Prospect Info: 2024 Draft #65: D Will Skahan

[TheLegend]

https://x.com/i/web/status/1807091302309503352

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[Jormungandr]

Love this pick. Favorite pick of the draft. Iginla is nice as well.

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

Great pick by you guys. One of my favorite players in this draft. Should've went 30-40 slots higher. I had him ranked 26th.

Thought he unfairly fell towards the end of the season because his team had a disappointing end to the season, and their ending was only disappointing because one guy made a dumb play and it cost them a Gold medal. Funny how something so little can change narratives surrounding draft stock, but it can. A lot of the American U18 players dropped and the Canadian ones rose late in the draft process.

He's one of the most physical and punishing defenseman in this draft. Exactly the style of athletic freak you guys have been drafting. His father is an NHL Strength and Conditioning Coach, so he's grown up around the game, and already has the NHL physique.

The NHL player he reminds me of is Mattias Samuelsson. The ability to glue players into the boards when they come down the wing is very similar. Skahan in junior hockey would bench press smaller players at times, and it would look comical how much stronger he was. He's a good skater. Not just good for a 6'5 215 pound player, but an actual good skater for anyone. He's also a smart defensive player with good positioning and processing. He has the tools to be a very good shutdown defenseman that goes against another team's top pairing.

The biggest question will be about his puck game. He's not a natural with the puck. I don't think he will ever score 30 points or more consistently. You hope he can make a good first pass. I think he probably will be able to, but his puck play is inconsistent. His puck control and handling when pressured is sometimes good and sometimes not good. I think his ceiling is like a low end #2 or high end #3, while his floor is like a 6. It's hard to see how he won't get 100+ NHL games. His defensive game is that polished that he will, and he could easily be better.

 

[MIGs Dog]

Puck game confirmed.

 

[Stanley Thermos]

I was able to attend the scrimmage game at the Delta Center. I'm not familiar with Skahan, but he was one of the players who stood out to me during the game. He often had his head up, managing to make a good pass for the primary assist on one goal and he obviously took a good pass on the break-away to score. He also upset a break-away attempt from team "black" with a solid defensive play.

He seemed natural and "in" the game. I would contrast that to Simashev who demonstrated outstanding puck protection skills. Easily the best on the ice. However, he didn't seem invested in the game as much as he wanted to show off that puck protection skill-set. In the end, he didn't really make big impact on the game, as far as I noticed.

Then there was But...

 

[Michael Farkas]

Hey guys,

I made a post over on the Prospects board - here - it's sort of a comparison between E.J. Emery and Will Skahan. I dive into their defensive tendencies and puck skills and the like. It's not a highlight reel, you may find it interesting...

 

[rt]

Hey guys,

I made a post over on the Prospects board - here - it's sort of a comparison between E.J. Emery and Will Skahan. I dive into their defensive tendencies and puck skills and the like. It's not a highlight reel, you may find it interesting...

Curious on the lowlights - where he was at in terms of shift length? Are some of these mistakes related to being out of gas?

 

[Michael Farkas]

Curious on the lowlights - where he was at in terms of shift length? Are some of these mistakes related to being out of gas?

On anything where you don't have a full shift (which I try not to even do in most videos), it's a mixed bag. There's a couple where it's late late, but there's plenty where it's not. I look at it this way overall - this is already hard enough, right? Player evaluation, projections, etc. especially for a kid who is more athlete than anything right now. I'm not gonna attempt to introduce something that makes me more vulnerable to get it wrong...on the internet haha

Obviously, I watch these guys all year. I don't intend to put anything in a video that blatantly misrepresents a player...in our Black Book, Skahan was one of like four or five players that got a 3 rating (on our 3 to 9 scale) for skill in the entire book. So, that's a representation of what our team thinks too. Though, in fairness, one of those 3 skill guys went early in the 2nd round to Ottawa. So, like I said in the video, you have guys like Cleveland and Kleven going in this zone. This isn't a surprise to anyone, and you just hope it can get to a decent level because of his athletic coordination.