Greentree and Iginla on the forward side stood out a bit for me . Starting to feel like one of those drafts the scouts really need to dig deep and find some players.Pretty boring game. None of the higher profile guys took over. Greentree was pretty good. Yakemchuk has some 1v1 moves/moxy but isn't the smoothest. Iginla was good early but faded.
I'm kinda liking Yakemchuk more.
Bolded Langway you always capture what my lazy self tends to not articulate well.Yakemchuk is bigger than Parekh and also Buium but I'm a bit wary of his late birthday. His playmaking also could be better. He's a confident player individually off the rush 1v1 but I'm not sure how much that will translate for him. He definitely should be a top 15 lock but I find the smaller two D in that range to be a bit more dynamic altogether. Physically they may struggle for a while, though, so I could see teams preferring Yak but I don't think he's quite got the same level of offensive upside.
Throw in Catton as an X factor slider and that's mainly the short list. But who knows. It's wide open after Celebrini. Parekh could dominate the OHL playoffs and Memorial Cup to the point where he goes second. Buium could finish strong and go top 5ish. Maybe Dickinson slides to their range instead. Or maybe Eiserman if teams overthink the extent of his skating or off puck concerns in a run on defensemen. I'm not sure there's a great deal separating Eiserman and Iginla really. Eiserman has the pedigree but has at least faded in the sense of being the clear competitor with Celebrini. That said, he's also an August birthday so still quite young. Another option in that 8-10 range could be Helenius but, y'know, Finland.
Celebrini's no Fantilli/Eichel but pretty comfortably the best player available this year. He probably ought to have potted a few last weekend with all of his chances. His off puck/strength areas don't allow him to completely dictate the game but the offensive instincts are really high level.
As long as he doesn't end up here, I don't really care.Hard to see him going in the first round, although the draft does seem to taper off pretty quickly to where it still wouldn't be shocking if he does.![]()
Who will draft Trevor Connelly? Inside the NHL's evolving scrutiny of top prospects
NHL evaluators are encountering new areas of concern when judging the suitability of prospects for their franchises.theathletic.com
Why?As long as he doesn't end up here, I don't really care.
A swastika is a little more than "inappropriate".Why?
He turns 18 in a few days. I can't read the Athletic article as it requires payment. What I found via the google machine was that he had posted an inappropriate photo on snapchat in March 2022, apparently shortly after turning 16. He also was accused of directing a racial slur during a 2021 (this would have been when he was 14/15) game against an opponent that he adamantly denied, resulting in an initial suspension from the league that he was playing in but evidently after a hearing the league reversed itself and found no violation.
Read the efforts that he has made and continues to be making both on and off the ice to make himself a better person. He's acknowledged his mistakes and regrets them. He was a 15/16 year old who did a stupid thing. We have 15/16 year olds carjacking and committing armed robberies who you'll never know about because they were handled through the juvenile justice system, yet we want to paint this guy as a villain.
If the Capitals are able to somehow obtain another first round pick say in the mid or late 20s and this kid's still there, take him!