2025 Draft Thread

[majormajor]

This type of analysis ignores the biggest source of improvement that teams experience year over year: young players getting better over time.

When the Jackets get better, it won't be because of a free agent signing or trade acquisition. It will be players like Chinakhov, Johnson, Jiricek and Fantilli simply maturing into the high end players they have shown glimpses of being.

Absolutely. Though for me that is a step forward that young players give you after a few years in the league. For now, guys like Fantilli and certainly Jiricek are going to cause as much chaos for us as they will for the opposing club. The Jackets are still too young. I'm liking where Chinakhov is at though, I think he might pop.

That's true. But the young players of most of the teams listed there will also improve. Why would that be a bigger factor for Columbus?

We've just got more young players. Though that doesn't usually help until they've got a few years of experience.

 

[CalBuckeyeRob]

And two years ago who predicted the Bruins would be a playoff team (never mind President's Trophy winners) or that the Devils were playoff bound? And be honest, who had the Devils not making the playoffs this year, the Knights making it as the last playoff team or that the Canucks and Caps were making the playoffs?

From year to year you never know. You don't know which teams are going to have collective career years up or down, which teams will be decimated by injuries and which teams youngsters are going to figure it out all at once. The year the CBJ made the playoffs with Steve Mason as a rookie, none of us saw it coming.

I am not saying you are wrong or right, just saying none of us know. It's why they play the games.

Columbus is still at that point where they haven't figured out what exactly they lack and if that can be filled internally with experience or by bringing in outside talent. Often, when a team gets those top 6-8 guys in the right role, the rest comes together fast.

 

[koteka]

If you want to learn some of the top names for 2025.

James Hagens in pole position for top spot at 2025 NHL Draft | TSN

The Boston College freshman centre is the near-unanimous choice for No. 1 on Bob McKenzie's annual Pre-Season Ranking for the 2025 draft.

www.tsn.ca

 

[ThirdPeriodTurtle]

If you want to learn some of the top names for 2025.

James Hagens in pole position for top spot at 2025 NHL Draft | TSN

The Boston College freshman centre is the near-unanimous choice for No. 1 on Bob McKenzie's annual Pre-Season Ranking for the 2025 draft.

www.tsn.ca

Thanks, a good primer for us casual draft followers.

Inspired by the "Demigod" thread on the mains, I know what I'd nickname Desnoyers if he becomes an offensive threat... Ravensbergen is too easy but cool nonetheless, too, especially for a goalie.

 

[AnonCommentary]

Semi-related to ‘25 draft because I’d be interested to see how Don handles them with more time. Been pretty frustrated that we haven’t taken any Russians in the last few drafts. I’m not referring to the Michkov or Demidov types. More like Marchenko and Voronkovs beyond the first round. Then I realized we no longer had a Russia based scout on staff. Haven’t bothered to replace him. Really interesting given that some of our more prepared players have hailed from Russia.

Russia scout for reference: Boris Yemelyanov

 

[Jovavic]

The Canes drafted a ton of Russians during Waddell's time there

 

[AnonCommentary]

The canes did so I’m waiting to see if Don will rehire a scout. I didnt anticipate an immediate hire when he came in. However, I have some theories that we’ve been told to stop with the Russians. I have no legitimate sources on that but it’s weird to go from typically drafting one every year to nothing and not having a scout.

 

[koteka]

The canes did so I’m waiting to see if Don will rehire a scout. I didnt anticipate an immediate hire when he came in. However, I have some theories that we’ve been told to stop with the Russians. I have no legitimate sources on that but it’s weird to go from typically drafting one every year to nothing and not having a scout.

The last few years of Jarmo’s drafting shifted away from Europe and he started drafting a lot of small guys. I broke it out one time. @majormajor was the only one that had an explanation that made sense and it involved the type of models that the analytics guys used and when the analytics guys were hired. Personally I think Jarmo should have stayed drafting the Bjorkstrands and Gavrikovs and avoided the 5’8” guys.

 

[ThirdPeriodTurtle]

Maybe a bit simplistic, but not having a Russian scout or drafting too many Russians could also have been an abundance of caution, given the timeline of everything. The risks may have seemed really high in 2022-2023 and maybe they just decided to not take chances. In hindsight that was the wrong call, but I certainly can't blame that kind of thinking.

 

[Xoggz22]

It could also be that they simply had players rated higher throughout the draft process. I don't think anyone has been told not to draft Russians. The political climate certainly could change that, but there is a big advantage to drafting them (especially with later round picks).... you have their rights until you decline to keep them if they don't sign. They can stay in Russia for 2, 5, 7 years and then you can see if you have that diamond in the rough or a player that wants to, and can, play in the NHL.

 

[koteka]

It could also be that they simply had players rated higher throughout the draft process. I don't think anyone has been told not to draft Russians. The political climate certainly could change that, but there is a big advantage to drafting them (especially with later round picks).... you have their rights until you decline to keep them if they don't sign. They can stay in Russia for 2, 5, 7 years and then you can see if you have that diamond in the rough or a player that wants to, and can, play in the NHL.

