HF Habs: 2024 NHL Draft Thread

[JeffreyLFC]

They're not trading Guhle.

https://x.com/i/web/status/1800558933079138773

Bingo. Basically similar stats than Lindstrom in a superior league.

 

[SannywithoutCompy]

Bingo. Basically similar stats than Lindstrom in a superior league.

Yeah with Lindstrom you're betting on tools and a very small sample size.

With Sennecke you're betting on tools and a very small sample size.

 

[ReHabs]

We don't know that yet, if he's a guy who doesn't listen to his coaches and that's why he couldn't make his actual KHL team and was benched by Sochi for then that's a pretty big red flag but we won't know if those rumors are nonsense or not until he both comes over and plays a few seasons.

Now it's certainly true we as fans have no way of sorting through the fact vs fiction so we shouldn't put too much stock into any pre-draft rumors. But it's worth noting NHL teams do have contacts and can get a good idea of what's what. We won't know one way or another whether Hughes was right/wrong for at least another 4-5 years.

This is why I think all the commentary from the night of the draft to today is irrelevant. They're on the verge of hitting NHL ice, what they do from that point on will determine how their respective teams look vis a vis their draft day decision. I call the soft-stuff "noise" because we, as fans, were not privy to anything solid about Michkov whatsoever. There were so many rumours, many of them downright xenophobic and horrible (about his late father, especially), that it was just a cloud of rubbish around the poor kid. I hope he proves everybody wrong. He's already shown the "buh buh 3 year contract" garbage was garbage, and he's not been recruited into any military service either (what a surprise -- if you don't fake your enlistment papers, you don't get punished by the government for breaking laws.)

I also hope Reinbacher reinforces HuGo's faith in him because that was a big decision but HuGo's confidence gives me confidence.

You’re also comparing a skilled forward to a two-way defenceman. It’s quite easy to score points if you’re just let loose on a team that can support you offensively. Two-way defencemen can only look as good as the team around them. It also takes them a good 4-5 year to start reaching their potential. It’s a poor comparison to make.

You're gonna pull the "but the KHL is bad" line every time it suits your innuendo despite the fact another patient person will dutifully try to inform you that it isn't his general production or performance that matters but his performance for his age AND in comparison with other future-NHLers-from-the-KHL-at-the-same-age. It's a very simple concept but I don't doubt you do not understand it.

 

[le_sean]

You're gonna pull the "but the KHL is bad" line from your rear end every time it suits you despite the fact another patient person will dutifully try to inform you that it isn't his general production or performance that matters but his performance for his age AND in comparison with other future-NHLers-from-the-KHL-at-the-same-age. It's a very simple concept but I don't doubt you do not understand it.

The KHL is bad. For his age he’s good. But I’m not pencilling him in as a higher impact player than Reinbacher just yet. It’s apples to oranges and to keep whining about it today is fruitless. People can whine about it if the Habs take yet another defenceman this year. Then maybe we will see the flaws in Hughes’ team building. But it hasn’t even been 365 days and people are saying it’s a travesty.

But I do find it funny that multiple teams were vying for Reinbacher. There weren’t multiple teams trying to get Michkov. Pretty telling.

 

[ReHabs]

The KHL is bad. For his age he’s good. But I’m not pencilling him in as a higher impact player than Reinbacher just yet. It’s apples to oranges and to keep whining about it today is fruitless. People can whine about it if the Habs take yet another defenceman this year. Then maybe we will see the flaws in Hughes’ team building. But it hasn’t even been 365 days and people are saying it’s a travesty

Hey no disagreement from me -- I said the same thing, it's all irrelevant until they hit NHL ice. Reinbacher did worse than Michkov in their respective D+1s, and Reinbacher did worse in an inferior league so you have to stop that insipid comment for the love of god.

 

[Rapala]

Did i say his year was shit? He’s gonna be a good player but people saying they wouldn’t want to pass on him because his father is Jarome Iginla, comparing this to Tkachuk, is a mistake. If you think someone else is better, you’re not overthinking it because of the family he came from.

