HF Habs: 2024 NHL Draft Thread

[Hansman]

So you think a Demidov and a Tij Iginla for example would equate to no impact?
I'll beg to differ on this one.

Huge win.

 

[Mrb1p]

My whole argument, from the beginning, is that he has the abilities to be more than a shot. That’s it, nothing more, nothing less. And yet here you are putting words in my mouth.

As for the bolded, it’s gonna be a bad look because even YOU don’t really believe what you’re writing on these forums. It’s perfectly fine to keep in touch with the prospects by reading scouting reports online but it’s another thing to just repeat what you read as if it’s the one and only truth. You haven’t seen me get into multiple arguments with @WeThreeKings over Eiserman, have you? Yet he clearly doesn’t view him as a viable option for the Habs like I do. Know why? Because he’s shown his opinion isn’t just regurgitated lines from some scouts he read online and I respect that.

Anyway, this time I’m really done with this argument. I don’t even like Eiserman that much, he’s like the 4th forward I like most in this draft but some things said on here were just so ridiculous I couldn’t stay quiet.

I should’ve. I now know why @Mrb1p has gone off the deep end regarding Michkov, some takes on here

The things you read on this board.

 

[SOLR]

He refused to go to Quebec, they were forced to.

No one is trading Celibrini.

Trading that pick is even less likely in a cap world. You basically have a PPG+ player for 3 years making less than $1m per year. There isn’t anything as valuable as that in the league.

It's not like the return proposed doesn't give them the same advantage.

There's been a few of these trades post cap world.

» We’re No. 1! The History of Trading the NHL’s Top Pick

grantland.com

It takes a buyer and a seller, in the cap world, its a lot more likely that 2 rebuilding teams will trade these picks. More incentives to recombine, tend to have more cap space. Because of the recent cap ceiling stabilizing this has taken trades out overall in the NHL in the past few years, this is unfreezing. Others factors there, but to say it's impossible that San Jose would have reasons (for example financial reasons) to accelerate a rebuild.

Matthew Wood is the equivalent of Liam Greentree who's slated to go about the same place.

Yager was defintely not better last season, than Iginla is this season....What made Yager a better prospect than Iginla? Yes Yager is playing great this season, but Iginla will more than likely dominate next season too.

Benson fell more than likely because of his size. A lot of people thought he would be drafted between 7-10.

Yager has a track record of being talked about in the elite range since 13 years old, Iginla is great but the track record isn't verifying that recent surge. We haven't seen Iginla much in international tourneys yet. The U17 was good, but there's a lot of mirages there, I'm talking about Hlinka.

 

[Draft]

"We're here to pick players for the NHL, not any other league"
"We're trying to get an NHL player who will contribute to the Montréal Canadiens"
"There's only so many chances that the organization gets to add talent"
"It's going to be a player that we think will be a part of our organization for a long time"

Just some quotes from last year's behind-the-scenes video. It seems very clear to me that they want to find players that fit into the culture and are committed to be a part of this team for the long haul. Team-first players with NHL attributes describes both the Slafkovsky and Reinbacher picks. Question marks around overall upside have been largely disregarded in favour of prioritizing tools.

If this is a legitimate pattern or strategy (highly debatable), IMO this pick screams Cayden Lindstrom. If he's healthy all season, I'm not sure he makes it past 3.

 

[Shutdown]

Yager has a track record of being talked about in the elite range since 13 years old

so did Angelo Esposito - who gives a crap?

 

[Gustave]

Newhook, Lane Hutson, our 1st, Calgary 1st next year for 1st overall?

I feel like Hughes is cooking something like that.

or a smaller package for 2nd overall and Demidov.

Because that's what we need right now, trade quantity of assets for quality at the draft.

Incentive for San Jose / Chicago is to save 2 years of rebuild time. Of course the lottery has to happen and it will be pricey.

I’m in, but it’s not happening I reckon.

If it were up to me, the Habs would trade all first round picks it owns for the foreseable future if it would get the needle moving towards Celebrini.

 

[Mrb1p]

Simple: Michkov is a cherry picker.

I wonder if they had Bedard as a no-draft, because he's also a huge cherry picker.

 

[Jaynki]

Iginla is not a franchise potential

Hmmm. Not sure about this one.

I think its part of the upside he can have.

He has something Tkachuk-esque...

 

[Estimated_Prophet]

If we ended up wiining the 2nd lottery draw and receive the 2nd OA pick I would strongly consider moving that pick to Seattle along with Harris or maybe even Struble if we are forced to in order to select Iginla and receive Nyman in return. These are two wingers that are exactly what we need imo although I am not sure that Seattle bites on the trade.

