2025 NHL Draft Thread

[Toews2Bickell]

the knock on cristall was his skating right? because doneghey said in an interview that they more or less curate their player pool by removing players that have qualities/attributes they for sure do not want, weak skating being one of them

 

[Kevin Musto]

Did you guys have these opinions before/at the draft too?

As I recall there was plenty of positive reaction.

I had Cristall ranked 4th overall.

I was pretty vocal about the Hawks passing on him.

the knock on cristall was his skating right? because doneghey said in an interview that they more or less curate their player pool by removing players that have qualities/attributes they for sure do not want, weak skating being one of them

This is how you wind up with players like Athanasiou

 

[Muffinalt]

I had Cristall ranked 4th overall.

I was pretty vocal about the Hawks passing on him.


This is how you wind up with players like Athanasiou

Yeah I know of course about you and Cristall.

I think most people liked Gajan though the prospect, even if not selecting him that high.

 

[WarriorofTime]

No use in re-hashing every pick, if they take Cristall, probably don't take Kantserov with the next pick, who is having a good season in KHL. Props to the Capitals for having a talented kid. They've kind of done well going against the meta of "skating, skating, skating" which might be a bit of an overcorrection from the NHL. The second Protas brother also looks like a steal from last year's draft, despite similar "skating" concerns.

I like the Hawk prospect pool as a whole. Would love to get some bigger forwards who can produce, but who wouldn't...

 

[Toews2Bickell]

No use in re-hashing every pick, if they take Cristall, probably don't take Kantserov with the next pick, who is having a good season in KHL. Props to the Capitals for having a talented kid. They've kind of done well going against the meta of "skating, skating, skating" which might be a bit of an overcorrection from the NHL. The second Protas brother also looks like a steal from last year's draft, despite similar "skating" concerns.

I like the Hawk prospect pool as a whole. Would love to get some bigger forwards who can produce, but who wouldn't...

is there a silver lining in the prospects that are defying the biases of the current nhl meta? I know Cristall had good production leading up to his draft year, Eiserman had great goal numbers which have continued, is there something to be said for just trusting the production and knowing some will bust but thats the case anyway and numbers are still a better indicator of future success than what your eyes/biases tell you?

 

[WarriorofTime]

is there a silver lining in the prospects that are defying the biases of the current nhl meta? I know Cristall had good production leading up to his draft year, Eiserman had great goal numbers which have continued, is there something to be said for just trusting the production and knowing some will bust but its still a better indicator of future success than what your eyes/biases tell you?

Basically the bader model of NHLe. We’ll of course have to see how all of it plays out longterm around the league.

 

[Toews2Bickell]

Basically the bader model of NHLe. We’ll of course have to see how all of it plays out longterm around the league.

what I would be curious on is if NHLe + consensus rankings or some other quant model would outperform individual decisions by any one FO/scouting dept by a significant margin over a long period of time, sort of combining wisdom of crowd with the raw numbers, will never happen but...

 

[Drumman44]

what I would be curious on is if NHLe + consensus rankings or some other quant model would outperform individual decisions by any one FO/scouting dept by a significant margin over a long period of time, sort of combining wisdom of crowd with the raw numbers, will never happen but...

I just want to see a historical comparison of Bob's List vs. Actual Players Taken vs. NHLe over a 10 year window.

 

[Toews2Bickell]

I just want to see a historical comparison of Bob's List vs. Actual Players Taken vs. NHLe over a 10 year window.

could do a lot of interesting analysis with this for sure and see which teams over/under performed in the draft

 

[ColbyChaos]

No use in re-hashing every pick, if they take Cristall, probably don't take Kantserov with the next pick, who is having a good season in KHL. Props to the Capitals for having a talented kid. They've kind of done well going against the meta of "skating, skating, skating" which might be a bit of an overcorrection from the NHL. The second Protas brother also looks like a steal from last year's draft, despite similar "skating" concerns.

I like the Hawk prospect pool as a whole. Would love to get some bigger forwards who can produce, but who wouldn't...

Or we just don’t take Misak who is a waste of a pick already anyway

 

[Castle8130]

Updated big board (slightly adjusted based on Hawks needs);

Mathew Schaefer
------ Big drop off
Michael Misa
------ Misa in his own tier
James Hagens
Anton Frondell
Caleb Desnoyers
Porter Martone
Victor Eklund
Roger Mcqueen
-------------------------
------------------------- Big drop off
Jake O'Brien
Carter Bear
Justin Carbonneau
Ben Kindel
Cameron Reid
Kshawn Aitcheson
Radim Mrtka
Jack Murtagh
Brady Martin
Malcolm Spence
--------- Very small drop off
Braedon Cootes
Bill Zonnon
Lynden Lakovic
Cole Reschny
Jackson Smith
Logan Hensler
Sascha Boumedienne

 

[kmwtrucks]

preds have lost 5 in a row the next 2 games VS 31 hawks and vs 29 buff then the break. Im going to the game on friday and will be secretly hoping the young guys play well and we lose. I feel good about the top 3 in the draft. frondell is my #4 and then Martone is #5

 

[kmwtrucks]

San Jose, goalie Georgie made 16 saves on 20 shots. They shot Montreal by 10 and still lost 4-3.

