HF Habs: 2024 NHL Draft Thread

[Mrb1p]

I want the 2nd overall pick more than the 1st because I want to see if these guys have the sack to draft Demidov

Bobrov banging the table so that we can draft Silayev at #2 because hockey historians are taking notes of what he's doing.

Then we mention that Demidovs size and russian character wasn't good enough for us.

 

[Kobe Armstrong]

Bobrov banging the table so that we can draft Silayev at #2 because hockey historians are taking notes of what he's doing.

Then we mention that Demidovs size and russian character wasn't good enough for us.

They’ll trade up the Winnipeg pick to draft the Danish Unicorn, hopefully that’s enough

 

[JeffreyLFC]

Love Iginla but his skating need work and he does not have great hands either. I don't doubt he will a NHLer but I am NOT convinced he will become a superstar forward maybe a bigger gallagher with a better shot.

 

[le_sean]

Love Iginla but his skating need work and he does not have great hands either. I don't doubt he will a NHLer but I am NOT convinced he will become a superstar forward maybe a bigger gallagher with a better shot.

What you described is basically a star player. Are we forgetting Gallagher was a 30 goal scorer? If you’re getting a better version of that, you should be happy.

 

[JeffreyLFC]

What you described is basically a star player. Are we forgetting Gallagher was a 30 goal scorer? If you’re getting a better version of that, you should be happy.

Star player? We have the star player easy in Montreal. He is a top 6 winger similar to Zach Hyman I guess it goes with how bad our offensive players have been the past two decades.

 

[le_sean]

Star player? We have the star player easy in Montreal. He is a top 6 winger similar to Zach Hyman I guess it goes with how bad our offensive players have been the past two decades.

Yes, a 30 goal 60 point fan favourite would be a star player. Christ everyone thinks Caufield is a star player and he hasn’t even hit that mark. I’m not sure exactly what people expect from a 5th overall pick considering we’ve picked two guys at 3rd overall that were significantly worse.

 

[Michoulicious]

So Guhle and Xhekaj might be injury prone. Maybe defence is still a need

A fighter that injures its dominant shoulder, that is not good.

Guhle is always injured as well.

Gimme Dickinson.

 

[Seb]

Iginla might not be an elite playmaker but he's definitely not comparable to Gallagher.

Gally is good at hustling and fighting in front of the net to score dirty goals. He has absolutely no stick handling or passing skill. None.

Iginla is awkward but he's shown he does. He needs to work on his consistency and being in control.

 

[Mrb1p]

Love Iginla but his skating need work and he does not have great hands either. I don't doubt he will a NHLer but I am NOT convinced he will become a superstar forward maybe a bigger gallagher with a better shot.

That's just miscouting lol. His skating technique doesn't need work, he needs to add strength to his frame. His hands aren't elite like Catton and Demidov but they are well above average, and when you couple them with his elite agility, tenacity and puck protection, it's quite ridiculous to raise this as a problem. He's displayed amazing hand-eye both at low speeds and high-speeds. He does tend to over-handle, and like I said above, Im not sure why he does it, since he has given us very low skill expression exposure aside from this year. Despite that, calling him a bad skater and saying he's a bigger Brendan Gallagher is completely asinine.

Let alone the fact he's 100% a better puck handler, puck shooter and also a puck distributor than Gallagher ever was. He has, probably, the second best shot in this draft, Gallagher never even had an above average shot from a distance.

There's not gonna be a superstar in this draft / maybe Celebrini, Demidov, Parekh and Buium.

We can be critical of a player, and we should, but we can't just invent things. He's not a perfect player, at all, but lets not invent stuff because the ball gets rolling very, very quick here on this board.


Skating: (Also puck handling at speed, notice how he handles the puck.)



Scout and other source talking about hands, playmaking and feet:

Rachel Doerrie - ESPN - April 2nd: "Another player who has developed at breakneck pace this season, scouts speak glowingly about his shot, skating and puck skill with one scout opining that he may be the best one-on-one player in the class. He consistently works to get to good spots, drive the middle of the ice and has a foundation of skills that could lead him to be a top-line player in the NHL."

Sam Cosentino - Sportsnet - March 13th: "A 50-goal campaign is well within reach. While goal-scoring pops, he’s a wickedly creative offensive player who specializes in making space."

Mike Morreale - NHL.com - March 1st: "The 17-year-old son of Hockey Hall of Fame forward Jarome Iginla is a dynamic offensive talent with speed, quickness, and natural instincts you can't teach."

Jason Bukala - Sportsnet - February 27th: "Iginla leans shooter more than play maker/distributor, but he sees the ice and makes responsible decisions moving the puck. He possesses solid pace, high end compete, some muscle in the trenches and a sound understanding of how to play the game in all three zones."

