Prospect Info: 2024 NHL Draft Thread

[forceten]

I just love the Dave Emma reference

David Emma NHL Totals: 34GP, 5g, 6a, 11pts, 2PIM.

 

[Its Always Sundstrom]

David Emma NHL Totals: 34GP, 5g, 6a, 11pts, 2PIM.

But what a mug. We’re both thinking of insalata caprese.

 

[HBK27]

Somewhat off topic, but was talking to a buddy the other day that works for an NFL team and is in their war room for drafts. He doesn't really follow the NHL at all. I was talking to him about the upcoming draft in Vegas and mentioned this would be the last year that all the teams would be there on the draft floor. I explained to him that NHL teams (GM's, Executives, Scouts) all gather around tightly packed tables with their PC's and printouts in hand and that's how they select players. He was absolutely blown away by this. To be honest, I still can't believe that this is how the league runs the draft - having everyone and all their information tightly packed together in the same room. Do teams code their draft lists in a way so that someone walking by can't just easily see their draft board?

I also mentioned the CapFriendly acquisition by the Capitals and how that resource was being utilized by some teams and with it soon-to-be-gone will put some of them in a bit of bind. He found that rather funny as well and made a few comments about the NHL being stuck in the stone age.

 

[AfroThunder396]

Sharks trade up 3 spots, Buffalo drops three spots and picks up #42

I would have loved to have pulled a deal like this off on draft night depending on how the board falls.

 

[Guadana]

Sharks trade up 3 spots, Buffalo drops three spots and picks up #42

I would have loved to have pulled a deal like this off on draft night depending on how the board falls.

Trade second next year+10OA for 11OA + 33OA.

 

[StevenToddIves]

Sharks trade up 3 spots, Buffalo drops three spots and picks up #42

I would have loved to have pulled a deal like this off on draft night depending on how the board falls.

Maybe there's fire to the smoke that SJ wants Eiserman, who is tight with Celebrini. Or maybe it's a RD they want, with one of Yakemchuk/Parekh likely available at #11 but not #14.

Either way, I'm intrigued.

 

[devilsfan950003]

But what a mug. Were both thinking of insalata caprese.
View attachment 888071

I remember him around the same time Jim Dowd was a prospect, hoping one of them would lead to the team's success.

 

[Guttersniped]

I'm confident. I have Nygard ranked #6, which is extremely high compared to the consensus, and I'm okay with that.

I think you've been reading me on these threads for long enough that you realize I don't exactly make s**t up.

The important thing I keep saying about Nygard is he's *rare*. I'm trying to think of the last non top-3 overall prospect who was elite or near-elite in this group of categories: shooting, skating, compete, hockey IQ, defensive play, physicality, interior play. It's kind of a weird combination which feels like you're not talking about one great prospect, but rather mixing up two great prospects. But that's Nygard.

No one is doubting Nygard's floor. The kid is destined to at least be an impact third-liner in a Blake Coleman-y way -- winning battles, making big hits, scoring 20+ goals, forechecking like a maniac, playing great D, killing penalties, crashing creases.

The question is simply whether or not Michael Brandsegg-Nygard will develop into a 30+ or even 40+ goal guy capable of playing a top 6 role.

Judging by the fact I have him rated #6, you can guess what my answer to that question is. Quite simply, his ridiculously blistering shot automatically gives him a head start here. Add in his outstanding speed and his propensity for getting pucks into high-danger areas and crashing creases for rebounds, screens and deflections and that's where I see this kid piling up goals in the future.

My final check mark for Nygard would be his relative closeness to the NHL. He's already physically mature and smart and capable off the puck. I'd give him next year in the SHL to refine his offensive skills and then a serious chance at reaching the pros by 2025-26.

So again, when it comes to Michael Brandsegg-Nygard, I am confident. The kid's going to be a really good hockey player for a very long time.

MBN Rankings
McKenzie #17
Button #17
Pronman #17
McKeen’s #16
Black Book #16
Elite Prospects #16
Kennedy/ THN #16
Peters/ Flo Hockey #15
Wheeler #14
Smaht Scouting #14
Robinson/ Elite Prospects #13
Dobber #12
Draft Analyst #12
FCHockey #12
Scouching #10
Recruit Scouting #9
Ferrari/ THN #6

 

[Guadana]

MBN Rankings
McKenzie #17
Button #17
Pronman #17
McKeen’s #16
Black Book #16
Elite Prospects #16
Kennedy/ THN #16
Peters/ Flo Hockey #15
Wheeler #14
Smaht Scouting #14
Robinson/ Elite Prospects #13
Dobber #12
Draft Analyst #12
FCHockey #12
Scouching #10
Recruit Scouting #9
Ferrari/ THN #6

Guadana #5
Steven #6
Evan #8

 

[StevenToddIves]

MBN Rankings
McKenzie #17
Button #17
Pronman #17
McKeen’s #16
Black Book #16
Elite Prospects #16
Kennedy/ THN #16
Peters/ Flo Hockey #15
Wheeler #14
Smaht Scouting #14
Robinson/ Elite Prospects #13
Dobber #12
Draft Analyst #12
FCHockey #12
Scouching #10
Recruit Scouting #9
Ferrari/ THN #6

I think one of the great things about our draft analysts here on the Devils HFBoards is that we're kind of bending the needle in an uncommon direction.

