2025 NHL Draft: Lose a ton for Porter Martone

[hohosaregood]

hopefully it's like the 2013 or 2014 drafts where the top 4 are relatively equivalent. obviously mackinnon came out on top but he and seth jones were neck and neck up to the draft and even barkov justified going 2nd pretty early on. and draisaitl coming out on top compared to reinhart, ekblad, and bennett. if it's like that, you could easily justify martone or schaeffer 1oa. at this point, hagens would have to play at an insane level to pull away from crowd.

 

[Gecklund]

If you get James Hagens 3rd overall you're laughing IMO. I'm really happy with any of those three players.

Yep agreed. Think this draft we are going to add yet another cornerstone level piece regardless of where our pick falls (within reason). I’ll be honest I’ve tuned out of hockey a lot for the past couple months (basically since July 15th-ish) but my early opinions of this draft is there’s a ton of guys who could give us a very good piece.

I don’t think any of them are on Macklin’s level (as discussed previously in this thread but I didn’t look until now so I’m responding now ) I think Macklin is just so intelligent and I think his offensive game is a bit underrated. He’s never going to be that Jack Hughes level highlight real but I think he is just one of those guys that always makes the right play/always is in the right spot. Real fun to have.

With all that said I’d love to add any of Hagens, Schaefer, Martone, Frondell, Ryabkin, McQueen, Hensler. I’m probably forgetting people cause football is on so only half paying attention to this very rambly post but I like the potential of all those guys and even if our young guys really drag us along to a higher finish, I don’t think we will go wanting from the draft.

 

[anthonyyy]

This came up on my Twitter feed so I figured I'd post here. I don't know anything about this kid other than this clip, but if he's talented enough to play top-6 in the NHL, he could be Will Smith's best friend as the F1 on that line. He turns 18 in a month, so maybe take it with a grain of salt that he could just be stronger than these guys right now.

https://x.com/i/web/status/1843342949779972221

 

[Barrie22]

This came up on my Twitter feed so I figured I'd post here. I don't know anything about this kid other than this clip, but if he's talented enough to play top-6 in the NHL, he could be Will Smith's best friend as the F1 on that line. He turns 18 in a month, so maybe take it with a grain of salt that he could just be stronger than these guys right now.

https://x.com/i/web/status/1843342949779972221

Even among CHL players 6'0 and 175 is still kind of average size. I watched expecting to see like a brent burns kind of player towering over everyone on the ice, but in most of those clips he was the same size or even smaller then the ones he was battling for the puck with.

 

[Juxtaposer]

EP's first 2025 ranking came out and it's a doozy.

1. Hagens
2. McQueen
3. Misa
4. Schaefer
5. Martone

Ryabkin down at 12, Frondell down at 15, and Hensler at 16. All judged to have limited upside, which I can't say I disagree with. Trethewey and Radivojevic outside the first round.

They're high on Malcolm Spence, whom I do like a lot as a high-floor almost certainly a 2nd liner, but not someone who will be in consideration for our pick. They like Jackson Smith as their second D off the board, who is a very interesting Korchinski-like LHD. And they're high on Victor Eklund as well, as they should be!

Someone that sticks out to me as interesting in the early 2nd is Jack Murtagh, he's a sort of power winger type, and he's stood out to me with the NTDP so far this season.

I would love if McQueen has a 1st overall caliber season, he'd be a great fit. I'm just not sold from what I've seen so far.

I wanted to share a couple tools ratings that EP does for a couple individuals. Take these numbers in order as [skating][shooting][passing][stick-handling][hockey sense][physicality]

James Hagens: 8 6 7 7.5 7 5.5
Roger McQueen: 5 6.5 7 7.5 7 7
Michael Misa: 7 6.5 7 7 7 6
Macklin Celebrini: 7 8 8 8 8 6
Will Smith: 5 5.5 7.5 7.5 7.5 4

Matthew Schaefer: 6.5 6.5 7 7 7 6
Jackson Smith: 7.5 5.5 5.5 5.5 5.5 6.5
Sam Dickinson: 7.5 6 5 5 5 6.5

Porter Martone: 5 7 6.5 6.5 7 7
Quentin Musty: 4.5 7 6.5 7 7 5.5

With the caveat that you can never capture the total impact of a player in numbers, my takeaways are:

1) Macklin Celebrini is awesome and the best
2) Hagens is like if Smith were a bit smaller but a great skater
3) Smith's brain is elite but his tools lack behind, which is why he may be an aggregate worse prospect than Hagens/McQueen/Misa, even if I don't believe in Misa like that.
4) Schaefer is really well-rounded but no standout trait. A '7' in IQ puts him at 'high-end' in that category, compared to Dickinson's 'NHL average' grade of 5.
5) Jackson Smith seems like a similar caliber of prospect as Dickinson but more offensively leaning and maybe a smidge better all-around.
6) Whoever we realistically draft this summer is going to be the best non-Celebrini asset in our org.