 

[MicronMega]

Question about drafting Schafer:

Nashville back in the day loaded up on D with Suter, Weber, Hamhuis etc. Buffalo has loaded up on D with Power, Samuelsson, Byram, Dahlin. Does it really help a team win games by doing so? Neither one of those teams ever made much offensive impact and were/are forced to find impact scoring.

Does it make sense to continue to load up on D without moving one of the other top D prospects or should they pass on Schafer and go with Misa? More of a roster building question. I know Schafer is elite and the top prospect in the draft BTW

 

[MicronMega]

Cristal has elite hockey sense and skill. But he is wicked soft and his skating is horrible. He skates knock-kneed. No doubt he crushes it at the junior level, but I don't see him getting past 6'4" D in the NHL, he will have to rely on his perimeter vision to be successful

 

[Taze em]

Question about drafting Schafer:

Nashville back in the day loaded up on D with Suter, Weber, Hamhuis etc. Buffalo has loaded up on D with Power, Samuelsson, Byram, Dahlin. Does it really help a team win games by doing so? Neither one of those teams ever made much offensive impact and were/are forced to find impact scoring.

Does it make sense to continue to load up on D without moving one of the other top D prospects or should they pass on Schafer and go with Misa? More of a roster building question. I know Schafer is elite and the top prospect in the draft BTW

Im like a broken record at this point. But you cannot compare Nashville or Buffalo with Chicago. Present day Marner, Rantanen, Ehlers, Boeser Kaprizov, whoever… would never ever ever ever consider going to Buffalo or Nashville. When Chicago sniffs success there will be forwards available, whenever that is.

 

[Drumman44]

Im like a broken record at this point. But you cannot compare Nashville or Buffalo with Chicago. Present day Marner, Rantanen, Ehlers, Boeser Kaprizov, whoever… would never ever ever ever consider going to Buffalo or Nashville. When Chicago sniffs success there will be forwards available, whenever that is.

Agreed. No comparison, in my opinion!

 

[LavalPhantom]

Question about drafting Schafer:

Nashville back in the day loaded up on D with Suter, Weber, Hamhuis etc. Buffalo has loaded up on D with Power, Samuelsson, Byram, Dahlin. Does it really help a team win games by doing so? Neither one of those teams ever made much offensive impact and were/are forced to find impact scoring.

Does it make sense to continue to load up on D without moving one of the other top D prospects or should they pass on Schafer and go with Misa? More of a roster building question. I know Schafer is elite and the top prospect in the draft BTW

Also, IF Schaefer is the clear BPA, not drafting him would mean leaving value on the table for positional need, and it would quickly feel like a freaking bad habit by KD. Fireable offense if you ask me.

 

[Toews2Bickell]

Question about drafting Schafer:

Nashville back in the day loaded up on D with Suter, Weber, Hamhuis etc. Buffalo has loaded up on D with Power, Samuelsson, Byram, Dahlin. Does it really help a team win games by doing so? Neither one of those teams ever made much offensive impact and were/are forced to find impact scoring.

Does it make sense to continue to load up on D without moving one of the other top D prospects or should they pass on Schafer and go with Misa? More of a roster building question. I know Schafer is elite and the top prospect in the draft BTW

counter argument is chicago has a better forward prospect in bedard than nashville ever had but yeah they will need to add at least a few more elite caliber forwards over time, ideally you have balance in your lineup like the hawks had in the cup run years otherwise you just end up like the current toronto team

 

[Kevin Musto]

Agreed. No comparison, in my opinion!


View attachment 972993


View attachment 972992

Imagine living in Trashville

 

[Drumman44]

Imagine living in Trashville

 

[u2wojo]

Question about drafting Schafer:

Nashville back in the day loaded up on D with Suter, Weber, Hamhuis etc. Buffalo has loaded up on D with Power, Samuelsson, Byram, Dahlin. Does it really help a team win games by doing so? Neither one of those teams ever made much offensive impact and were/are forced to find impact scoring.

Does it make sense to continue to load up on D without moving one of the other top D prospects or should they pass on Schafer and go with Misa? More of a roster building question. I know Schafer is elite and the top prospect in the draft BTW

Those Nashville teams were pretty good and always in the playoffs. Becasue they couldn't get through the Hawks or Kings who were both better in that time frame is like saying the Hawks of the 80's were not a really good team because they sooner or later ran into the Gretzky/Messier Oilers.

Buffalo is not a finished product with their D quite yet. Powers is only 22 (around where D blossom into what they will be). Byram is 23 and has had his development stunted by injury issues (as has Samuelson who was only a 2nd rounder). While Dahlin is in the zip code of prime Weber/Suter, the others are overcoming injury stunted growth or working toward that (I think Power is likely to turn the corner soon into that elite type guy).

To your question....yes I load up on D if you have a chance to take Schaefer as he is the best player and by a fair margin. If you hit on all (which never happens with prospects) of Schaefer, Lev, Rinzel, Korchinski and still have Vlassic and Jones giving you 6 top 4 D....you are dealing from an incredible position of strength where top 4 D have great value and moving one or 2 for a top 6 forward should be pretty straight forward.

 

[giza]

Order me some Misa soup....

 

[TLEH]

Huge Misa fan, have been. If its not Schaefer I hope its him. I think there is a chance he turns nasty as he gets older and more mature too. 6'2.. good size. Talent is obviously there.