HF Habs: 2024 NHL Draft -- Rate it, Love it or Hate it

[NotProkofievian]

My question is about Demidov's skating in particular, the notorious 10-2. Once you see it, you can't unsee it in his highlights. Can it be optimised?

He needs to work on his outside edges. Should've been done by now, but it can be acquired.

 

[Jaynki]

There's no way he was there at 26. I think Toronto wanted him, and 3 of the next 4 picks were players who might be centers - any one of those teams may have had Hage ahead of the guy they took (Surin, Beaudoin, Letourneau).

And there's no way that the lack of Quebec hockey picks is on the Habs.

100% agree

 

[BeliveauFan4ever]

There's no way he was there at 26. I think Toronto wanted him, and 3 of the next 4 picks were players who might be centers - any one of those teams may have had Hage ahead of the guy they took (Surin, Beaudoin, Letourneau).

And there's no way that the lack of Quebec hockey picks is on the Habs.

This was an awfully tough draft to do a precision move-up, opinions were so scattered, in the Top 15 and into the next 15.

I think you move up in cases like this to TRY to butterfly-net your guy.

Only a Philly-Minny type deal endures precision.

 

[Whalers Fan]

Too bad we missed on Eiserman by 1 pick .. that would of been a homerun of a first draft picks

They weren't taking Eiserman. Hage is the player Habs brass wanted.

 

[Captain Mountain]

This was an awfully tough draft to do a precision move-up, opinions were so scattered, in the Top 15 and into the next 15.

I think you move up in cases like this to TRY to butterfly-net your guy.

Only a Philly-Minny type deal endures precision.

Its also the way scouts/teams look at drafts. Its not so much having your guy, but having your draft list with tiers. They figured that with how opinions of the draft went, they thought they could get a guy they value more highly at 21, but not at 26. I think Hage was the only guy Montreal had in a specific tier still available and would have made another trade if no one in that tier was there.

Minny traded up because Philly didn't want Buium and they didn't want another team to swoop in (because Buium sitting there at 12 is insane).

 

[The Last Red]

FYI, of the 225 players drafted, about 200 were at least 6’ tall. Just sayin’

 

[HabsCode]

FYI, of the 225 players drafted, about 200 were at least 6’ tall. Just sayin’

Not surprising. 6' is the new 5'10

 

[tazsub3]

But you can say that it's a bad take to say the difference between Hage and Vanacker, Greentree and Basha is not a 2nd rounder.

The irony.

The market said it is a second rounder not me , you are claiming the market is not right .
Sorry to burst your bubble , but no irony there .
But if you need to win an argument , then I am happy to oblige and state it’s a horrible deal

 

[themilosh]

Gotta love the direction we are going in: big, fast, clean cut personalities..

This why Michkov was passed over last year.. they learned their lesson with Mesar.

 

[Mrb1p]

The market said it is a second rounder not me , you are claiming the market is not right .
Sorry to burst your bubble , but no irony there .
But if you need to win an argument , then I am happy to oblige and state it’s a horrible deal

The market doesn't matter, it's the action that does.

 

[Le Barron de HF]

Not surprising. 6' is the new 5'10

What about shrinkflation?

 

[montreal]

I only can speak to the Demidov and Protz picks since I don't know any of the other picks, still can't believe they got Demidov as I thought for sure it would be a repeat of last summers draft when I really wanted us to get Will Smith and thought he would drop to us. It's going to be a ton of fun watching Demidov next year, likely the highest skilled prospect I have ever seen the Habs draft with my own eyes.

I really thought the Sharks would do like the Habs did with Slaf/Mesar in Celebrini/Eiserman since they are said to be best friends.

Can't believe there wasn't much more trading going on at the draft. I thought for sure McGroarty would be on the move hopefully to us.

 

[sandviper]

I only can speak to the Demidov and Protz picks since I don't know any of the other picks, still can't believe they got Demidov as I thought for sure it would be a repeat of last summers draft when I really wanted us to get Will Smith and thought he would drop to us. It's going to be a ton of fun watching Demidov next year, likely the highest skilled prospect I have ever seen the Habs draft with my own eyes.

I really thought the Sharks would do like the Habs did with Slaf/Mesar in Celebrini/Eiserman since they are said to be best friends.

Can't believe there wasn't much more trading going on at the draft. I thought for sure McGroarty would be on the move hopefully to us.

Sharks getting Celebrini and Dickinson was pretty sweet though.

 

[Harry Kakalovich]

I like pretty much all the picks, especially Demidov, Hage, Sawyer, Merrill, Khanin and the Swedish defenseman. Like that they picked another goalie. Liked that they got a banger dman. Liked that they picked the big guy Thorpe. Hopefully Koivu works out.

GHG!!

 

[Redux91]

From ESPN Grades

Montreal Canadiens
Grade: A​

The Canadiens were big winners on Friday night, getting both Ivan Demidov and Michael Hage. They are excellent value, and will be key pieces in the Canadiens' top six. Getting the second-best player in the draft at No. 5, and a top-15 player in the 20s is tidy business.

