HF Habs: 2025 NHL Draft: Part II

[Goldenhands]

I was funneling all the information I saw, yes.

Not doing that this year?

 

[WeThreeKings]

Not doing that this year?

Hahaha no, I've got a 9 month old. My scouting career is significantly decreased.

 

[le_sean]

Hahaha no, I've got a 9 month old. My scouting career is significantly decreased.

At least you can tell us who is going 1st overall in 2043

 

[WeThreeKings]

At least you can tell us who is going 1st overall in 2043

Long way to go before goalies go 1 OA again.

 

[McGees]

Suzuki at the combine:
5'11" 183 lbs

Kindel at the combine:
5'10.25" 180 lbs

Suzuki in his draft year:
65 45-51-96 17 8-15-23

Kindel in his draft year:

65 35-64-99 11 8-7-15

Cerebral, stocky two-way players who were thought of as maybe being better suited to the wing at the NHL level but succeeded at C in juniors.

Shall we run it back?

 

[rien]

Athletic staff mock was Lakovic and Carbo for us. Passing on Reschny who went a pick after. Cootes went 12.

I’d be happy with these picks. Not entirely sold on Lakovic but he’s a sexy pick with all the tools he’s got.

Carbonneau will be a top 6 winger.

 

[WeThreeKings]

I’d be happy with these picks. Not entirely sold on Lakovic but he’s a sexy pick with all the tools he’s got.

Carbonneau will be a top 6 winger.

Only guy we are linked to that I dont want is Reid.

If they take Lakovic, ill hope for the best, I just won't put any hope into him because those guys are so tantalizing but rarely work out.

Hensler would be boring but at least hes a righty who will play.

 

[jrom]

He fits mold of player Hughes likes. He's big, skilled but soft, Laine, Dach.

Emo post of the day

 

[WinterLion]

The NHL is closely monitoring the ongoing civil unrest and protests in Los Angeles, which will host the draft in just 16 days.

The Peacock Theater and LA Live are both within the current curfew zone, which restricts activities and movement from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m.”

- Frank Seravalli

mtl would host it asap

We know how to throw a good party!!

 

[covfefe]

It would've been nice to see Lakovic traded to a contender. I also can't help but wonder what the narrative around him would be like if he had just posted 40g-50a. He was a big portion of his team's scoring this year and that would generally carry over to a better team.

Also, a quick acknowledgement to the guy for spending a year in Moose Jaw on the worst team in Canada. That can't be a great experience or good for your confidence.

 

[Team_Spirit]

Brock Otten's top OHL rankings are out.

My Final Top 50 OHL Players for the 2025 NHL Entry Draft - Part 2: 20-1

The second and final part of my 2025 rankings release. It was certainly great to see the OHL return to the forefront of draft coverage this ...

ohlprospects.blogspot.com

He has Martin real high the hype is real

 

[WeThreeKings]

It would've been nice to see Lakovic traded to a contender. I also can't help but wonder what the narrative around him would be like if he had just posted 40g-50a. He was a big portion of his team's scoring this year and that would generally carry over to a better team.

Also, a quick acknowledgement to the guy for spending a year in Moose Jaw on the worst team in Canada. That can't be a great experience or good for your confidence.

No one questions his talent.. they question his intensity, his physicality and desire to get in between the dots. 4 PIMs is insane with a guy of that size. So, no, I don't think the narrative changes at all if he scored more points. It doesn't answer any of his questions.

 

[Doublechin]

The NHL is closely monitoring the ongoing civil unrest and protests in Los Angeles, which will host the draft in just 16 days.

The Peacock Theater and LA Live are both within the current curfew zone, which restricts activities and movement from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m.”

- Frank Seravalli

mtl would host it asap

f*** me

Flying there on Friday lol

 

[McGees]

He has Martin real high the hype is real

I've seen his as high as #4

 

[WeThreeKings]

I've seen his as high as #4

Yeah, rumor is that Utah really really likes him and if you jumped up in the draft order like they did, they are definitely more inclined to just take -their guy-.

 

[WinterLion]

Lakovic is very polarizing... it's always fun... those players tend to go on the higher side because it only takes one team to love them...

He reminds me of our favourite captain Max "Patches" Paccioretti aka "Wolverine" when we were still fond of him... but he's more skills and heads up than Max was when drafted... Max developed really well... but it took awhile and was helped by a little magical hobbit David "Frodo" Desharnais

 

[WeThreeKings]

Lakovic is very polarizing... it's always fun... those players tend to go on the higher side because it only takes one team to love them...