Iginla’s skating is also a significant positive for his NHL projection. One thing I noticed is that he is never skating in a straight line like many junior-aged players do. He is usually skating along a curved path and uses crossovers to switch the direction. These skating paths really test defenders for four-directional mobility and can be very hard to defend.

 

[sampollock]

cant miss on the pick, need scoring can guess, need a sure thing

 

[The Last Red]

Love Iginla but his skating need work and he does not have great hands either. I don't doubt he will a NHLer but I am NOT convinced he will become a superstar forward maybe a bigger gallagher with a better shot.

Is a bigger Gallagher with a better shot not good? Gally was a consistent 25-30 goal in his prime, without much of a shot a shot and small.

 

[SannywithoutCompy]

#1D on your board vs the #5 forward. It’s an easy decision for them to make. Then you can trade for an NHL or NHL-ready forward.


That’s an insane Top-4

How are our D supposed to raise their trade stock when we have a logjam going back to 3R?

Yes, a 30 goal 60 point fan favourite would be a star player. Christ everyone thinks Caufield is a star player and he hasn’t even hit that mark. I’m not sure exactly what people expect from a 5th overall pick considering we’ve picked two guys at 3rd overall that were significantly worse.

I think what people expect is for our drafting to not suck and pick one of the guys who would be reasonably available at 5th OVR and turn into star players. Like Forsberg in 2012 or Tkachuk/Hughes/Dobson/Bouchard in 2018

 

[MasterMatt25]

The long term in Russia and attitude issues have not mentioned as problems for Demidov compared to Michkov last year. I wouldn’t be surprised if we liked Demidov this year. I think McCagg said he liked him too

 

[Schooner Guy]

Is a bigger Gallagher with a better shot not good? Gally was a consistent 25-30 goal in his prime, without much of a shot a shot and small.

Also his prime years occurred when offense was down in the NHL compared to today. From an analytics perspective he was one of the most effective 5-on-5 forwards in the game for a few years. That line of Tatar-Danault-Gallagher was one of the best head-to-head 5-on-5 lines in the league.

His body sure took a beating during those years. He was underpaid most of his career and then Bergie let his emotions get in the way of common sense and gave him that awful contract when his body started breaking down as everyone knew it eventually would.

 

[SannywithoutCompy]

The long term in Russia and attitude issues have not mentioned as problems for Demidov compared to Michkov last year. I wouldn’t be surprised if we liked Demidov this year. I think McCagg said he liked him too

I hope we would. Easy #2 on my board, which means we either need a lottery win or a few dumb GMs to get him

 

[le_sean]

Also his prime years occurred when offense was down in the NHL compared to today. From an analytics perspective he was one of the most effective 5-on-5 forwards in the game for a few years. That line of Tatar-Danault-Gallagher was one of the best head-to-head 5-on-5 lines in the league.

His body sure took a beating during those years. He was underpaid most of his career and then Bergie let his emotions get in the way of common sense and gave him that awful contract when his body started breaking down as everyone knew it eventually would.

Two random Shea Weber slapshots to his hand. Then of course his style of play led him to being crosschecked about 30 times a game.

 

[Paddy17]

Wouldn’t be mad if he’s habs pick.

He's got that "IT" factor. Even though he doesn't have his father's physical power, he's got the intensity and fire.

I'd be fine with Catton too.
I'm beginning to worry about Lindstrom.

Anyway, it's all moot since we'll pick Celebrini at #1.

 

[Mrb1p]

Is a bigger Gallagher with a better shot not good? Gally was a consistent 25-30 goal in his prime, without much of a shot a shot and small.

Not even gonna mention it but Iginlas shot is so far ahead of Gallys at any point in their career that it's pretty ridiculous to compare.



Ever seen Gally rip it like that ? I mean, maybe once or twice.

How are our D supposed to raise their trade stock when we have a logjam going back to 3R?


I think what people expect is for our drafting to not suck and pick one of the guys who would be reasonably available at 5th OVR and turn into star players. Like Forsberg in 2012 or Tkachuk/Hughes/Dobson/Bouchard in 2018

People expect wrong. After Demidov and Celebrini the only two star potentials are Buium and Parekh. I'd add Eiserman too, but thats a tricky one.

Catton has the "highest" potential of the rest but he's not gonna be a star, he projects to be Keller a lot more than Kane. FF should've gone first and I wouldn't say any of the players you listed are actual stars save for Dobson and maybe Forsberg. Iginla definitely has the potential to be a FF9 level player.

Take that from probably the only guy that had FF9 as the best player in 2012 .