While @evnted writes a great deal about the translatability of amateur skill sets, @Guadana focuses more than anyone on decision-making on and off the puck; and both general and specific hockey IQ. I think it's safe to say I'm as obsessed with compete level as any prospect writer around.

Between the three of us this year, I think it brings a bit of a fresh outlook to the normal tool-hashing and stat-quoting of a lot of the draft writers out there. And I also think that's why you see certain prospects a bit higher in our rankings than normal (Nygard, Solberg, Helenius, Shuravin) and certain prospects a bit lower (Levshunov, Eiserman, Sennecke, Sahlin-Wallenius).

I think another thing we bring to the table is a lack of league-bias or nationality-bias which sometimes pervade other draft-writers. All three of us would profoundly agree that if Solberg played for the London Knights and was born in Ontario he'd be on every top 20 list in the continent. As for Brandsegg-Nygard, I ask again where his consensus ranking would be if his last name was Iginla and he played in the WHL. I don't think anyone would doubt it would be higher than what we're seeing now.

Usually when I doubt my own rankings, it's more for guys I have too low than guys I have too high. This is to say, my late-teens ranking of Parekh and Eiserman have me a bit nervous, because I'm well aware they both have superstar potential. But I never doubt guys in terms of having them too high, because quite frankly I have every confidence players like Buium, Nygard, Hage and Solberg can also become big-time NHL stars. The mathematical reality is that when you move players up the ladder, other players have to come down. Though I've clearly been wrong before, I've been right more often so I try to learn from my mistakes and stick to my guns on my strengths.

Ultimately, we have three people here who are very high on Michael Brandsegg-Nygard and have explained at length why that is. It will be fun for us all to revisit in a decade, for sure.

 

[evnted]

I think one of the great things about our draft analysts here on the Devils HFBoards is that we're kind of bending the needle in an uncommon direction.

While @evnted writes a great deal about the translatability of amateur skill sets, @Guadana focuses more than anyone on decision-making on and off the puck; and both general and specific hockey IQ. I think it's safe to say I'm as obsessed with compete level as any prospect writer around.

Between the three of us this year, I think it brings a bit of a fresh outlook to the normal tool-hashing and stat-quoting of a lot of the draft writers out there. And I also think that's why you see certain prospects a bit higher in our rankings than normal (Nygard, Solberg, Helenius, Shuravin) and certain prospects a bit lower (Levshunov, Eiserman, Sennecke, Sahlin-Wallenius).

I think another thing we bring to the table is a lack of league-bias or nationality-bias which sometimes pervade other draft-writers. All three of us would profoundly agree that if Solberg played for the London Knights and was born in Ontario he'd be on every top 20 list in the continent. As for Brandsegg-Nygard, I ask again where his consensus ranking would be if his last name was Iginla and he played in the WHL. I don't think anyone would doubt it would be higher than what we're seeing now.

Usually when I doubt my own rankings, it's more for guys I have too low than guys I have too high. This is to say, my late-teens ranking of Parekh and Eiserman have me a bit nervous, because I'm well aware they both have superstar potential. But I never doubt guys in terms of having them too high, because quite frankly I have every confidence players like Buium, Nygard, Hage and Solberg can also become big-time NHL stars. The mathematical reality is that when you move players up the ladder, other players have to come down. Though I've clearly been wrong before, I've been right more often so I try to learn from my mistakes and stick to my guns on my strengths.

Ultimately, we have three people here who are very high on Michael Brandsegg-Nygard and have explained at length why that is. It will be fun for us all to revisit in a decade, for sure.

ya agreed on all of this. one thing to add for mbn is i think his style of play doesnt get enough respect even beyond the nationality/league aspect. everyones chasing what they would consider to be a top play driver or a major swing and they take a comfortable top 9 projection to mean he'll only ever be that. some sort of misconception on upside on the basis of: if his ceiling isnt best possible forward on your team, it means hes a lower end projection

and its not like we dont see this all the time, in every draft. perceived safe player goes high, team gets grilled for not picking "90pt upside player!!", and a couple years down the line the pick looks like great value and the other option is struggling to find their footing. rinse and repeat

but back to your nationality/exposure thing, it is pretty funny how people were bending over backwards to convince everyone leonard had way more layers to his game than just being a chippy scorer, and yet now theres absolutely nothing of the sorts going on for mbn lol (and disclaimer, this is nothing against leonard, i agree hes a fantastic prospect, its just highlighting the discrepancy)

solberg thing is pretty funny. just people thinking their eyes are lying to them because he played in norway all year. oh he doesnt always make the best decisions under pressure? he can occasionally drop coverage on someone sneaking in back door? may i present to you the consensus top defender in the class whos way, way worse about it lol