He reminds me of our favourite captain Max "Patches" Paccioretti aka "Wolverine" when we were still fond of him... but he's more skills and heads up than Max was when drafted... Max developed really well... but it took awhile and was helped by a little magical hobbit David "Frodo" Desharnais

Pacioretty was always a much heavier player than Lakovic was. Funny thing is Pacioretty was drafted as a playmaker and added the sniper element later in his development.

Pacioretty was a very good player, got under appreciated here because he had to carry the offense by himself and eventually just got content shooting a lot and from the perimeter.

If Lakovic had that defensive ability that Patches had, you could live with some of the more perimeter stuff, but he doesn't.. so it's very polarizing.

 

[Pompeius Magnus]

I'm reasonably confident Lakovic will turn out good, FWIW. He's a fun development project at the very least and he has legit tools to work with. I definitely get the worries, though, he has yet to show he can play a complete game.

 

[JadedRandom]

I’d be happy with these picks. Not entirely sold on Lakovic but he’s a sexy pick with all the tools he’s got.

Carbonneau will be a top 6 winger.

Was on that bandwagon earlier on in the year, but having recently watched multiple games of his in a row I am currently more doubtful about Carbonneau's hockey sense and attitude on/off the ice than I ever was before.

I had Carbonneau at #15-16 through most of the year but he's now #22 on my final list, which I will put here for clarity's sake.

1. Schaefer	9. Eklund	17. Cootes	25. Potter
2. Misa	10. Mrtka	18. Reschny	26. Schmidt
3. Hagens	11. Lakovic	19. Reid	27. Zonnon
4. Martone	12. McQueen	20. Kindel	28. Murtagh
5. Desnoyers	13. Martin	21. Gastrin	29. West
6. Frondell	14. Bear	22. Carbonneau	30. Vansaghi
7. Smith	15. Aitcheson	23. Fiddler	31. McKinney
8. O'Brien	16. Hensler	24. Nesbitt	32. Nestrasil

West not fully commiting to hockey next year made me drop him a bit although he's still way higher than I put him in earlier lists.

And I re-watched a lot of Cameron Schmidt games of late which made me realize that I was over-ranking him earlier on when I was putting him close to the top-10. His shot isn't as elite as I thought it was, and neither are his defender-manipulation skills and overall reads.

All of which to say that Schmidt is a riskier prospect to project than I initially thought but I am not ready to move him off the first-round list even then, his potential is too high.

Oh, and having watched some more footatge of Gastrin's recently he jumped-up quite a bit on my list, and actually has some very real top-6 upside in my opinion nevermind the "middle-6" designation he gets from a lot of scouting outlets.

One player that I soured a lot on (even more than Carbonneau and Schmidt) though is Ravensbergen. He went from a late-first pick in April/May to a mid-2nd for me after having watched him more closely.

And the reason for that is that although I like Ravensbergen's size, reflexes, and raw athleticism, I also saw a lot of inconsistency in his positioning and reads from game-to-game when watching more closely. I also saw Ravensbergen "panic" quite a bit, lose his technique completely at times, struggle with tracking the puck East-West on the penalty kill for his team, elements to Ravensbergen's game that changed how I perceived him quite a bit.

I now have Semyon Frolov as the #1 goalie in this draft, and Andreyanov #3 (not in my top-50, Ivankovic #4), as the russian system for developing goalies continues to be the world's best in my opinion (a system which I think has been the single-best since the late 2000s/early 2010s, having watched a lot of MHL since that span).

Here is the rest of my top-50 that I tracked/ranked this year for more detail.

33. Boumedienne	39. Zharovsky	45. Ravensbergen
34. Genborg	40. Ihs-Wozniak	46. Trethewey
35. Stockselius	41. Prokhorov	47. Ryabkin
36. Horcoff	42. Frolov	48. Romano
37. Nobert	43. Czata	49. Brzustewicz
38. Lee	44. Limatov	50. Psenicka

I am way lower on Ryabkin than most others, I concede, but I really don't like his blend of lacking skating ability, poor work ethic, lackadaisical attitude, and what I consider to be an "average-adjacent hockey IQ".

On the other hand, I am possibly higher (maybe?) on Zharovsky than a lot of other people, because I think his potential is absolutely staggering if he ever develops properly.

Though Zharovsky's skating needs some work, as does his overall defensive game and his board game, without forgetting the fact that he also is uber-skinny right now on the ice (6'0, 160-some pounds) and majorly lacking in strength, I genuinely think that with his high-end hockey sense, elite puck-handling, and overall well-rounded offensive skills, that Zharovsky could become a PPG+ winger in the NHL if he develops perfectly.