Iginla has really grown on me and I just can't shake the feeling that he would be perfect fit in this lineup.

 

[The Last Red]

If we don’t win the lottery, you can all order your no. 34 Eiserman jerseys. They will take him 7-9 if Lindstrom is gone and he’s still available. Not saying they should . . . but they will. I would take him or Iginla. Screw Catton.

 

[Estimated_Prophet]

If we don’t win the lottery, you can all order your no. 34 Eiserman jerseys. So obvious they will take him 7-9 if Lindstrom is gone and he’s still available.

Eiserman is far from being the obvious pick as he is extremely one dimensional as does not fit this organization's type of player

I do think that Eiserman might be taking too much heat and I am not entirely against selecting him as he is only two weeks away from being ineligible for this draft as one of the youngest players available.

You may end up being right but I certainly wouldn't put any money on it.

 

[The Last Red]

Eiserman is far from being the obvious pick as he is extremely one dimensional as does not fit this organization's type of player

I do think that Eiserman might be taking too much heat and I am not entirely against selecting him as he is only two weeks away from being ineligible for this draft as one of the youngest players available.

You may end up being right but I certainly wouldn't put any money on it.

I would put some money on it. Like up to $100.

 

[JeffreyLFC]

Eiserman is exactly why the current scouting staff passed over Wright and Michkov why would they change that view for him? Because he is from Boston area?

 

[Andrei79]

If we ended up wiining the 2nd lottery draw and receive the 2nd OA pick I would strongly consider moving that pick to Seattle along with Harris or maybe even Struble if we are forced to in order to select Iginla and receive Nyman in return. These are two wingers that are exactly what we need imo although I am not sure that Seattle bites on the trade.

Iginla has really grown on me and I just can't shake the feeling that he would be perfect fit in this lineup.

Early viewings but give me some Iginla, I love the way he plays. I love the compete. Hes a bulldog, but he's smart and finds open ice really well. Very elusive and has excellent edges for a 17 year old. August birthday so one of the youngest players in the draft. Really enjoyable player to watch, some of his games I can honestly he did something every shift that impressed me. Got to see more of everyone though.

 

[Habssince89]

As long as our top pick adds to the critical mass of talent in the top6, I'll be happy. We're sooo close to a future full of secondary scoring (please)

 

[JeffreyLFC]

My current top 10 would shock the world.
1. Macklin Celebrini (My comparable, Austin Matthews)
2. Sam Dickinson (My comparable, Noah Dobson)
3. Ivan Demidov (My comparable: Tim Stutzle)
4. Berkly Catton (My comparable: Matthew Barzal)
5. Tij Iginla (My comparable: Gabriel Landeskog)
6. Michael Brandsegg-Nygård (My comparable : Filip Forsberg)
7. Cayden Lindstrom (My comparable: Alex Tuch)
8. Zeev Buium (My comparable: Devon Toews)
9. Artyom Levshunov (My comparable: Jeff Petry)
10. Carter Yakemchuk (My comparable: Colton Parayko)

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

Eiserman is exactly why the current scouting staff passed over Wright and Michkov why would they change that view for him? Because he is from Boston area?

- Younger player
- Has been productive

Two big differences between him and Wright. That doesn’t mean they’ll take him but there are some differences between the two.

 

[HuGort]

Haha!! The Wright/Eiserman/Drouin face?

I take it you not an Eiserman fan?

 

[RationalExpectations]

"We're here to pick players for the NHL, not any other league"
"We're trying to get an NHL player who will contribute to the Montréal Canadiens"
"There's only so many chances that the organization gets to add talent"
"It's going to be a player that we think will be a part of our organization for a long time"

Just some quotes from last year's behind-the-scenes video. It seems very clear to me that they want to find players that fit into the culture and are committed to be a part of this team for the long haul. Team-first players with NHL attributes describes both the Slafkovsky and Reinbacher picks. Question marks around overall upside have been largely disregarded in favour of prioritizing tools.

If this is a legitimate pattern or strategy (highly debatable), IMO this pick screams Cayden Lindstrom. If he's healthy all season, I'm not sure he makes it past 3.

