GDT: 2024 NHL Draft Talk - Picked 2nd, 18th, 27th, 67th, 72nd, 92nd, 138th, & 163rd Overall

[Malaka]

I tend to think Hagens is pretty good, better than Demidov..but also makes me think they might be chasing some guys in UFA if they would be willing to do that.

Stammer would’ve gotten the max contract AAV at about three years

 

[EmeticDonut]

Great to see so many with the gift of seeing the future and declaring who should have been picked.
Instead of wishing the Hawks pick fail, just so you can be correct on the internet, why not wish for them to succeed instead? You'd like for the Hawks to be good right? Or is being correct on the internet the ultimate goal for any sports fan?

 

[Muffinalt]

Wow, that tweet about trying to move up for Demidov honestly cured some of my disappointment.

It at least shows KD has big balls and is going hard at this thing.

I'm disappointed with Levshunov, even if I'm actually partial to Belarus as a country.

But the kid has a great personality so I'll be rooting for him to turn into our 1D of the future.

Let's see going forward.

 

[statswatcher]

re: trading all the picks:
it appears to me that KD and the front office values getting their guys early over taking flyers on guys later. at least, that’s the strategy this go around. i believe their guy at 18 was gone and that boisvert was next in line. essentially, KD has made a bet on his scouts picking the right players. time will tell if that bet pays off, and if it doesn’t serious mistakes were clearly made, but it’s going to take time for that to become clear.

 

[Panzerspitze]

McKenzie had Lev #3, Boisvert #22, and Vanacker #28.

What exactly are some people tweaking about here?

just want to see the board crash

 

[Malaka]

just want to see the board crash

Bro it crashed for 4 hours straight earlier.

Where the f*** were you?

 

[Panzerspitze]

Bro it crashed for 4 hours straight earlier.

Where the f*** were you?

Was it? I've been browsing for the past 8-10 hrs, getting intermittently "this page cannot load" messages. Just thought it was the VPN I was using.

 

[Darkstar]

The Sharks killed this draft. Getting Dickinson at that spot was a steal. I would've preferred Surin and Chernyshov with the final two picks, but I do like Vanacker. I know a number of people don't like the Boisvert pick but he's a tough kid with a plus shot, we'll just have to see how that shakes out. I do find the asset management with our 2nd round picks a bit puzzling.

 

[u2wojo]

I don’t understand how there are so many fans here defending our 1st round and bashing those who are upset with the selections.

We passed on Demidov(in itself bad enough, you ALWAYS take the best available talent regardless of position of need when it’s this high of a pick) and then were gifted a chance at some redemption with Eiserman at #18(cant believe he was still available there…) only to then pass on him too….for someone underwhelming none the less. Did we even need to trade up to 18 to get this guy??

Look I’m all for trying to be positive and patient with the rebuild process and who knows what’s going to happen in the years to come….but there’s no way you can POSSIBLY sit there right now and tell me the Hawks/KD had a good 1st round. And what amplifies this is how important this draft was/is to our organization at this particular point in time.

We can’t be passing up on talents like Demidov at #2 and Eiserman(at #18?!?!?!?) and then think we’re doing our very best to build a contender around Bedard. Just one miss of that caliber is bad enough for a single first round. To have multiple misses(in terms of passing on best available talent) like that in one 1st round is abysmal IMO. We need to be MUCH better in the upcoming rounds and the next 2-3 drafts after this one. Hopefully the overall strength in #s and the sheer volume of 1sts and 2nds accumulated by the 26/27 season will be enough to make up for this years 1st round setback.

Demidov was so CLEARLY the "best available talent" that the next two teams picked forwards other than him. The hyperbole surrounding choices of 17/18 year old kids that are a few years out from playing (at least impactfully) in the NHL is really something to behold.

Demidov COULD end up the best player out of this draft, but at this point so could Lev and as Hawks fans we probably get further letting it play out and hoping the Hawks end up right.

 

[No Fun Shogun]

Bro it crashed for 4 hours straight earlier.

Where the f*** were you?

What? No it didn’t. HFBoards ran perfectly smoothly all night long.

 

[No Fun Shogun]

And for what it’s worth, two other teams agreed that Demidov wasn’t the BPA, too. Maybe the Hawks, Ducks, and Jackets were wrong, or maybe there just wasn’t a consensus after all.

 

[deytookerjaabs]

And for what it’s worth, two other teams agreed that Demidov wasn’t the BPA, too. Maybe the Hawks, Ducks, and Jackets were wrong, or maybe there just wasn’t a consensus after all.

Or maybe....

Scouts & analysts that publish their rankings formed one consensus.

And when teams draft they have a small team of scouts & analysts that form their own board regardless of what's publicly available.

 

[No Fun Shogun]

Yeah, which would mean that there wasn’t consensus at BPA 2-4 regarding Demidov.

 

[ello]

Levshunov: C+. Fills a need and our D corps is close to filled out with prospects but I really think we’re still going to be looking for a 1D. Feels like our Reinbacher over Michkov.
Also, if KD was willing to trade 2025 1st unprotected which could easily end up top 2 again or even first overall for a shot to draft Demidov (I assume), why not just draft the kid at 2?? Don’t get why they’re so high on Lev and gotta stick by my guns. Oh well, hopefully he sticks it to me and only time will tell.


