2025 NHL Draft: Lose a ton for Porter Martone

[Juxtaposer]

I was referring specifically to the idea of pace though. You don’t see this issue in the regular season, but when you get to the playoffs and you’re playing the same team repeatedly for an entire series, it catches up to you to have both your top lines pushing the pace (or slowing the game down, a la JT era Sharks).

But if your top line pushes the pace and your second line slows the game down and plays East-West, it’s a lot harder to plan for both and execute in a dynamic game situation.

If there’s a clear drop-off in talent, I think you still take the BPA and figure it out later. But if it’s close, I think these are the kind of details that matter when team building.

I think we're misaligned on the definition of pace. I certainly wouldn't say that Misa has the same frenetic and dynamic play-style as Celebrini and Eklund. I just mean that he moves his feet, forechecks, and closes on pucks quick. Call him a great skater who plays with "medium-pace", if you want.

My greater point is that Hagens is also a mid-paced player. And Martone, who you want to put with frenetic-paced Celebrini and Eklund, is very slow-paced.

Moreover, while I agree with your thought process, I don't think it needs to be segregated to specific lines. Mackinnon and Rantanen play at vastly different paces on the same line and it works well because of it IMO. Part of the reason that I like Misa at #2 for the Sharks is because he would fit what I want out of this team.

 

[Sharksfan66]

I think we're misaligned on the definition of pace. I certainly wouldn't say that Misa has the same frenetic and dynamic play-style as Celebrini and Eklund. I just mean that he moves his feet, forechecks, and closes on pucks quick. Call him a great skater who plays with "medium-pace", if you want.

My greater point is that Hagens is also a mid-paced player. And Martone, who you want to put with frenetic-paced Celebrini and Eklund, is very slow-paced.

Moreover, while I agree with your thought process, I don't think it needs to be segregated to specific lines. Mackinnon and Rantanen play at vastly different paces on the same line and it works well because of it IMO. Part of the reason that I like Misa at #2 for the Sharks is because he would fit what I want out of this team.

I see what you're saying now. Good catch. I also see how I've been misreading some of the talk about Misa. Thanks!

On the separate line thing, I watch a fair amount of the Oilers and I think McDrai's play styles totally clash at 5 on 5. But the Mack-Rantanen example is an interesting one.

 

[coooldude]

In the spirit of remaining open-minded about the top of this draft, and given some grumbling about Martone's effort, I'm looking into players *other than Eklund* who might be able to crack the top 4. Basically it seems like the list is: Eklund (lots of people love him), McQueen (but I'm not interested in diving into him), Smith (long shot but often at #5) Desnoyers (some real excitement).

EDIT: Looking at Desnoyers first, I know he has lots of tape from Team Canada but I haven't seen it.

This is my first shift-by-shift of Desnoyers in a 5-point night. For a 5-point night from October (breakaway, tipped goal, and a few nice passes), he sure took the 2nd period off and made some very lazy plays. However, there were flashes of top-end talent, his acceleration to top speed is effortless, and he has a big 6'2" frame to fill into. Some good defensive plays and awareness, some very teenage playing. Hard to evaluate as well seeing as this is the Q and the level of play/engagement in general left a lot to be desired. He'd have to have a Sennecke-like back half to supplant Martone at #4 imho as of now, but if he has a good attitude and growth mindset, he certainly is starting with a lot of the tools of an NHLer middle 6 C - frame, skating, hands, finish, decent vision/decision-making, decent off-puck positioning, a smattering of kind of ineffective hits.



And this one from April was super unimpressive. Lackadaisical effort, secondary assist off a faceoff win, tried to hero hockey dangle his way through too often, including the giveaway on the EN. Lots of hits that took him out of position more than they helped with space or puck possession.



Edit2: I generally like Blue Chip Prospect's summaries, so here's Desnoyers (tl;dr: Couturier responsible all situations 2nd line C projection).

 

[Star Platinum]

Some interesting discussing starting at 28:50 related to what Chicago might do at 1OA. There is some belief out there amongst non-Chicago NHL sources that think Chicago will go best forward available.

Also worth noting at the end of the podcast that neither Chris Peters or Cam Robinson would pass on Schaefer without getting something significant back and they make the point to not chase past mistakes (Levshunov over Demidov) when one player is clearly the best player. They say take Schaefer and make moves afterward. I think that's the smart play as well.

So if you're on Team Schaefer, root for the hockey terrorist @weastern bias to go 35-0 in SNOGs down the stretch predicting Shark losses while @BaileyMacTavish contemplates various forms of self-punishment.

