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Prospect Info: 2025 DRAFT Discussion

If you put me in a coma and woke me up in 20 years you could literally tell me any outcome for O’Briens career and I’d believe you

Bust who never plays a game? 1500 points? Mediocre middle 6 wing? Avg offense only 2C? Defensive 4C? AAAA guy? Wouldn’t blink that hard at any. No idea what to think with him :laugh:
 
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Jesse said:
Why is it like taboo to talk about this? I don't get it. Everyone is afraid he's gonna turn it on next year suddenly and make them look stupid. I, however, will stew in my wrong-ness for years. (See: Pierro-Zabotel, Casey).
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Big Hockey suppresses any right handed center prospect hate if said prospect is 6’3 and up. Especially if they are 6’5 or 6’6.

However 6’7 and up or left handed? you can talk a little shit. But only until the second round.
 
Jesse said:
Assuming this is about Eklund, I'd caution referencing his height. He's playing against grown men right now, and several handfuls of them have spent their time staring up at him from a flat position on the ice after he completely destroys them. In the boards. Open ice. It's open season on anyone. There's being a small player who tries hard like Conor Sheary. Then there's being a small player built like a brick s***house who is laying waste to adults and creating scoring chances off of it.. He's giving alligator arms to the defensemen in the SHL because he's hitting them over and over and over again. By the time the third rolls around, they tap out.
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Sounds like a lot of fun to watch.
 
Jesse said:
Cutting O'Brien's video was the most fun I've had this year so far, Misa excluded. He is willing to try anything once. And when you watch him shift by shift, he tests defensemen with his toolbox. It reminded me of Crosby v. Zidlicky all those years ago. Set them up with a move to bait them, pull a new move later to break their ankles. It's the definition of hockey sense to me, which is always the hardest thing to define for any player. He has it in spades. It's much harder to teach it to people later on down the line.
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Depending where we pick (which appears to be later and later) O'Brien might be the best we can hope for between 8th-11th. Relative to that position in the draft he'd be my target. He's also one of the youngest players in the draft. June birthday.
 
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If somehow Desnoyers or Eklund are available I most likely opt for them. O'Brien seems like a safer pick however.

Martin or Lakovic would be a strong 2hd pick if the Rangers just miss the playoffs.
 
Jacob said:
McQueen's injury from a Brandon Sun article:
McQueen said it was a pars fracture — less colloquially known as spondylolysis — which is a stress fracture of the spine common in young athletes. It’s usually caused by repetitive stress rather than an acute injury.
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I had Spondylolysis and spondylolisthesis (the latter caused by the former) in high school and I still have back issues to this day. I'm no professional athlete, but even as a very active high school athlete with constant therapy, it repeatedly acted up for all four years of high school. In college it progressed to slipping discs and continued issues in the weight room. Now I'm generally ok but I don't lift heavy or play sports anymore.

If my experience is typical then it's something that'd give me pause when drafting.
 
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I feel like the only reason McQueen is staying up high in the rankings is a combination of his size and projection for what he was expected to do this year. He had a pretty good 2023-2024 season with Brandon as a 17 year old without much support, and I think that plus his size made scouts think he'd absolutely pop off this year. His performance hasn't been great, especially since coming back from his injury, but I think the thing keeping him up in the rankings is more projection than actual results. I think a lot of teams who liked him before will write off any poor performances based on the injury and thinking he'll be fine next year.

I would just hope Dubas isn't the one to take that gamble on him, which I'm not super worried about based on them seemingly being interested in both Eklund and O'Brien. Eklund already really feels like a Dubas type of pick, but I also think an OHL bias Dubas and Clarke appear to have would make them prefer O'Brien to McQueen as well.
 
I've been saying all along that McQueen feels like the epitome of a bait pick. All I've seen of the dude (which, to be fair, was relatively cursory research--definitely not claiming to have really sat down and done a deep dive) hasn't been impressive, he's always tied to serious concerns about how his skating needs a ton of work to be NHL caliber, and he has pretty worrying injury issues. Between the skating concerns and his back, he shouldn't even be on this team's radar.