This is a big if for two reasons : a) if he has lingering injury issues that may impact his ability to reach his potential, so that's part of who he is and b) maybe his success is driven by a small sample. He had good numbers last year which is a good mitigant but you never know

To be fair, these quotes can be applied to a number of players so let's see who they choose. In the top 10/15, I have not read any red flags in terms of behaviour this year, right ? But from what I have read / seen, Helenius fits the bill of what they are looking for in terms of team first player, committed on both ends of the ice. I really think a line with Newhook / Helenius / Dach would be really a pain to play against.

 

[RationalExpectations]

My current top 10 would shock the world.
1. Macklin Celebrini (My comparable, Austin Matthews)
2. Sam Dickinson (My comparable, Noah Dobson)
3. Ivan Demidov (My comparable: Tim Stutzle)
4. Berkly Catton (My comparable: Matthew Barzal)
5. Tij Iginla (My comparable: Gabriel Landeskog)
6. Michael Brandsegg-Nygård (My comparable : Filip Forsberg)
7. Cayden Lindstrom (My comparable: Alex Tuch)
8. Zeev Buium (My comparable: Devon Toews)
9. Artyom Levshunov (My comparable: Jeff Petry)
10. Carter Yakemchuk (My comparable: Colton Parayko)

Maybe other people can step in on that but as a Skandinavian league fan, I think you have MBN too high. Some people think he can only be a middle 6 and I fully disagree I think he has top 6 potential but in no world would I rank him over Helenius who performs better on both ends of the ice in a tougher league, scores more, is a center

Except for that I think it makes a lot of sense. I also apply a discount on Lindstrom because of injury (and overall not being super high on him).

I think Yakemchuk is better offensively than Parayko was but not as good defensively and I hope Levshunov is better than Petry for anyone drafting him that high

Not having Parekh is surprising but I guess you just feel he has no defensive side to his game. This draft is so open after Celibrini it should be a lot of fun.

 

[FrankMTL]

It's not like the return proposed doesn't give them the same advantage.

There's been a few of these trades post cap world.

» We’re No. 1! The History of Trading the NHL’s Top Pick

grantland.com

It takes a buyer and a seller, in the cap world, its a lot more likely that 2 rebuilding teams will trade these picks. More incentives to recombine, tend to have more cap space. Because of the recent cap ceiling stabilizing this has taken trades out overall in the NHL in the past few years, this is unfreezing. Others factors there, but to say it's impossible that San Jose would have reasons (for example financial reasons) to accelerate a rebuild.



Yager has a track record of being talked about in the elite range since 13 years old, Iginla is great but the track record isn't verifying that recent surge. We haven't seen Iginla much in international tourneys yet. The U17 was good, but there's a lot of mirages there, I'm talking about Hlinka.

Track record only goes so far, you have to prove it on the ice too. Shane Wright had the best track record and people were talking about him for years. Iginla has the blood lines to go along with his phenomenal play on this ice. He was also just named Kelowna's season MVP even though he's only 17.

These kids are so young. The development isn't linear with everybody. That's why so many kids that are not on the radar at all shoot up the rankings in their 17 year old season.

 

[MTL Dirty Birdy]

I kind of feel like that is a pipe dream.
If I was making a deal I'd probably try to grab San Jose's 12th as a more realistic and less expensive proposition.

Isn’t san Jose’s 12th the pens pick? And that’s top ten protected… as of now I think the pens have it

 

[Rapala]

Isn’t san Jose’s 12th the pens pick? And that’s top ten protected… as of now I think the pens have it

Even Better!
But I'd aim for that 10-12 range.
The reason I opted for the Sharks was they might be more inclined to make a deal if they can shore up a couple of glaring holes.
Not to mention I was simply skimming the mock draft for my information they are showing with the two 1st round picks.
They also may just be in perpetual tank mode.

Numb-nuts after trading for Karlsson can't afford to about face and tank can he and he may be the better dance partner.
The thing is I haven't seen a list yet that won't allow us to find two really strong pieces if we can manage to get another pick in that range.
It just makes more sense to me as the best way to get value. I'm kind of using the Romanov trade and 13th as a costing mechanism.

 

[MTL Dirty Birdy]

Even Better

Pittsburghs cupboards are bare so yes I agree… could be an interesting option. I can see Hughes fleecing Dubas haha

 

[WeThreeKings]

If we don’t win the lottery, you can all order your no. 34 Eiserman jerseys. They will take him 7-9 if Lindstrom is gone and he’s still available. Not saying they should . . . but they will. I would take him or Iginla. Screw Catton.

Lol ok but Eiserman is one of the least likely picks, they'd take Catton ahead of Eiserman. Way more faceted of a player.