But yeah, that's it from me. Cheers and have a good evening.

 

[WeThreeKings]

Was on that bandwagon earlier on in the year, but having recently watched multiple games of his in a row I am currently more doubtful about Carbonneau's hockey sense and attitude on/off the ice than I ever was before.

I had Carbonneau at #15-16 through most of the year but he's now #22 on my final list, which I will put here for clarity's sake.

1. Schaefer	9. Eklund	17. Cootes	25. Potter
2. Misa	10. Mrtka	18. Reschny	26. Schmidt
3. Hagens	11. Lakovic	19. Reid	27. Zonnon
4. Martone	12. McQueen	20. Kindel	28. Murtagh
5. Desnoyers	13. Martin	21. Gastrin	29. West
6. Frondell	14. Bear	22. Carbonneau	30. Vansaghi
7. Smith	15. Aitcheson	23. Fiddler	31. McKinney
8. O'Brien	16. Hensler	24. Nesbitt	32. Nestrasil

West not fully commiting to hockey next year made me drop him a bit although he's still way higher than I put him in earlier lists.

And I re-watched a lot of Cameron Schmidt games of late which made me realize that I was over-ranking him earlier on when I was putting him close to the top-10. His shot isn't as elite as I thought it was, and neither are his defender-manipulation skills and overall reads.

All of which to say that Schmidt is a riskier prospect to project than I initially thought but I am not ready to move him off the first-round list even then, his potential is too high.

Oh, and having watched some more footatge of Gastrin's recently he jumped-up quite a bit on my list, and actually has some very real top-6 upside in my opinion nevermind the "middle-6" designation he gets from a lot of scouting outlets.

One player that I soured a lot on (even more than Carbonneau and Schmidt) though is Ravensbergen. He went from a late-first pick in April/May to a mid-2nd for me after having watched him more closely.

And the reason for that is that although I like Ravensbergen's size, reflexes, and raw athleticism, I also saw a lot of inconsistency in his positioning and reads from game-to-game when watching more closely. I also saw Ravensbergen "panic" quite a bit, lose his technique completely at times, struggle with tracking the puck East-West on the penalty kill for his team, elements to Ravensbergen's game that changed how I perceived him quite a bit.

I now have Semyon Frolov as the #1 goalie in this draft, and Andreyanov #3 (not in my top-50, Ivankovic #4), as the russian system for developing goalies continues to be the world's best in my opinion (a system which I think has been the single-best since the late 2000s/early 2010s, having watched a lot of MHL since that span).

Here is the rest of my top-50 that I tracked/ranked this year for more detail.

33. Boumedienne	39. Zharovsky	45. Ravensbergen
34. Genborg	40. Ihs-Wozniak	46. Trethewey
35. Stockselius	41. Prokhorov	47. Ryabkin
36. Horcoff	42. Frolov	48. Romano
37. Nobert	43. Czata	49. Brzustewicz
38. Lee	44. Limatov	50. Psenicka

I am way lower on Ryabkin than most others, I concede, but I really don't like his blend of lacking skating ability, poor work ethic, lackadaisical attitude, and what I consider to be an "average-adjacent hockey IQ".

On the other hand, I am possibly higher (maybe?) on Zharovsky than a lot of other people, because I think his potential is absolutely staggering if he ever develops properly.

Though Zharovsky's skating needs some work, as does his overall defensive game and his board game, without forgetting the fact that he also is uber-skinny right now on the ice (6'0, 160-some pounds) and majorly lacking in strength, I genuinely think that with his high-end hockey sense, elite puck-handling, and overall well-rounded offensive skills, that Zharovsky could become a PPG+ winger in the NHL if he develops perfectly.

But yeah, that's it from me. Cheers and have a good evening.

Welcome to the Frolov bandwagon, we've been expecting you.

 

[JadedRandom]

Welcome to the Frolov bandwagon, we've been expecting you.

Happy to be here.

 

[rien]

Was on that bandwagon earlier on in the year, but having recently watched multiple games of his in a row I am currently more doubtful about Carbonneau's hockey sense and attitude on/off the ice than I ever was before.

I had Carbonneau at #15-16 through most of the year but he's now #22 on my final list, which I will put here for clarity's sake.