 

[Guadana]

ya agreed on all of this. one thing to add for mbn is i think his style of play doesnt get enough respect even beyond the nationality/league aspect. everyones chasing what they would consider to be a top play driver or a major swing and they take a comfortable top 9 projection to mean he'll only ever be that. some sort of misconception on upside on the basis of: if his ceiling isnt best possible forward on your team, it means hes a lower end projection

and its not like we dont see this all the time, in every draft. perceived safe player goes high, team gets grilled for not picking "90pt upside player!!", and a couple years down the line the pick looks like great value and the other option is struggling to find their footing. rinse and repeat

but back to your nationality/exposure thing, it is pretty funny how people were bending over backwards to convince everyone leonard had way more layers to his game than just being a chippy scorer, and yet now theres absolutely nothing of the sorts going on for mbn lol (and disclaimer, this is nothing against leonard, i agree hes a fantastic prospect, its just highlighting the discrepancy)

solberg thing is pretty funny. just people thinking their eyes are lying to them because he played in norway all year. oh he doesnt always make the best decisions under pressure? he can occasionally drop coverage on someone sneaking in back door? may i present to you the consensus top defender in the class whos way, way worse about it lol

Yeah, like Levshunov who is consensus number one defenseman or Parekh who is number one D on the dobber list are very great ind zone with decision making.
Today I read some guy that Chernyshov shouldn't be drafted in the first round because he wasn't good against Traktor in khl playoff.

Double standards is a standard in NA, that's what I learned)

 

[Jason MacIsaac]

Add Michael Hage to my short list of player I would be Ok with. Not sure why he isn’t higher.

 

[Bcap88]

Somewhat off topic, but was talking to a buddy the other day that works for an NFL team and is in their war room for drafts. He doesn't really follow the NHL at all. I was talking to him about the upcoming draft in Vegas and mentioned this would be the last year that all the teams would be there on the draft floor. I explained to him that NHL teams (GM's, Executives, Scouts) all gather around tightly packed tables with their PC's and printouts in hand and that's how they select players. He was absolutely blown away by this. To be honest, I still can't believe that this is how the league runs the draft - having everyone and all their information tightly packed together in the same room. Do teams code their draft lists in a way so that someone walking by can't just easily see their draft board?

I also mentioned the CapFriendly acquisition by the Capitals and how that resource was being utilized by some teams and with it soon-to-be-gone will put some of them in a bit of bind. He found that rather funny as well and made a few comments about the NHL being stuck in the stone age.

Still boggles my mind how the nhl itself doesn’t have a central registry for no trade list

 

[Hockey Sports Fan]

Add Michael Hage to my short list of player I would be Ok with. Not sure why he isn’t higher.

yeah it’s weird to read all his scouting reports that make him sound like an easy top-10 pick and then he’s ranked 5-10 spots below that

 

[Jason MacIsaac]

yeah it’s weird to read all his scouting reports that make him sound like an easy top-10 pick and then he’s ranked 5-10 spots below that

Just watched three of his games and he looks every bit as good/dangerous as Zegras at the same age. His intensity/effort without the puck will need to be better but his offensive skills are through the roof. I don’t think his character is anywhere close to Zegras’s, in a good way. I expect as shifts get shorter and ice time is less, his intensity with and without the puck will increase.

Already noted the following things:
- Tremendous skater, wide stance which aids protecting the puck and changing direction with edges. Will need to improve acceleration changing direction but that is an easy fix with work.
- Excellent vision and passer. Takes a lot of risks threading passes (pros outweighs cons).
- Has to have one of the better shots in the draft but still is a pass first guy. Can wire it with accuracy.
- Does an absolute remarkable job making himself available for a pass in the offensive zone. Could do a better job supporting his Dmen on breakouts, seems unsure where to go and just continues looping and winding up.
- My major issue at this point is his play without the puck. Doesn’t do a great job or give much effort to break up plays in the neutral zone. He coasts a lot maybe in an effort to conserve energ.
- his stops and starts aren’t that quick so he has a hard time engaging in puck battles to gain leverage and eventually gain possession.
- could stand to be more aggressive with his body.

 

[StevenToddIves]

Yeah, like Levshunov who is consensus number one defenseman or Parekh who is number one D on the dobber list are very great ind zone with decision making.
Today I read some guy that Chernyshov shouldn't be drafted in the first round because he wasn't good against Traktor in khl playoff.

Double standards is a standard in NA, that's what I learned)

Yeah, it's a bit weird for sure.