Probably wouldn't even take him with the Rangers' pick if it ended up being like 15th. I think the best case scenario is that you end up with a Bjugstad or Jankowski type of guy who is simply just tall. Not physical, not proficient at anything, a bottom 6 guy who just kinda exists. Maybe he makes me eat crow and develops into a stud, but I'm not even convinced he'll be anything more than the type of prospect Poulin is. Fighting tooth and nail to even be in the conversation as a reserve call up from the AHL.
 
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Big Friggin Dummy said:
I've been saying all along that McQueen feels like the epitome of a bait pick. All I've seen of the dude (which, to be fair, was relatively cursory research--definitely not claiming to have really sat down and done a deep dive) hasn't been impressive, he's always tied to serious concerns about how his skating needs a ton of work to be NHL caliber, and he has pretty worrying injury issues. Between the skating concerns and his back, he shouldn't even be on this team's radar.

Probably wouldn't even take him with the Rangers' pick if it ended up being like 15th. I think the best case scenario is that you end up with a Bjugstad or Jankowski type of guy who is simply just tall. Not physical, not proficient at anything, a bottom 6 guy who just kinda exists. Maybe he makes me eat crow and develops into a stud, but I'm not even convinced he'll be anything more than the type of prospect Poulin is. Fighting tooth and nail to even be in the conversation as a reserve call up from the AHL.
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Bjugstad seems like a very appropriate comparison, but Bjugstad also has 750 NHL games and has been averaged to be around a 40 point guy in his career. I don't even think that would be a bad pick at like #15 overall, Bjugstad himself was picked at #19 overall.

There would be a lot of draft picks that would end up worse than McQueen if he went like 10th overall and ended up Bjugstad 2.0. The stylistic comparison fits really well there and I wouldn't even consider that pick a "bust" if that's how his career ended up going.
 
Big Friggin Dummy said:
think the best case scenario is that you end up with a Bjugstad or Jankowski type of guy who is simply just tall. Not physical, not proficient at anything, a bottom 6 guy who just kinda exists.
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Tbf he’s way more talented than those guys.

Agree he has a low floor (I think a lot about Henrik Borgstrom with McQueen) but I do think he’s got upside.

I truly do understand the appeal just wouldn’t do it myself until later than he will inevitably get taken.
 
CheckingLineCenter said:
Tbf he’s way more talented than those guys.

Agree he has a low floor (I think a lot about Henrik Borgstrom with McQueen) but I do think he’s got upside.

I truly do understand the appeal just wouldn’t do it myself until later than he will inevitably get taken.
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I don't know that he really is more talented than those guys tbh. Bjugstad and Jankowski put up comparable numbers in the NCAA that McQueen's been putting up in the WHL. There might be NHL talent there, but I don't know that there's NHL skating or NHL durability. The presence of either of the latter two issues should negate the former, let alone both at the same time imo. We'll see what happens, I guess. I just hope like hell this team isn't the one to take a swing by picking McQueen.
 
Big Friggin Dummy said:
I don't know that he really is more talented than those guys tbh. Bjugstad and Jankowski put up comparable numbers in the NCAA that McQueen's been putting up in the WHL. There might be NHL talent there, but I don't know that there's NHL skating or NHL durability. The presence of either of the latter two issues should negate the former, let alone both at the same time imo. We'll see what happens, I guess. I just hope like hell this team isn't the one to take a swing by picking McQueen.
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I don’t necessarily disagree. I don’t know if he’s as effective as a player as either were at same age -but just saying he’s def got better hands/skill than both IMO. His hands are legit.
 
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Malkinstheman said:
Man, Boston is so cooked, feels like it will be really hard to jump them now. Best case scenario seems to be 6th
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And I applaud what the Bruins are doing. At least they're trying to get a good draft pick. LOSE NOW, WIN LATER! We're too stupid to see that.
 
Bruins have lost nine in a row, Isles are down 3-1 in the 3rd to TB, if they lose they'll have lost six in a row.

We should do the same but the coach has rocks in his head.
 
Doubt they fall below BOS or SEA at this point, but with the recent form of Philly and now Buffalo, looking like a 6th place finish is probably the "best" they can do, which wouldn't be too bad. Especially since it seems fairly unlikely they go below 8th.

Blues on the road seems like an automatic L.
 
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