 

[Zarzh]

As someone who barely gets time to watch prospects, here's what I'm picking up from all the commentary. There's a clear top 4 in this draft and any of them would be good in their own way for the team:

• Schaefer would give us the potential for a killer 1C/1D combo.
• Hagens would give us the potential for a killer 1/2 C combo (basically what many of us hoped for with Smith but more realistic) and allow Smith to settle into a skilled winger role with less pressure.
• Misa would give us a Celebrini-lite to bolster the 2nd line.
• Martone would give us the potential for an unstoppable top line.

Is that about right?

If so, sign me up for anyone but Misa. In a vacuum, he sounds great, but if he's the play-driver on the second line, I think it makes the team too easy to gameplay against/shut down when both the top lines play the same kind of game. Also not sure what we do with Smith in this scenario, though this may be one of those "good" problems to have...

edit: gameplan* against

Schaefer is the easy pick.

Martone and especially Misa are much more likely to play with Smith and add much more goal-creation to the team due to unique skillsets and create an elite top 6.

Hagens is the dreamer pick where he doesn't really do anything unique and you're just hoping he's a Hall of Famer.

 

[jMoneyBrah]

I still don't understand how it was possible for him to even hit the net in that situation. No defender within 10 feet of him, was not even that close to the net when the puck left his stick, he didn't lose an edge and slide into the net.

Elite skills across the board, but scrub level object permanence perception. The goalie temporarily blocked his view of the net and he simply forgot that it continues to exist.

Do not draft status

 

[jMoneyBrah]

counterpoint: Schaefer's lack of awareness led to him breaking his collarbone

I still don't understand how it was possible for him to even hit the net in that situation. No defender within 10 feet of him, was not even that close to the net when the puck left his stick, he didn't lose an edge and slide into the net.

Yeah that play is kind of a red flag for me on Schaefer honestly.

In all seriousness, a lapse in attention is not unheard of in young men. As baffling of a play as it was, and it certainly was, I think the entire body of his work should be evaluated…

Genuinely can't tell if y'all are being serious. If anything, the collarbone break will make Schaefer more aware of stuff like that in the future than a kid who has no awareness and just gets lucky avoiding injury.

…I agree. If Schaefer is as intelligent a players as he’s been hyped to be, then he will learn from this and he’ll adjust moving forward.

 

[TheBeard]

Is Shaf isn't available I'm legit looking at Misa then Victor Eklund.

How fun would that be?

 

[NiWa]

In the spirit of remaining open-minded about the top of this draft, and given some grumbling about Martone's effort, I'm looking into players *other than Eklund* who might be able to crack the top 4. Basically it seems like the list is: Eklund (lots of people love him), McQueen (but I'm not interested in diving into him), Smith (long shot but often at #5) Desnoyers (some real excitement).

Those are the contenders, but I think Frondell would also be considered to be in the mix:

Post in thread 'F Anton Frondell - Djurgårdens IF U16, U16 Div.1 (2025 Draft)'

Jan 11, 2025

Been looking at draft rankings: Elite Prospects - NHL Draft Center

Frondell is all over. Tough get a read of where he might go. I'm inclined to believe Bobby Mac but he has him at #3 but Misa at #7 (with Ryabkin at #5) so I'm not sure I trust it much.

Where do most people have him?

McKenzie's rankings is from September. Many of the rankings shown on EP's Draft Center are actually fairly old. Still, many rankings from December still have him 5-6th, while others have him outside their Top 10.

2nd by FloHockey (June)
3rd by McKenzie (September)
3rd by Daily Faceoff...

• Briser la glace

• 

 

[matt trick]

Chicago's schedule prior to the four nations is brutal:

Tampa, Car twice
Vegas, Min, Florida, Edm, St. Louis, and Nash once

San Jose:
NSH twice
NYI, Boston, Florida, Pitt, Seattle, MTL, Vancouver, and Dallas

We've got 5 games against the bottom 10, and one against a division playoff team, they've got one against the bottom 10, and 8 against divisional playoff teams. I'd expect Chicago will have a stranglehold on the 32nd place by the end of this stretch. Time to move Granlund?

 

[sharski]

Is Shaf isn't available I'm legit looking at Misa then Victor Eklund.

How fun would that be?

For all the talk of top-4-or-bust, I'd actually be happy if the sharks get eklund at #5

I don't see them falling any further than that so I'm basically not stressed about this draft at all now haha

 

[JoeThorntonsRooster]

For all the talk of top-4-or-bust, I'd actually be happy if the sharks get eklund at #5

I don't see them falling any further than that so I'm basically not stressed about this draft at all now haha

Nashville is closest to us in the standings but I don't see them as real competition. They're around or above 50% in Corsi and xGoals on the year, and are actually 8-6-1 in their last 15 games, which supports that they are actually a mediocre to decent team who were just made to look terrible by unsustainably low on-ice shooting at the start of the year.