 

[SannywithoutCompy]

Not even gonna mention it but Iginlas shot is so far ahead of Gallys at any point in their career that it's pretty ridiculous to compare.



Ever seen Gally rip it like that ? I mean, maybe once or twice.


People expect wrong. After Demidov and Celebrini the only two star potentials are Buium and Parekh. I'd add Eiserman too, but thats a tricky one.

Catton has the "highest" potential of the rest but he's not gonna be a star, he projects to be Keller a lot more than Kane. FF should've gone first and I wouldn't say any of the players you listed are actual stars save for Dobson and maybe Forsberg. Iginla definitely has the potential to be a FF9 level player.

Take that from probably the only guy that had FF9 as the best player in 2012 .

I'd be hard pressed not to consider the guy who is about to win the Norris a star

 

[Mrb1p]

I'd be hard pressed not to consider the guy who is about to win the Norris a star

Yeah Hughes too, Dobson and maybe FF. The rest are top 6/top 4 players or even role players, in Bouchards case. That's pretty far from the point though.

The only players I could consider "stars" drafted in the near-past after 5 (inclusive) are Boldy, Seider, Hughes, Dobson, Pettersson, Robertson, Nick, Thomas, Tkachuk, Keller, Rantanen, Debrincatt, Bratt, Fox, McAvoy, Thompson, Pasta, Connor, Nylander, Larkin, Point and thats probably it ? I might forget someone, but going back 10 years thats not a lot of names.
Bolded are stars picked beyond the 1st round.

Like the picks at 5-6 have been:
Dal Colle, Juolevi, Pettersson, Hayton, Turcotte, Sanderson, Johnson, Gauthier, Reinbacher
Virtanen, Takchuk, Glass, Zadina, Seider, Drysdale, Edvinson, Jiricek, Simashev
Thats not a lot of stars.

It's easy to sit here and say "Catton, Parekh" have star potential and "Iginla" doesnt, but what happens when Iginla scores 40 and gets 80 points like we believed Tkachuk couldn't do in 2018 ? Sometimes "high" potential is just an illusion.

 

[26Mats]

I wonder if we'll add Cole Hutson with the Avs 2nd to make it two pairs of brothers in the organization.

 

[overlords]

I wonder if we'll add Cole Hutson with the Avs 2nd to make it two pairs of brothers in the organization.

We'd need to sign another two xhekajs to offset such a thing

 

[26Mats]

Yeah Hughes too, Dobson and maybe FF. The rest are top 6/top 4 players or even role players, in Bouchards case. That's pretty far from the point though.

The only players I could consider "stars" drafted in the near-past after 5 (inclusive) are Boldy, Seider, Hughes, Dobson, Pettersson, Robertson, Nick, Thomas, Tkachuk, Keller, Rantanen, Debrincatt, Bratt, Fox, McAvoy, Thompson, Pasta, Connor, Nylander, Larkin, Point and thats probably it ? I might forget someone, but going back 10 years thats not a lot of names.
Bolded are stars picked beyond the 1st round.

Like the picks at 5-6 have been:
Dal Colle, Juolevi, Pettersson, Hayton, Turcotte, Sanderson, Johnson, Gauthier, Reinbacher
Virtanen, Takchuk, Glass, Zadina, Seider, Drysdale, Edvinson, Jiricek, Simashev
Thats not a lot of stars.

It's easy to sit here and say "Catton, Parekh" have star potential and "Iginla" doesnt, but what happens when Iginla scores 40 and gets 80 points like we believed Tkachuk couldn't do in 2018 ? Sometimes "high" potential is just an illusion.

Quinn Hughes and Dobson are exactly why you don't draft for need.

I remember before the draft two donkey GM's saying they were looking to draft big centers because that's what you win with. We ended up coming away with Kotkaniemi instead of one of those two number 1 dmen and then Chayka and the Coyotes took Barrett Hayton.

I'm fine with us taking a dman this year if we think he'll be a true number 1 dman.

The long term in Russia and attitude issues have not mentioned as problems for Demidov compared to Michkov last year. I wouldn’t be surprised if we liked Demidov this year. I think McCagg said he liked him too

I think with Michkov it's also that he's small and not that fast, or even below average for NHL speed.

 

[EveryDay]

If MTL is lucky enough to get Celebrini, this could be the best top9 since our last Stanley Cup.

UFA-Celebrini-Slafkovski
Caufield-Suzuki-Dach
Newhook-Beck-Roy

 

[le_sean]

If MTL is lucky enough to get Celebrini, this could be the best top9 since our last Stanley Cup.

UFA-Celebrini-Slafkovski
Caufield-Suzuki-Dach
Newhook-Beck-Roy

If they get Celebrini, they need to go all in while he’s on his ELC.