No you implied it would be over thinking it because of pedigree which does have value for some despite what you think.
The genes do tell in certain cases if you haven't noticed.

 

[le_sean]

Hey no disagreement from me -- I said the same thing, it's all irrelevant until they hit NHL ice. Reinbacher did worse than Michkov in their respective D+1s, and Reinbacher did worse in an inferior league so you have to stop that insipid comment for the love of god.

The leagues are closer in quality than you let on. This isn’t the Ovechkin era KHL. And Michkov didn’t improve at a pace you’d expect. Barely raised his PPG while still having all of the same warts. Ignoring that is dishonest. Better than Reinbacher? Yeah sure. But one is supposed to take longer to develop. It’s essentially one of the cardinal rules of development.

 

[Sorinth]

This is why I think all the commentary from the night of the draft to today is irrelevant. They're on the verge of hitting NHL ice, what they do from that point on will determine how their respective teams look vis a vis their draft day decision. I call the soft-stuff "noise" because we, as fans, were not privy to anything solid about Michkov whatsoever. There were so many rumours, many of them downright xenophobic and horrible (about his late father, especially), that it was just a cloud of rubbish around the poor kid. I hope he proves everybody wrong. He's already shown the "buh buh 3 year contract" garbage was garbage, and he's not been recruited into any military service either (what a surprise -- if you don't fake your enlistment papers, you don't get punished by the government for breaking laws.)

I also hope Reinbacher reinforces HuGo's faith in him because that was a big decision but HuGo's confidence gives me confidence.

I agree that it's noise and as fans we should ignore it and call out the xenophobic crap. But ignoring the noise also means we have to reserve judgment on the GM/Scouts for passing on him. There's a lot of posters who want to use passing on Michkov to prove a point about Hughes and company which is unfair. And let's not pretend that part of the noise includes the "hype" a prospect has.

 

[skidcells]

So rumour is the Cayden Lindstrom’s back injury was/is a herniated disk. Any doctors (not hfboard doctors but actual doctors) have any insight as to if the injury is likely to be a problem going forward?

 

[ReHabs]

The leagues are closer in quality than you let on. This isn’t the Ovechkin era KHL. And Michkov didn’t improve at a pace you’d expect. Barely raised his PPG while still having all of the same warts. Ignoring that is dishonest. Better than Reinbacher? Yeah sure. But one is supposed to take longer to develop. It’s essentially one of the cardinal rules of development.

Michkov didn’t improve enough? Fine! Reinbacher did worse in his D+1 than his D-1 and in an inferior league to Michkov. It’s dishonest to not accept it. Sure the runway is longer for dmen but doing worse is always worse than not doing enough better.

But

We agree it is really irrelevant since their NHL performance matters.

And I agree HuGo shouldn’t be criticised for the Michkov decision yet.

 

[Kents polished head]

The only real red flag around Michkov was his physical profile + speed/power. Everything else was nonsense noise, like always.

Picking Reinbacher over Michkov was not as much of a stretch as it was made-out to be... but zeroing in on Reinbacher ("unanimously") in a forward-heavy draft was rather suspect considering the 2024 draft was going to be d-heavy. Let's hope it works out.

I mean, a guy coming in for pre-draft interviews and telling teams that he straight up won't play for them is not exactly what I call an attitude you're looking for when building a team culture.

Fact is we had no more forward prospects last season at the same date, and there were tons of forwards that made a lot of sense at our rank. We also knew this year was likely going to be a D-heavy draft.

This is what I have a hard time getting over. Moreso than "Michkov or not Michkov".

 

[ReHabs]

I mean, a guy coming in for pre-draft interviews and telling teams that he straight up won't play for them is not exactly what I call an attitude you're looking for when building a team culture.

I didn’t believe a word of this.

Fact is we had no more forward prospects last season at the same date, and there were tons of forwards that made a lot of sense at our rank. We also knew this year was likely going to be a D-heavy draft.

I wanted Benson or Michkov for this reason. Benson is electric, could be even better than Caufield. He’s gonna make some teams regret skipping him.

