HF Habs: 2024 NHL Draft Thread

[jaffy27]

You, if you can choose one of those two, who's your guy?

Demidov for me but I’d be over f***in joyed with Lindstrom too…it’s literally win win

 

[SlafySZN]

Plays such a pro style game. Not sure how high the upside is though.

A complimentary top 6 player in my opinion. A very good pick in the mid/end of the first round.

Think Lehkonen but with a bit more high end skills in everything.

 

[SannywithoutCompy]

A complimentary top 6 player in my opinion. A very good pick in the mid/end of the first round.

Think Lehkonen but with a bit more high end skills in everything.

Yeah definitely wouldn't hate him with the Winnipeg pick, we need to start building out our wingers

 

[WentWughes]

I had watched several shift by shift videos and I am desperately hoping that Silayev is gone by the time we pick. Great skating and huge guy but he is horrendous, not overly hard to play against, awful decision making and a muffin of a shot. I get that it is the KHL and he is very young but his ceiling is way too low to warrant a top 10 pick. Hopefully that is another teams mistake though, my top 3 choices outside of Macklin would be 1-Demidov 2-Lindstrom 3-Parekh . Parekh has the potential to be a game breaker but we are in need of elite talent up front.

 

[Harry Kakalovich]

With the high pick, if Habs draft one of them, that would be fantastic for the forward group:

1 - Celebrini.
2 - Demidov.
3 - Lindstrom.
4 - Catton.
5 - Eiserman.
6 - Helenius.
7 - Iginla.

I will not be surprised that they have Iginla high on their list, he is that type of player that his game will translate perfectly at NHL level. He have great shot. Great hockey IQ aswell.

I hope the Habs are scouting the dmen too. There are some real good d in this draft. My personal fav is Dickinson. Lots of good ones, though.

 

[waitin425]

I want Demidov after Mack, but would be more than happy with Lindstrom. We lack centre depth, and we need a guy that can play down the middle when called upon or bump over to wing.

 

[Estimated_Prophet]

I had watched several shift by shift videos and I am desperately hoping that Silayev is gone by the time we pick. Great skating and huge guy but he is horrendous, not overly hard to play against, awful decision making and a muffin of a shot. I get that it is the KHL and he is very young but his ceiling is way too low to warrant a top 10 pick. Hopefully that is another teams mistake though, my top 3 choices outside of Macklin would be 1-Demidov 2-Lindstrom 3-Parekh . Parekh has the potential to be a game breaker but we are in need of elite talent up front.

Silayev is much harder to play against than Parekh who barely even attempts to defend.

It is honestly a crap shoot with all of the top dmen in this draft as there is not a bonafied stud who you can pencil in to your top pairing which is not to say that none of them can become that but that there are such widely diverging opinions on each of them and to make a claim with any air of certainty is just blind posturing. I am not saying that nobody should make bold claims on a message board lol, but whether they are correct or entirely wrong, the outcome will have little to do with any posters perceived ability to identify the best dman.....it will be almost entirely luck.

I personally have Levshunov and Dickinson as my two favourites among the dmen but I have not seen Levshunov live and have not interviewed either player nor have I spoke to their coaches, teammates, parents, trainers etc so much like everyone else on this board it renders my opinion as being of little importance.

All of the iso vids and reading reports from people who are pretending to be scouts but by in large are grossly incompetent leave all of us at a disadvantage relative to pro scouts.

Calling Silayev horrendous among other hyperbole laced negative proclamations is ridiculous when he is player in a better league with better players than any of the other dmen who are being mentioned at the top of the draft. Perhaps tempering such rants by acknowledging some context and avoiding nihilistic rabbit holes would serve the overall level of discussion around here well.

 

[PavelBrendl]

I think I’m starting to buy into the Yakemchuk hype.

 

[SannywithoutCompy]

I think I’m starting to buy into the Yakemchuk hype.

He's great but we needed forwards last year and need them even more now

 

[SOLR]

You take what the draft gives you and don't allow the immediate need to cloud your judgement.

The goal should be to build the best and deepest pool of talent possible. Once you get there, you are in position to make a trade for the gamebreaking player you need, without opening a major hole in your roster. Just like Vegas did with Eichel.

That's a cop-out. We all know what I'm talking about. Who is our McDavid/Matthews/Bedard.