The success with the Russians is in part due to the fact we didn’t get a chance to screw up their development. (plus good scouting and other teams avoiding scouting/drafting Russians)

Letting a mid or later round kid develop in Russia where he can be moved up and down between VHL, MHL, and KHL and develop at his own pace makes a lot of sense to me.

 

[CBJx614]

The success with the Russians is in part due to the fact we didn’t get a chance to screw up their development. (plus good scouting and other teams avoiding scouting/drafting Russians)

Letting a mid or later round kid develop in Russia where he can be moved up and down between VHL, MHL, and KHL and develop at his own pace makes a lot of sense to me.

I'm excited to see how Ivanov, Makarov and Dolzy develop and see how they compare to our current young Russians

 

[AnonCommentary]

The last few years of Jarmo’s drafting shifted away from Europe and he started drafting a lot of small guys. I broke it out one time. @majormajor was the only one that had an explanation that made sense and it involved the type of models that the analytics guys used and when the analytics guys were hired. Personally I think Jarmo should have stayed drafting the Bjorkstrands and Gavrikovs and avoided the 5’8” guys.

Do you have a link to this? I’d certainly be interested in reading this!

 

[AnonCommentary]

The EP team did their first rankings of the season

1. Hagens
2. McQueen
3. Misa
4. Schaefer
5. Martone
6. Spence
7. Smith
8. Eklund
9. Lakovic
10. Cootes
11. Desnoyers
12. Ryabkin
13. Schmidt
14. Fiddler
15. Frondell
16. Hensler
17. Mrtka
18. Martin
19. Aitcheson
20. Ravensbergen
21. O’Brien
22. Amico
23. Moore
24. Guite
25. Carbonneau
26. Murtagh
27. Reschny
28. Rheaume-Mullen
29. Hamilton
30. Boumedienne
31. Bear
32. Kevan

 

[EspenK]

Time to start looking for the top 5, Slightly less pessimism is back to normal.

 

[CBJx614]

I want McQueen for the name alone

 

[GoJackets1]

I want McQueen for the name alone

Definitely a good name. I love him as a player too. He’s another 6’5” WHL center. But maybe a bit more playmaking ability than Lindstrom. Adding him, Hagens, or Misa to our young forward group would be insane.

Someone with more prospect knowledge correct me if I’m wrong, but Hagens sounds like Will Smith but with better skating. So maybe Jack Hughes ish?

 

[CBJx614]

Definitely a good name. I love him as a player too. He’s another 6’5” WHL center. But maybe a bit more playmaking ability than Lindstrom. Adding him, Hagens, or Misa to our young forward group would be insane.

Someone with more prospect knowledge correct me if I’m wrong, but Hagens sounds like Will Smith but with better skating. So maybe Jack Hughes ish?

I'm attempting to not give a f*** about prospects until we are mathematically eliminated from the playoffs.

Not that I'm expecting to make the playoffs, but I hate talking prospects before the regular season/holidays are even here.

 

[Aaaarrgghh]

As of right now, my expectation is for them to finish dead last. So I can only be positively surprised this season. The young guys would just have to take such a huge leap forward for it to end otherwise. Either that or Evason being worth lots of points in the standings. I hope I'm wrong, but with the exception of K. Johnson and Mateychuk, I've not been encouraged by a lot this off-season.

 

[Viqsi]

I'm attempting to not give a f*** about prospects until we are mathematically eliminated from the playoffs.

Not that I'm expecting to make the playoffs, but I hate talking prospects before the regular season/holidays are even here.

I expect the conversation to be mostly calm because there's no Hype Guys to freak out about.

 

[alphafox]

I fully expect to have at least one more first rounder as we will be sellers at the deadline and the GM/Staff will know at that point who has a future here and who doesn't. Unfortunately as mentioned there doesn't appear to be a Crosby/McDavid/Bedard available so we'll hopefully end up with a couple contributors that can replicate more of a Boston model as that is what will be required without a truly elite talent. There doesn't look to be even the chance of a savior anytime soon so best case scenario is another couple years before a chance to really change our fortunes. Ideally we could pick up someone like Martone (I'm just assuming we don't win the lottery) and Jackson Smith to add even more size and really start to build an identity.

As far as the draft I don't see an obvious strength to the team or the prospect pool to build on. I think you could make the argument that Forward and D need significant investment to turn them into a strength, I Lean toward another forward because even with with Jiricek disappointing you have Mateychuk who looks like a legit player. Offense is a giant list of question marks (Lindstrom's ongoing injury question marks, Fantilli's development pause, the class of 2021's delayed progression, etc.) and more investment there could actually turn them into an above average unit if we are able to get a couple of breaks and have at least a couple of our top 5 picks actually pan out.

 

[stevo61]

Man in a world we get lucky and draft Hagens... oh boy, the suck would be worth it