 

[SlafySZN]

No you implied it would be over thinking it because of pedigree which does have value for some despite what you think.
The genes do tell in certain cases if you haven't noticed.

If you have players in front of him on your list and you skip them to take him because you don’t want to pass on ‘’genes’’ it isn’t the thing to do.

 

[Jaynki]

but zeroing in on Reinbacher ("unanimously") in a forward-heavy draft was rather suspect considering the 2024 draft was going to be d-heavy.

I don't think it is a valid argument.

We should not base our 2023 selection in relation to what 2024 may look like, one year ahead of time. We may have won the lottery or we may have picked outside the top 10.

Also, DY Reinbacher is tough to evaluate relative to the DY defenseman this year. I think he has a case to be the first D chosen if he was in this draft, i also think he may be the 7th D chosen. A lot of it comes to preference.

 

[ReHabs]

I don't think it is a valid argument.

We should not base our 2023 selection in relation to what 2024 may look like, one year ahead of time. We may have won the lottery or we may have picked outside the top 10.

That’s fair but they made zero effort to improve the roster so they shouldn’t have expected a significantly better season.

Also, DY Reinbacher is tough to evaluate relative to the DY defenseman this year. I think he has a case to be the first D chosen if he was in this draft, i also think he may be the 7th D chosen. A lot of it comes to preference.

I don’t think anyone would put him ahead of the big3 Lev Dick or Silyaev

 

[Team_Spirit]

He models his game after Jasperi Kotkaniemi

https://x.com/i/web/status/1801655775783182566

 

[Playmaker09]

That’s fair but they made zero effort to improve the roster so they shouldn’t have expected a significantly better season.

I don’t think anyone would put him ahead of the big3 Lev Dick or Silyaev

I have Reibacher ahead of all three, and behind Buium. Parekh and Yakemchuk also have higher ceilings but much more risk.

I could see Levshunov or Silayev if they hit their absolute ceilings, but Reinbacher is straight up a better version of Dickinson.

He's smarter, better defensively, more physical and a RHD to boot. Dickinson won't really do anything with the puck (in the NHL) that Reinbacher doesn't.

 

[Jaynki]

That’s fair but they made zero effort to improve the roster so they shouldn’t have expected a significantly better season.

I don’t think anyone would put him ahead of the big3 Lev Dick or Silyaev

agree

 

[ReHabs]

I have Reibacher ahead of all three, and behind Buium. Parekh and Yakemchuk also have higher ceilings but much more risk.

I could see Levshunov or Silayev if they hit their absolute ceilings, but Reinbacher is straight up a better version of Dickinson.

He's smarter, better defensively, more physical and a RHD to boot. Dickinson won't really do anything with the puck (in the NHL) that Reinbacher doesn't.

I think you’re wrong about Dickinson’s upside but hope you’re right overall. I wonder if neutral fans would agree with you though.

 

[Habs Icing]

If your Christmas is Konsta Helenius or Anton Silayev, that's not Christmas, that's a huge nightmare.

No, it's Boxing day.

 

[BergevinBurner]

If it's true that Lindstrom has a herniated disc then I have no clue where I'd expect to see him go in the draft. For a big boy like him that's expected to play a heavy, punishing game at the next level, it has to be a massive concern.

 

[RationalExpectations]

That’s fair but they made zero effort to improve the roster so they shouldn’t have expected a significantly better season.

I don’t think anyone would put him ahead of the big3 Lev Dick or Silyaev

Dickinson is a LHD version of Reinbacher to me. I d put him ahead of Levshunov at the same age (and I think Levshunov will be a good D too) and definitely before Silayev whose game with the puck I don t really like

 

[Habs Icing]

If it's true that Lindstrom has a herniated disc then I have no clue where I'd expect to see him go in the draft. For a big boy like him that's expected to play a heavy, punishing game at the next level, it has to be a massive concern.

Where did you hear that tidbit of news?

 

[skidcells]

Where did you hear that tidbit of news?

Pronman reported it

 

[Kaiden Ghoul]

Pronman reported it

Sacrament