The sentimentality of the Aatos Koivu pick (he's Saku's son) plays well with the fans, and he has a real shot to be an NHLer. Other selections with value and NHL attributes include Logan Sawyer, Owen Protz and Tyler Thorpe. It wouldn't surprise me if this draft class yielded four regular NHLers, including two difference-makers. Demidov has a chance to be a superstar, and that alone should be very exciting to Habs fans

NHL draft grades: Why the Sharks, Utah Hockey Club each get an A+

With all 225 picks off the board -- in addition to several intriguing player trades -- it's time for all 32 GMs to be graded.

www.espn.com

 

[dcyhabs]

They believe Demidov is a top talent. Hage is pretty much consensus. Are there any other picks this year who aren’t major reaches or off the board selections?

Tough draft to judge. Consensus matters for the top few players, so Demidov and Hage make sense. I’m not sure it’s a good thing to have skipped the second round, but by the third consensus doesn’t really matter, unless the draft cohort is exceptional you’re trying to get the one guy out of 32 picks that makes an impact. If consensus doesn’t help you in 31/32 cases you might as well ignore it and go with your scouting team.

I’m worried so far. Demidov could easily bust, knees or competition, Hage is far from a sure thing, Koivu is a reach, and the other picks are mostly pretty out there. As long as Demidov is healthy and effective the draft will have been good, but it wouldn’t be a surprise if they ended up with no NHLers, either. If they end up having tanked for no one that will be tough.

 

[Riddick412]

At the end of the day they picked the best players available to them (first round at least). So if it ends up being a bust, it's not like they went off the board.

 

[UpsideHockey]

Our Chief Scout E-Mac recently submitted and we've just now published:

Spoiler: Another A+ grade
*but so much worth checking out in our mammoth spreadsheet which also links up again to our prospect profiles, upwards of a 1000 video links, tons of different tabs to go through
*Note: the "E-Mac" column (and tab) is our final ranking of the prospect

Upside Hockey 2024 NHL Draft Results And Team Grades With Final Rankings:
UPSIDE - 2024 NHL Draft Results

 

[Kudo Shinichi]

The hawks behind the scene draft

 

[Adam Michaels]

At the end of the day they picked the best players available to them (first round at least). So if it ends up being a bust, it's not like they went off the board.

Yup. If Demidov and Hage can become what we all believe they can, then this draft is a positive.

As for the rest, I'll give it time. I had no idea who Engstrom was in 2022 and had no idea who Konyushkov was in 2023. And I quiclkly realized those were two very good picks and happy they're part of the prospect pool.

 

[Kennerback]

The gold standard for Habs drafts are 1984 (Roy, Richer, Corson and Svoboda) and 2007 (McDonnagh, Pacioretty, Subban). I think if Demidov hits expectations, it’ll be just as impactful as those two. Hage is just gravy.

 

[JianYang]

The gold standard for Habs drafts are 1984 (Roy, Richer, Corson and Svoboda) and 2007 (McDonnagh, Pacioretty, Subban). I think if Demidov hits expectations, it’ll be just as impactful as those two. Hage is just gravy.

1987 draft also played a big role in the 1993 cup season.

Desjardins, schneider and leclair. Cassels also went to on to have a very good career.

if you hit on one player in the draft who turns into a star, thats a home run, but when you get 3 or more core peices from a draft, that's a grand slam.

 

[AHShadow]

But you can say that it's a bad take to say the difference between Hage and Vanacker, Greentree and Basha is not a 2nd rounder.

The irony.

I agree that from a value perspective, you're probably right. Since we don't know anything about the prospects really until 3-5 years from now, on paper a Basha + 2nd Rounder is probably more valuable.

But at this point, we have a really good and deep prospect pool, I think it's fine that the Habs identified 2-3 players they thought would fall to 21 and would prefer having someone higher on the list vs continuously shooting darts.

 

[LaP]

Like both 1st round picks. Not so sure about the other picks though. I feel like they gambled a lot after the first round and went for guys they thought could late bloom which is not a bad thing.

 

[Mrb1p]

I agree that from a value perspective, you're probably right. Since we don't know anything about the prospects really until 3-5 years from now, on paper a Basha + 2nd Rounder is probably more valuable.

But at this point, we have a really good and deep prospect pool, I think it's fine that the Habs identified 2-3 players they thought would fall to 21 and would prefer having someone higher on the list vs continuously shooting darts.

If we have a great prospect pool then it's probably better off we go and get immediate help with that second rounder. Anyway, super happy with Hage regardless, he's a great prospect.

The gold standard for Habs drafts are 1984 (Roy, Richer, Corson and Svoboda) and 2007 (McDonnagh, Pacioretty, Subban). I think if Demidov hits expectations, it’ll be just as impactful as those two. Hage is just gravy.

2005 has to be considered also on the sheer strength of Price who's the best Hab out of all these. Picking up mid 6ers like Latendresse, Kostitsyn and D'agostini.

I would also like to raise 1998.
Markov
Ribeiro
Beauchemin
Ryder
Two top line forwards and two top pair D's is serious work.

81 and 76 were very strong too.

Best of all time is probably '71 though. Might have drafted the two best player in the history of the Habs in that draft year.