But you, me and Evan are the crazy ones for having Nygard top 10 haha.

Add Michael Hage to my short list of player I would be Ok with. Not sure why he isn’t higher.

Have you read my 10,000 lines of lavish praise heaped upon Michael Hage? Haha. I have him ranked #10 overall.

Guadana #5
Steven #6
Evan #8

Always one-upping me, this @Guadana dude! Grrrrrr...

 

[Jason MacIsaac]

Have you read my 10,000 lines of lavish praise heaped upon Michael Hage? Haha. I have him ranked #10 overall.

I saw you had him ranked high but really don’t have that much time these days to read a whole lot on HF. I also prefer to watch players with a clean slate and no preconceived thoughts.

 

[Its Always Sundstrom]

I saw you had him ranked high but really don’t have that much time these days to read a whole lot on HF. I also prefer to watch players with a clean slate and no preconceived thoughts.

 

[nugg]

Rest assured that my record is stronger than most of the experts. I wrote something last week about, in particular, my record on defensemen vs. Scott Wheeler -- it's really not close.

With forwards my record is a bit less spotless but we can quickly go back to the 2020 draft when I said Jarvis would have been a better RW pick than Holtz at #7 and Mercer was the perfect pick at #18, and I did ok on both counts. I had Gritsyuk as a big-time sleeper in 2019. I was one of the only people writing about Jesper Bratt in 2016. So, I'm ok there too.

I'm a huge fan of Tij Iginla so I don't want to put him down. But look at Nygard's skill set and game film and ask yourself this: where would Nygard's consensus ranking be if he played in the WHL and his last name was "Iginla". Because I think that is your answer of where Nygard deserves to be ranked.

I'll never forget your call on Brock Faber either. Nailed it big time. Sad that we had 3 shots at him and passed.

 

[StevenToddIves]

I saw you had him ranked high but really don’t have that much time these days to read a whole lot on HF. I also prefer to watch players with a clean slate and no preconceived thoughts.

Smart dude. I'll sum it up for you -- Michael Hage is a tremendously talented center with high end skating, high end offensive tools and legit top 6 NHL C potential. His numbers this year were not mind-blowing on the whole, but we can chalk that up to his slow start. Over the last 20 games of the season, he performed like a top 10 pick in every respect.

What we need to consider is that Michael Hage overcame as much, if not more, adversity than any prospect in the entire 2024 draft. Recovering from major shoulder surgery over the summer, his father tragically died in an accident. The fact that, even considering these events and their obvious physical and psychological aftermath, several draft writers were writing him off after a slow first couple months of the season is nothing short of abhorrent to me.

What we saw with Hage was almost supernatural character -- his improvement arc over the season was downright immense and he scored at a two-point-per-game pace over the season's final 20 games. Again, this is a kid with good size who can fly, he's athletic and he's high-end skilled across the board.

I have Hage ranked #10 overall and I'm confident he will reward any faith put in him.

 

[Guadana]

Smart dude. I'll sum it up for you -- Michael Hage is a tremendously talented center with high end skating, high end offensive tools and legit top 6 NHL C potential. His numbers this year were not mind-blowing on the whole, but we can chalk that up to his slow start. Over the last 20 games of the season, he performed like a top 10 pick in every respect.

What we need to consider is that Michael Hage overcame as much, if not more, adversity than any prospect in the entire 2024 draft. Recovering from major shoulder surgery over the summer, his father tragically died in an accident. The fact that, even considering these events and their obvious physical and psychological aftermath, several draft writers were writing him off after a slow first couple months of the season is nothing short of abhorrent to me.

What we saw with Hage was almost supernatural character -- his improvement arc over the season was downright immense and he scored at a two-point-per-game pace over the season's final 20 games. Again, this is a kid with good size who can fly, he's athletic and he's high-end skilled across the board.

I have Hage ranked #10 overall and I'm confident he will reward any faith put in him.

From later picks you had Faber higher, I had Peterka higher.

On this draft we are pumping mostly the same players. My problem I didn't watch a lot of second rounders.

 

[Alex NJD]

Think Hage is a decent bet to go higher than his public rankings since
1. Seemingly pretty high ceiling
2. He's a center and I don't see a world where only 3 centers go top 15-20 (Celebrini, Lindstrom, Helenius)

 

[Brooklyndevil]

I’m hoping for Nygard or Tij Iginla.

 

[Hisch13r]

Pronman’s final mock is wild.

1. Celebrini
2. Levshunov
3. Silayev
4. Lindstrom
5. Buium
6. Dickinson
7. Sennecke
8. Yakemchuk
9. Demidov
10. Catton
11. Parekh
12. Helenius
13. Iginla

If it were to shake out that way hopefully Calgary would just take Tij. Demidov falling to 10 seems nearly impossible but it’d sure be a dream