think he's going to be a physical beast. Dvorsky tips the scales at 201 lbs and he is still 17

If I'm going to pick a shrimp over Dvorsky, his name has got to be Michkov

 

[Sam I Am]

Yager is 5'11" and a whopping 166 lbs according to hockey db. Don't think he's going to be a physical beast. Dvorsky tips the scales at 201 lbs and he is still 17.

Smith is a big talent and is 6' 181 lbs. If he's availabe at 5, 6 or 7, I bite. But Yager? If the Habs pick a shrimp over Dvorsky, his name better be Michkov.

 

[1000eeer]

Who are your favorite prospects for later rounds (2th - 7th)?

After the 2th round, it's no man land for me..

 

[Michoulicious]

Not really. Suzuki is a better package than Smith. Similar playmaking, hands and much, much better shooter.

Disagree here.

Suzuki would have been picked top 5 in his draft if he was a "better package".

He had a good development for sure...

Smith has IMO better hands than Suzuki. He's way more creative as well (Suzuki on the PP is always the same curl at the blue line then shoot or cross seam pass) with the puck on his stick. He oozes talent, vision. Just needs to learn when to go for the flashy play and when to restrain himself a bit. Smith is also a better skater than Suzuki globally.

If Smith puts it together, he could become a first line offensive dynamo. Of course he could struggle and bust, but that can be said of almost any prospect.

If they were in the same draft, Smith would have been picked before Suzuki.

We'll see how he develops.

we drafted Caufield...prototype high-offense player

At #15 OA, it was kind of a no brainer... Had him at #5.

We could say they had almost no choice but to go with him at that point.

 

[NekkiChiconey]

Unfortunately, Dvorsky is getting a bad rep because of Grant, which causes people to overcompensate and drop him lower than he should be.

I was generally disappointed by his regular season statistics-wise, but he does seem to rise to the occasion and it sure looks like he wants to be "The Guy" in important situations. Thinking back, last year around the WJC, I would've been very happy to know we'd get a chance at picking Dvorsky in 2023. I'm still a fan of Benson first, then Smith, then Dvorsky/Reinbacher is a toss-up for me but objectively, all of them would be our best prospect right now.

If I'm looking at how Dvorsky would fit in our long-term top-6, I actually think he'd be best as a top-6 C, paired with Caufield and Suzuki. Dvorsky wouldn't be the main producer (see Bergeron with Marchand and Pastrnak) but his all-around game and above-average finishing would be tremendous for the other two. I do think that this is the best pathway to Suzuki being a sustainably dominant offensive force.

 

[Lockin17]

Hrbal will be falling in the draft , he's having a hard time in the U18.

Leonard and Perreault is killing it , love these 2 guys.

Leonard at #17 would be a real luck

 

[Seb]

Hrbal will be falling in the draft , he's having a hard time in the U18.

Leonard and Perreault is killing it , love these 2 guys.

Leonard at #17 would be a real luck

I thought he had a great game against the USA up until the 3rd and 4th goals. Would love to pick him in the 2nd round.

 

[WeThreeKings]

0:26, 0:35, 0:55, 2:14, 2:48, 3:10, 3:20 (2 on the same rush)

And that’s just to that point lol it’s throughout the video lol

He’s not Will Smith in regards to his hands and vision, but he’s still got nice hands and vision.

Alright, so I watched the entire video and paid attention to the time stamps you gave.

I think the discrepancy between what you are saying and what I am saying is that what you are describing as "nice hands" is his puck protection ability. Which I have already talked about being a high level and a hallmark of his play.

His hands themselves, even in Grant's biased text (he's not an elite dangler), aren't anything more than average. He uses what he does have for hands with his edges and big body to keep possession of the puck, but he is rarely manipulative with his hands, he tends to do most of his manipulations with his head fakes and hips.

What I'd really like to see is Dvorsky have a delay and hands game off of his shot, his shot is never faked for the most part, he's shooting even if it is going to be blocked. Not a bad strategy when he shoots as well as he does.

As far as vision, he makes the first play, he's not a multi layer playmaker, he's not threatening cross-seam or through layers of defenders. He wants to get the puck into the first teammate, in the first pocket of space, even if there may be another play off his puck protection, or deeper into the zone. This isn't against men either, this is his own age group.

The lack of those things is my critique but that doesn't mean everything else he brings to the ice can't make him a productive player, it just caps the offensive potential compared to someone like Smith who's offensive tools, IQ, vision and hands opens up more plays and makes more players dangerous around him.

Hrbal will be falling in the draft , he's having a hard time in the U18.

Leonard and Perreault is killing it , love these 2 guys.

Leonard at #17 would be a real luck

Hrabal improved his stock, if anything. He got tired and let in two bad goals late, but he was the only reason Czechia was close.

 

[Jack Skellington]

Dvorskys skating is real ugly to look at but his net front game and shooting are elite. I don't think he will be a primary puck carrier at the next level at all, which is fine. He won't sustain the same strength advantage at the next level that he has with juniors. Monahan is a really good comparison. He's a better shooter but his passing and IQ arent as good IMO. I wouldn't be too upset with him at 7, he'll be a good player. Grants ultra bias absolutely is making people more negative about him which is pretty funny.

 

[Doublechin]

Hrbal will be falling in the draft , he's having a hard time in the U18.

Leonard and Perreault is killing it , love these 2 guys.

Leonard at #17 would be a real luck

Leonard will go way closer to 5 then 17