You look at them and go Buium and Dickinson are the steadiest. You can see the high floor and wonder how high their ceiling will be.
Levshunov and Yakemchuk are the physical specimens but they give off lots of head scratching moments. You rein in their impulsive mistakes and you can envision a top pairing D. Their lower floor but possibly higher ceiling.
Silayev is a riddle within a conundrum. Was his early offensive production a fluke and you can reasonably expect a big body defensive defenseman? Did team dynamics and usage change which affected his offense. Still he's at worse should be a top 4 D.
Parekh jumps out offensively and makes me cringe when he's defending. He doesn't have that top tier skating like a Makar, he has good edges and lateral movement but I wonder about his escape ability. I look at him and the comparable I get is an OEL
With Sabres' bias, which we must do:
Dahlin and Power are here the rest of the decade. Byram's a good bet to be here a bit too. That essentially removes access to top PP minutes.
Based on that, Perakh is my least favorite option. If the board falls where he's the only one of the 6 D left, I'd take a good look at the forwards before I took him.
Yakemchuk isn't far behind, but has the advantage of having an edgy game to him and size, despite his skating at times reminding me of Cody Franson.
Buium is a do-everything, just win kind of guy, and for that reason, is amongst my favorite options, despite the size. Has vibes of a lockdown 2nd pair guy that isn't sexy on counting stats, but is an analytics darling.
Silayev to me is nearly a guaranteed bottom pair NHL D at minimum with that size and that skating. I think the early offense was an exception, not an expectation. Still happy to take him in this draft.
Levshunov is the rangiest outcome to me. Top pair to total bust. I worry about the processing. On the other hand, his size, speed, and right shot could give him a very easy NHL role next to Dahlin or Power.
Dickinson, like you said, low worry, steady, offensive ceiling tough to gauge. The Ryan Suter comp is spot on.
My current rankings would be:
Buium
Levshunov / Silayev tie
Dickinson
Yakemchuk
<peak at available forwards>
Perakh
I'd prefer to come out of this draft, should we keep the pick, with one of these 6 D. If you look at our team and our propsect pool, it's the perfect time to add a blue chip D prospect.