 

[Jargon]

It’s really exciting that I don’t need to worry about us not winning the draft lottery this year but that no matter what happens we’re very likely going to get yet another fantastic piece to our already fantastic pipeline.

 

[hohosaregood]

I find McQueen to be intriguing but he always seemed more like an opportunistic scorer whenever I see his highlights. Like mostly finishing off plays, not really featuring in the play.

 

[Alaskanice]

EP's first 2025 ranking came out and it's a doozy.

1. Hagens
2. McQueen
3. Misa
4. Schaefer
5. Martone

Ryabkin down at 12, Frondell down at 15, and Hensler at 16. All judged to have limited upside, which I can't say I disagree with. Trethewey and Radivojevic outside the first round.

They're high on Malcolm Spence, whom I do like a lot as a high-floor almost certainly a 2nd liner, but not someone who will be in consideration for our pick. They like Jackson Smith as their second D off the board, who is a very interesting Korchinski-like LHD. And they're high on Victor Eklund as well, as they should be!

Someone that sticks out to me as interesting in the early 2nd is Jack Murtagh, he's a sort of power winger type, and he's stood out to me with the NTDP so far this season.

I would love if McQueen has a 1st overall caliber season, he'd be a great fit. I'm just not sold from what I've seen so far.

I wanted to share a couple tools ratings that EP does for a couple individuals. Take these numbers in order as [skating][shooting][passing][stick-handling][hockey sense][physicality]

James Hagens: 8 6 7 7.5 7 5.5
Roger McQueen: 5 6.5 7 7.5 7 7
Michael Misa: 7 6.5 7 7 7 6
Macklin Celebrini: 7 8 8 8 8 6
Will Smith: 5 5.5 7.5 7.5 7.5 4

Matthew Schaefer: 6.5 6.5 7 7 7 6
Jackson Smith: 7.5 5.5 5.5 5.5 5.5 6.5
Sam Dickinson: 7.5 6 5 5 5 6.5

Porter Martone: 5 7 6.5 6.5 7 7
Quentin Musty: 4.5 7 6.5 7 7 5.5

With the caveat that you can never capture the total impact of a player in numbers, my takeaways are:

1) Macklin Celebrini is awesome and the best
2) Hagens is like if Smith were a bit smaller but a great skater
3) Smith's brain is elite but his tools lack behind, which is why he may be an aggregate worse prospect than Hagens/McQueen/Misa, even if I don't believe in Misa like that.
4) Schaefer is really well-rounded but no standout trait. A '7' in IQ puts him at 'high-end' in that category, compared to Dickinson's 'NHL average' grade of 5.
5) Jackson Smith seems like a similar caliber of prospect as Dickinson but more offensively leaning and maybe a smidge better all-around.
6) Whoever we realistically draft this summer is going to be the best non-Celebrini asset in our org.

This is impressive. Gives me something to study. Thank you.

 

[Juxtaposer]

It’s really exciting that I don’t need to worry about us not winning the draft lottery this year but that no matter what happens we’re very likely going to get yet another fantastic piece to our already fantastic pipeline.

Yeah it's genuinely so relieving to have three or four guys I'm really excited about at the top of the draft instead of literally one guy. If we hadn't won the Celebrini lottery, our rebuild is delayed by at least a year, if not more. The anxiety I had leading into the lottery last year was insane, and I definitely can't take it again.

I find McQueen to be intriguing but he always seemed more like an opportunistic scorer whenever I see his highlights. Like mostly finishing off plays, not really featuring in the play.

Yeah, that's my impression of him as well, which is why he's always kinda sat in the 5-7 range in my personal list. But EP was high on Cayden Lindstrom last year before anyone else was, so maybe he'll have that kind of rise.

 

[weastern bias]

[skating][shooting][passing][stick-handling][hockey sense][physicality]

Macklin Celebrini: 7 8 8 8 8 6

1) Macklin Celebrini is awesome and the best

Thank you

I appreciate this addition to my growing sample for my confirmation bias

My working theory is this:

Macklin Celebrini >

 

[one2gamble]

Now, just don't over achieve