Vegas did not do that at all. Vegas benefitted from a rich expansion draft to collect a bevy of assets that no other situation will allow a team to collect. Moreover, it was the first expansion draft, so teams made mistakes, so they got even more assets. This is how they got Eichel, and that situation in itself is pure outright luck that a team would not re-sign and keep Eichel. Players of this caliber rarely change team unless something goes very wrong (like it did in that case). As you dilute the league further and further, these players will nearly never be available as they have a kind of reserved spot in their team.

Let's say we are 4 OA at the draft this year, its time to trade those late 1st picks to move up and get Celebrini/Demidov. Yes Id give our 4 OA + 2x late 1st (Calgary + the one we just acquired) + Hutson + a roster player like Anderson. for Celebrini for example. It's time to make a move for quality. A team like San Jose or Chicago early in their process could potentially bite.

This will be the 3rd draft in this rebuild and we still don't have our franchise player. Go big or go home.

 

[HuGo Burner Acc]

That's a cop-out. We all know what I'm talking about. Who is our McDavid/Matthews/Bedard.

Vegas did not do that at all. Vegas benefitted from a rich expansion draft to collect a bevy of assets that no other situation will allow a team to collect. Moreover, it was the first expansion draft, so teams made mistakes, so they got even more assets. This is how they got Eichel, and that situation in itself is pure outright luck that a team would not re-sign and keep Eichel. Players of this caliber rarely change team unless something goes very wrong (like it did in that case). As you dilute the league further and further, these players will nearly never be available as they have a kind of reserved spot in their team.

Let's say we are 4 OA at the draft this year, its time to trade those late 1st picks to move up and get Celebrini/Demidov. Yes Id give our 4 OA + 2x late 1st (Calgary + the one we just acquired) + Hutson + a roster player like Anderson. for Celebrini for example. It's time to make a move for quality. A team like San Jose or Chicago early in their process could potentially bite.

This will be the 3rd draft in this rebuild and we still don't have our franchise player. Go big or go home.

I think that's an overlay tbh. Celebrini is a fantastic player. But he's a complete player in the mold of a lesser Crosby, Bergeron, etc. Not necessarily talking about play style but what he provides. But he's not a game breaker. He's just a pretty good no. 1 overall pick. Trading a bunch of assets for such a player imo is a bit of an overpay. Fortunately, San Jose and Anaheim are probably targeting the top D at the draft. So just gotta hope Demidov gets to no. 3/4. In that respect, I'd definitely be open to the Habs packaging the their top pick and their 1sts (both in this draft and the Calgary 1st) to move up a few spots

 

[SOLR]

I think that's an overlay tbh. Celebrini is a fantastic player. But he's a complete player in the mold of a lesser Crosby, Bergeron, etc. Not necessarily talking about play style but what he provides. But he's not a game breaker. He's just a pretty good no. 1 overall pick. Trading a bunch of assets for such a player imo is a bit of an overpay. Fortunately, San Jose and Anaheim are probably targeting the top D at the draft. So just gotta hope Demidov gets to no. 3/4. In that respect, I'd definitely be open to the Habs packaging the their top pick and their 1sts (both in this draft and the Calgary 1st) to move up a few spots

He's absolutely a nearly generational game breaker (Matthews-class) what the hell are you talking about?

In the "mold of a lesser Crosby", the guy that was just the NHL best players for 8-9 years. My comparable for Celebrini is a better Toews by at least 1 standard of deviation, Point per game from 21 years old, 100+ points in his prime with a +25.

3 1st, 1 A-class prospect and 1 roster player.

Mcdavid/Bedard/Crosby would have been

5 1st, 1 A-Class, 3 roster players (see the Lindros trade).

Before you say there was not 5 1st for Lindros, Quebec got more roster value and ($$$)

 

[HuGo Burner Acc]

He's absolutely a nearly generational game breaker what the hell are you talking about?

In the mold of a lesser Crosby, the guy that was just the NHL best players for 8-9 years.

3 1st, 1 A-class prospect and 1 roster player.

Mcdavid/Bedard/Crosby would have been

5 1st, 1 A-Class, 3 roster players (see the Lindros trade).

Before you say there was not 5 1st for Lindros, Quebec got more roster value and ($$$)

I meant offensively. Dude is on pace for a worse season than fantilli. His best trait is his hockey sense and he's great all around imo so he's basically like a perfect no. 1 C. I'm very high on him. But when I said he's a pretty good no.1 overall pick, that's not an insult. Let's take every draft since 2010 and cut out the outliers of McDavid and Yakapov.

Hall, RNH, MacKinnon, Ekblad, Matthews, Hischer, Dahlin, Hughes, Lafreniere, Power, Slafkovsky, Bedard.