Buffalo and Seattle are both very bad teams, but we're significantly worse than them and we've already gained some ground on them. Everyone else just seems too far ahead to worry about. I think we're pretty safe to finish in the bottom 2.

 

[coooldude]

Those are the contenders, but I think Frondell would also be considered to be in the mix:

Post in thread 'F Anton Frondell - Djurgårdens IF U16, U16 Div.1 (2025 Draft)'

Jan 11, 2025

Been looking at draft rankings: Elite Prospects - NHL Draft Center

Frondell is all over. Tough get a read of where he might go. I'm inclined to believe Bobby Mac but he has him at #3 but Misa at #7 (with Ryabkin at #5) so I'm not sure I trust it much.

Where do most people have him?

McKenzie's rankings is from September. Many of the rankings shown on EP's Draft Center are actually fairly old. Still, many rankings from December still have him 5-6th, while others have him outside their Top 10.

2nd by FloHockey (June)
3rd by McKenzie (September)
3rd by Daily Faceoff...

• Briser la glace

• 

I'm guessing Eklund is the first Swede off the board, but Frondell started high and certainly has his fans.

Carter Bear has some fans too, but that doesn't seem like a Sharks pick and a stretch to beat out Martone. And Mrtka seems like a very long shot to get into the top 5.

But yeah, lots of negativity on the Martone thread right now. FWIW I also watched but didn't post a Misa shift by shift and I really like the player.

 

[Juxtaposer]

I'm guessing Eklund is the first Swede off the board, but Frondell started high and certainly has his fans.

Carter Bear has some fans too, but that doesn't seem like a Sharks pick and a stretch to beat out Martone. And Mrtka seems like a very long shot to get into the top 5.

But yeah, lots of negativity on the Martone thread right now. FWIW I also watched but didn't post a Misa shift by shift and I really like the player.

I think Eklund is quite a bit better than Frondell but I would be surprised if he went higher than Frondell. Small winger versus average-sized center.

My take beyond the top-4 is:

5. Eklund
6. J. Smith
7. McQueen
8. Desnoyers
9. Frondell
10. Bear

Not that I think we're going to drop into this tier, but I think these guys are a tier that's pretty close together, though I would consider listing Eklund/Smith a half-tier above the other four.

 

[TheBeard]

I’m all on board with Carter Bear. I think he’s what this 2 ply soft “pretty boy” team needs.

 

[Jargon]

Nashville is closest to us in the standings but I don't see them as real competition. They're around or above 50% in Corsi and xGoals on the year, and are actually 8-6-1 in their last 15 games, which supports that they are actually a mediocre to decent team who were just made to look terrible by unsustainably low on-ice shooting at the start of the year.

Buffalo and Seattle are both very bad teams, but we're significantly worse than them and we've already gained some ground on them. Everyone else just seems too far ahead to worry about. I think we're pretty safe to finish in the bottom 2.

Yeah, I think we’ll also take a significant hit after the trade deadline if we lose Granlund, Ceci, etc. and replace them with Cuda guys.

Plan is:

-finish 31st and either win the lottery or pray Chicago goes Hagens

-draft Schaefer

-be aggressive in upgrading D this summer and maybe see if you can find another top 6 winger so you have 6 players worthy of top 6 minutes

-give the goalie job to Askarov

-have a team that won’t make the playoffs but has a small chance all year so the kids get to play very important games throughout the year

…and then the following year you hope guys like Schaefer, Dickinson, Musty, Chernyshov, Cagnoni and Bystedt are either competing hard for spots or have earned them and push for the playoffs.

 

[TheBeard]

Yeah, I think we’ll also take a significant hit after the trade deadline if we lose Granlund, Ceci, etc. and replace them with Cuda guys.

Plan is:

-finish 31st and either win the lottery or pray Chicago goes Hagens

-draft Schaefer

-be aggressive in upgrading D this summer and maybe see if you can find another top 6 winger so you have 6 players worthy of top 6 minutes

-give the goalie job to Askarov

-have a team that won’t make the playoffs but has a small chance all year so the kids get to play very important games throughout the year

…and then the following year you hope guys like Schaefer, Dickinson, Musty, Chernyshov, Cagnoni and Bystedt are either competing hard for spots or have earned them and push for the playoffs.

It's so easy, I don't understand why so many other teams don't just, like, do this.

 

[sharski]

It's so easy, I don't understand why so many other teams don't just, like, do this.

So easy and nhl gm can do it