But who in this draft projects as a #1D? There’s no Hedman or Heiskanen where you look at and say “damn he’s just really good at everything”. Levshunov isn’t the best defender, Silayev has limited offensive upside, Dickinson is just vanilla.
Could they get there? Yeah, it’s definitely a possibility, but I don’t look at any of them and say it’s for sure happening.
Buium, Silayev, Dickinson, and Levshunov are all better prospects than Reinbacher for sure. I would argue Yakemchuk is as well. Parekh is where it starts to get questionable - I would probably go with Reinbacher because he’s just a safer bet, but I understand how some would take the gamble on Parekh’s offensive upside over Reinbacher.
Buium and Levshunov both just posted the two best seasons in the NCAA by draft eligible D since the 1980s. There is only one season ever better than Buium just had, and maybe 3-4 than Levshunov. All were in the 1980s before the NCAA was what it is today, so they are pretty meaningless. To put things in perspective, Quinn Hughes posted 26 points in his draft year. Levshunov just put up 36, and Buium just posted 50 and won the championship, shutting down guys like Hutson, Celebrini, and Leonard, Smith, Perreault, and Gauthier in the tournament. We have literally never seen a draft eligible D coming out of the NCAA like Buium before, both in terms of production and pedigree.
People like to claim that Silayev “has no offense”, but forget that he just played in the 2nd best league in the world as a 17 year old and broke the KHL record for points by a u18 player while playing 14 mins/game. And he didn’t look out of place at all defensively playing against men.
Dickinson is “vanilla”, sure, I can understand that. But “vanilla” as a defenseman is usually a good thing - see Pietrangelo, McDonagh, Doughty, Josi (until the last couple years), Hanifin, Dobson, etc. Dickinson is considered a defensive D, but put up over a point per game, is one of the best skaters in the draft, and has a Shea Weber/Sheldon Souray type of shot. He was also one of the biggest reasons why the Knights just won the OHL championship. His points per game this season was actually 9th best for his age in OHL history.
Yakemchuk just posted the highest goal total by a draft eligible WHL D since 2001-2002.
Parekh just put up the 3rd highest scoring season by a draft age D in OHL history. The two above him were both in the 1980s.
I can’t remember the last time there was a draft with so many D with this kind of pedigree and upside, if ever.
None of the forwards in the draft except maybe Celebrini have distinguished themselves relative to their peers like these D have. The Habs would be stupid to pass on that because of positional need and quantity in their prospect pool.