So landing at around 5-6 is imo pretty good which is where he'd be. I'm also the guy who thinks the league only has 5ish actual superstars/real game breakers. Macklin has a chance to be as effective as many of the players on the list in different ways. But one of those ways imo is not his game breaking abilities that players like MacKinnon, McDavid, Matthews, or Bedard have. He'll probably top out worse offensively but better defensively compared to Hughes

 

[SOLR]

I meant offensively. Dude is on pace for a worse season than fantilli. His best trait is his hockey sense and he's great all around imo so he's basically like a perfect no. 1 C. I'm very high on him. But when I said he's a pretty good no.1 overall pick, that's not an insult. Let's take every draft since 2010 and cut out the outliers of McDavid and Yakapov.

Hall, RNH, MacKinnon, Ekblad, Matthews, Hischer, Dahlin, Hughes, Lafreniere, Power, Slafkovsky, Bedard.

So landing at around 5-6 is imo pretty good which is where he'd be. I'm also the guy who thinks the league only has 5ish actual superstars/real game breakers. Macklin has a chance to be as effective as many of the players on the list in different ways. But one of those ways imo is not his game breaking abilities that players like MacKinnon, McDavid, Matthews, or Bedard have. He'll probably top out worse offensively but better defensively compared to Hughes

8-9 months younger than Fantilli??? Much better WJC than Fantilli again 9 months earlier....

A better Toews is a more important player than Matthews and in the realm of MacKinnon. Celebrini will dominate with his shot more than MacKinnon. Celebrini has a precision-heavy shot like Sakic.

 

[Jaynki]

He's great but we needed forwards last year and need them even more now

We need to draft the best player way more than we specifically need him to be a forward.

Draft the best player and the rest will fix itself. Aim for a specific and shot yourself in the foot.

Obviously, it would be great if the BPA identified at our spot is a Forward, but lets not distract ourselves from the BPA notion because of our abundance of great young D.

Taking a D as good/better than Guhle or Reinbacher would be equally good as hitting on a top F. There is no downside to either of those scenario.

 

[HuGo Burner Acc]

8-9 months younger than Fantilli??? Much better WJC than Fantilli again 9 months earlier....

A better Toews is a more important player than Matthews and in the realm of MacKinnon. Celebrini will dominate with his shot more than MacKinnon. Celebrini has a precision-heavy shot like Sakic.

Again I'm not disagreeing that celebrini might be a more effective player than some like Matthews. He's a very complete player. I'm very high on him. He's a pretty good no. 1 overall pick. And yet, he probably won't be a game breaker

 

[sampollock]

Again I'm not disagreeing that celebrini might be a more effective player than some like Matthews. He's a very complete player. I'm very high on him. He's a pretty good no. 1 overall pick. And yet, he probably won't be a game breaker

Sadly Habs won't get him

 

[Goldenhands]

I had watched several shift by shift videos and I am desperately hoping that Silayev is gone by the time we pick. Great skating and huge guy but he is horrendous, not overly hard to play against, awful decision making and a muffin of a shot. I get that it is the KHL and he is very young but his ceiling is way too low to warrant a top 10 pick. Hopefully that is another teams mistake though, my top 3 choices outside of Macklin would be 1-Demidov 2-Lindstrom 3-Parekh . Parekh has the potential to be a game breaker but we are in need of elite talent up front.

Thats probably the worst take Ive read on a prospect this year. No disrespect, people are allowed to have different opinions, but I dont think a such post helps to elevate the discussion. It goes against what most actual scouts think of the player and what Ive personally witnessed in my viewings.

Silayev is a huge mobile physical defenseman who defends extremmely well, handles the forecheck like a growth man, can handle the pace of the KHL like no 17 yrs old kid should, especially at that size, he has good puckhandling skills, can transition the puck with his strong skating or efficient passing, has a heavy shot and displays flashes of a very high upside. Kid is absolutely fantastic at breaking plays and recover possession quickly.

Its like some people are watching Silayev and expect him to display his talent level the way Parekh does against junior aged players or the way Levshunov, Buium are doing in the NCAA, what is rather laughable since the level of competion is just way inferior. Not to mention the dimension of the ice that doesnt favour a huge defenseman like Silayev, still he can hold his own more than adequately. Its rather easy to project his game on smaller ice, he will rag doll the opposition out there the way Slafkovsky does.

It took me 2 games to see the tremendous upside of this kid, sky is the limit.