1. Schaefer	9. Eklund	17. Cootes	25. Potter
2. Misa	10. Mrtka	18. Reschny	26. Schmidt
3. Hagens	11. Lakovic	19. Reid	27. Zonnon
4. Martone	12. McQueen	20. Kindel	28. Murtagh
5. Desnoyers	13. Martin	21. Gastrin	29. West
6. Frondell	14. Bear	22. Carbonneau	30. Vansaghi
7. Smith	15. Aitcheson	23. Fiddler	31. McKinney
8. O'Brien	16. Hensler	24. Nesbitt	32. Nestrasil

West not fully commiting to hockey next year made me drop him a bit although he's still way higher than I put him in earlier lists.

And I re-watched a lot of Cameron Schmidt games of late which made me realize that I was over-ranking him earlier on when I was putting him close to the top-10. His shot isn't as elite as I thought it was, and neither are his defender-manipulation skills and overall reads.

All of which to say that Schmidt is a riskier prospect to project than I initially thought but I am not ready to move him off the first-round list even then, his potential is too high.

Oh, and having watched some more footatge of Gastrin's recently he jumped-up quite a bit on my list, and actually has some very real top-6 upside in my opinion nevermind the "middle-6" designation he gets from a lot of scouting outlets.

One player that I soured a lot on (even more than Carbonneau and Schmidt) though is Ravensbergen. He went from a late-first pick in April/May to a mid-2nd for me after having watched him more closely.

And the reason for that is that although I like Ravensbergen's size, reflexes, and raw athleticism, I also saw a lot of inconsistency in his positioning and reads from game-to-game when watching more closely. I also saw Ravensbergen "panic" quite a bit, lose his technique completely at times, struggle with tracking the puck East-West on the penalty kill for his team, elements to Ravensbergen's game that changed how I perceived him quite a bit.

I now have Semyon Frolov as the #1 goalie in this draft, and Andreyanov #3 (not in my top-50, Ivankovic #4), as the russian system for developing goalies continues to be the world's best in my opinion (a system which I think has been the single-best since the late 2000s/early 2010s, having watched a lot of MHL since that span).

Here is the rest of my top-50 that I tracked/ranked this year for more detail.

33. Boumedienne	39. Zharovsky	45. Ravensbergen
34. Genborg	40. Ihs-Wozniak	46. Trethewey
35. Stockselius	41. Prokhorov	47. Ryabkin
36. Horcoff	42. Frolov	48. Romano
37. Nobert	43. Czata	49. Brzustewicz
38. Lee	44. Limatov	50. Psenicka

I am way lower on Ryabkin than most others, I concede, but I really don't like his blend of lacking skating ability, poor work ethic, lackadaisical attitude, and what I consider to be an "average-adjacent hockey IQ".

On the other hand, I am possibly higher (maybe?) on Zharovsky than a lot of other people, because I think his potential is absolutely staggering if he ever develops properly.

Though Zharovsky's skating needs some work, as does his overall defensive game and his board game, without forgetting the fact that he also is uber-skinny right now on the ice (6'0, 160-some pounds) and majorly lacking in strength, I genuinely think that with his high-end hockey sense, elite puck-handling, and overall well-rounded offensive skills, that Zharovsky could become a PPG+ winger in the NHL if he develops perfectly.

But yeah, that's it from me. Cheers and have a good evening.

I’d love to get Limatov with the pens’ pick.

 

[JadedRandom]

I’d love to get Limatov with the pens’ pick.

Would be great, but it depends on what we select in the first round.

If Jackson Smith falls and we take him, we won't really have need for another D.

But I LOVE Limatov's physical play, so yeah, he'd be a good pick.

 

[Andrei79]

I'm reasonably confident Lakovic will turn out good, FWIW. He's a fun development project at the very least and he has legit tools to work with. I definitely get the worries, though, he has yet to show he can play a complete game.

Yeah, his tools are some of the best in the class. But I worry he's going to be Chad Kilger without the hitting. If he hits though, he could be quite the player. Two guys I think we can forget about are Mrtka and Martin. Both are going top 10 and higher than anyone expected just a few months ago.

 

[JadedRandom]

Yeah, his tools are some of the best in the class. But I worry he's going to be Chad Kilger without the hitting. If he hits though, he could be quite the player. Two guys I think we can forget about are Mrtka and Martin. Both are going top 10 and higher than anyone expected just a few months ago.

Martin I see as a lesser-skilled but more physical/better agitator Ryan Leonard, and that to me is a borderline top-10 pick.

But I have other prospects ranked higher that have a lot more potential than Martin, whom I'd say is one of the "safest" prospects in this draft but far from having the highest ceiling.

I sincerely think Martin is currently being a bit overrated by scouting outlets.