Boisvert: D. Really don’t like the way the kid sees the game. Waste of a second to move up here. I don’t see anything more than a third liner, just doesn’t have the IQ imo


Vanacker: A+. Exactly who I would’ve taken here. I think he can play a very similar role as Shaw did with more size and offensive upside.


Asset management: F. Davidson is too reckless with assets. What was the point of the trade up to 18?? You had no idea who was going to be available. What if everyone you prioritized was taken by then? This trade had a lot of people in the hockey community scratching their heads and I don’t think any questions were answered. Giving up 50 to move up from 34 to 28 is also horrible value and feels like a young GM being taken advantage of. Wild gave up a future 3rd to move up a spot much earlier and draft Buium. It’s actually nuts that we now have zero second round picks after draft capital being our primary asset. Much rather have kept all three and taken shots at skill.

 

[Drumman44]

The potential pick swap with CBJ adds some credence to the story that KD wanted Demidov but the scouts generally agreed upon Levshunov. That’s actually good to hear in my opinion since ultimately Davidson trusts his scouts over himself. He’s not trying to be the smartest guy in the room

 

[ello]

The potential pick swap with CBJ adds some credence to the story that KD wanted Demidov but the scouts generally agreed upon Levshunov. That’s actually good to hear in my opinion since ultimately Davidson trusts his scouts over himself. He’s not trying to be the smartest guy in the room

Orrrr he strong armed everyone to get Lev and tried up to make it up to some scouts might’ve lost some faith in him

 

[statswatcher]

if there’s anything this draft and the discussion surrounding it in the lead up has convinced me of, it’s that “best player available” is in no way an unproblematic answer to the question of who to draft. it’s somewhat akin to being asked “what should we eat” and answering “best food available”. at best it doesn’t really tell you anything, and at worst it displaces the question into a sort of pseudo-metaphysical argument about what “best” means in the given context.

 

[Space umpire]

Hence my post. Chicago is fine, there's so many worse places to be. Chicago is a huge city. Like seriously huge. Suburbanites don't realize how big it is despite living on its outskirts. Just avoid like 4 or 5 neighborhoods where all the crime is consolidated and you'll never ever have a problem. Yet Chicago suburbanites, who live at the edges yet never venture in because "muh crime statistics" have no idea what Chicago (with the exception of neighborhoods you can count on one hand) is like. It's all "Chicago is le bad lol XD amirite?"

Seriously, Chicago is fine.

Chicago is actually better than its reputation and significantly better than it used to be. While I no longer live there I come from a large family (6, kids who have kids and those kids have kids) all (except me) live in or just outside the city. They include 3 CPD retired, 4 current CPD, 1 Cook County jail guard and a CFD fireman.
Their consensus opinion is the city getting better has a lot to do with the murder rate. Gentrification is upon you all. As the baddest areas shrink in size the gang bangers and drug dealers find themselves competing and killing each other in “turf wars” over the areas that are left.

 

[HeisenBaez]

Absolutely.

The Blackhawks are the one team in the NHL that needs to stay away from prospects with character issues. Glad they passed on Connolly. And the other guys I just don't care about.

 

[deytookerjaabs]

Yeah, which would mean that there wasn’t consensus at BPA 2-4 regarding Demidov.

No, it wouldn't.

That's silly absolutism.

Scouts & analysts that publish projections almost always do so on pure BPA, with some exception I think certain talking heads consider who teams will pick. And, 90+% of them had Demidov in the top 3.

Teams are different. Their internal decision making can vary dramatically between their scouts, GM's and even ownership meddling. They can be highly functional or dysfunctional or anywhere in between. They don't just draft BPA, they take in all sorts of considerations when making their board.

Because NHL organizations don't make a pick that appeared to have consensus to the independent scouts doesn't mean those scouts were wrong and there was "wasn't consensus."

There was absolutely consensus among analysts/scouts on Demidov if you just go look at everyone's rankings, just like there was consensus that literally no one had Anaheim's pick in their top 5. Well, turns out Anaheim saw something special in Sennecke.

 

[Kevin Musto]

The Blackhawks are the one team in the NHL that needs to stay away from prospects with character issues. Glad they passed on Connolly. And the other guys I just don't care about.

Great. There's still another 10 guys, at least, they should've taken ahead of Tabarnak Greenwood.

 

[OhCaptainMyCaptain]

Excited to complain about a guy we don’t know today. Let’s go!!

 

[Styles]

 

[Blackhawkswincup]

View attachment 889276

Well that is creepy

 

[No Fun Shogun]

That’s kind of the point, though. I’m not denying that most had Demidov ranked second, nor am I saying that people that ranked him second were wrong. But ultimately there was a debate and assorted teams ranked other players as better. Will the Hawks, Ducks, and Jackets all be right in their assessments? Maybe, probably not. But the point remained that there was wiggle room among teams and analysts, which by the very definition meant that there wasn’t consensus. It wasn’t a guaranteed McDavid then Eichel one and two or Tyler vs Taylor one vs two debate.

One team being very dumb and passing on a clear #2 happens, two teams doing that is weird, three teams doing means there apparently wasn’t actually a clear #2 in enough people’s heads. A supposedly second best forward in a given draft isn’t something that teams would aw shucks on because they already have forward depth unless there is a comparably high-ceiling defenseman. In that case, you have an argument for BPA vs positional need, as maybe Chicago did. But then two other teams decided that other forwards were better in their view.

From Eliteprospects:

Mostly twos, but three people/groups had him at third, and one big outlier at seven.