 

[HuGort]

My staff is high on Walton. With his combination of size, mobility and skills, they are predicting that he goes in the second round and if a team becomes seduced by Walton’s combination of physical assets and skills, he could even be taken at the bottom of the first round.

He looked impressive at the recent Prospects Game. So I agree that a second round selection is more than a mere possibility.


I would sign up for that.

Swick I might spend a mid round pick on. He's got more points than Mesar. Both same age, same team.

 

[WentWughes]

Thats probably the worst take Ive read on a prospect this year. No disrespect, people are allowed to have different opinions, but I dont think a such post helps to elevate the discussion. It goes against what most actual scouts think of the player and what Ive personally witnessed in my viewings.

Silayev is a big huge mobile defenseman defends extremmely well, handles the forecheck like a growth man, can handle the pace of the KHL like no 17 yrs old kid should, especially at that size, he has good puckhandling skills, can transition the puck with his skating or good passing, has a heavy shot and displays flashes of a very high upside.

Its like some people are watching Silayev and expect him to display his talent level the way Parekh does against junior aged players or the way Levshunov, Buium are doing in the NCAA, what is rather laughable since the level of competion is just way inferior. Not to mention the dimension of the ice that doesnt favour a huge defenseman like Silayev, still he can hold his own more than adequately. Its rather easy to project his game on smaller ices, he will rag doll the opposition out there the way Slafkovsky does.

It took me 2 games to see the tremendous upside of this kid, sky is the limit.

Fair play, you are certainly allowed to have an opposing opinion. I 100% stand by the flaws I had seen. A large chunk of the scouting community have always over emphasized physical tools over hockey sense. We as Habs fans should know that better than anyone as we are the team that drafted Tinordi,McCarron and Kotkaniemi amongst many others. I had viewed a number of his games and besides his skating that is undeniable everything else is very raw. His shot is quite weak, he makes questionable decisions with the puck ,without the puck he looks lost at times and does not handle the puck well either. I believe in drafting players that are already very good hockey players with the idea that they will only get better, I oppose the idea of drafting a player that has desirable physical attributes but is not a good hockey player in hopes that they somehow figure it out.

 

[Nicko999]

Let's say we are 4 OA at the draft this year, its time to trade those late 1st picks to move up and get Celebrini/Demidov. Yes Id give our 4 OA + 2x late 1st (Calgary + the one we just acquired) + Hutson + a roster player like Anderson. for Celebrini for example. It's time to make a move for quality. A team like San Jose or Chicago early in their process could potentially bite.

This will be the 3rd draft in this rebuild and we still don't have our franchise player. Go big or go home.

I would agree with you but even the trade you offer will not be enough to get the 1st overall. There is a big gap between Celebrini and the rest so 4th overall pick will not move the needle in that hypothetical trade. The 2 late 1st are not of big value as the chances of an NHLer decrease dramatically after the top 10/top 15.

Hutson would be nice asset but he has yet to turn pro. He's still a much bigger question mark than Celebrini will ever be.

Anderson has zero value.

So your offering a much lesser prospect (4th OA), 2 bottom 6 players (avg value of late 1st rounders), a question mark for Celebrini. No team holding the 1st overall will agree to that.

If you want the other team to consider, it starts with 4th OA + Suzuki for the 1st OA.

 

[Gaylord Q Tinkledink]

Jace Letourneau, Dean's brother, as I believe I've mentioned here before, is slated to go to Clarkson university.

Like his brother, he's a big boy. Doing well in in the CCHL for the hometown team. I'm thinking I'll have to take the kids out to see them play.

I think with a 7th he'd be worth the chance. Going to college the Habs get 4 years of control and it's as much of a shot in the dark as it is taking anyone else.

They have 3 7ths, so that would be quite the swing for the fences imo. Very low likelihood, but again, it's low likelihood for all 7th rounders and usually their upside is just a two-way energy forward that can be useful for a few years, but easily replaceable.

 

[skidcells]

Catton v Iginla tonight. Tij with 1+1.

 

[WinterLion]

I get the feeling most lists are a bit outdated and there is going to be alot of shuffling in the top 15 between now and the draft.

 

[calder candidate]

By the time the Habs select, if forwards like Celebrini, Demidov, Lindstrom, and Eiserman are off the board, are you guys okay with Habs taking another D? Someone like Dickinson, Leshunov or Parekh.

Or do you prefer they still go with a forward when you see someone like Catton and Helenius are still on the board, among others?

I think we need to go with a FW but if you aren’t drafting the BPA you have to move down.