Nobody knows for certain, but if I were a betting man, and I’m sure I’m stating the obvious here, but I’m going to throw on my HF18 “Insider” cap anyways:
- Demidov and Lindstrom are our 1A/1B scenario. I think all things considered, if by some draft miracle both are still on the board, they’d lean towards Lindstrom. Either way, if only one is available I’d estimate there’s a 99% chance he’s ours.
- If both are off the board, and we keep the 5th pick, I think we’ll be deciding between Zeev Buium and Beckett Sennecke. I think our staff is intrigued by both and would consider either a fine consolation prize.
- I think we have varying degrees of interest in Sam Dickinson, Anton Silayev and Tij Iginla, but lesser than that of the previously mentioned players. I think the Habs would consider moving back just a few spots to select one of these guys if someone overpaid to move up a few slots. But I’d say the chances of this happening are minuscule, as I think they’d much rather walk out with Buium or Sennecke if Demidov/Lindstrom weren’t an option.
- I think we’ll dangle #26, a young d-prospect and either a 2nd rounder or potentially next year’s confusing extra 1st rounder to try and move into the 10-15 range. There’s a lot of smoke there with Cole Eiserman and I think they’d love to draft him in the teens. I feel like earlier in the year they viewed him as a real candidate for our lotto pick, but now that they know he’s falling they’re trying to work some magic to try and draft him with our second pick of the night. They know he won’t be there at 26.
So yeah, that’s my Darren Dreger-style insider report. We like some players and we may draft them, but we also may not draft them to draft someone else. Trades may happen but they also may not happen. Something will happen that’s for sure, unless it doesn’t.