Pre-Game Talk: 2025 NHL Draft Thread

[LGB]

I think Mrtka is worth a top 10 pick. It’s incredibly difficult to enter the zone on him with his size, reach, fluid skating, and active stick. He isn’t super physical but I think he effectively seals guys off with his body like Parayko. He doesn’t quite have the same speed Parayko does, but I think he will be effective in a lot of the same ways Parayko is just without quite the same ability to match really fast guys. The puck skills are pretty good for any defenseman let alone one that is 6’6. I think he is going to be excellent at breaking the puck out of the zone and be able to effectively move the puck and get shots through in the offensive zone. I expect him to be a top 4 defender and maybe even a top pairing guy.

 

[kimzey59]

I feel there are (much) better options in the top-10, however if we pick around 15-ish I'd be fine with Mrtka.

1- The top 10 is extremely forward dominant at the moment.
But you have Mrtka, Hensler and Smith sitting in that 10-15 range.

It's entirely possible somebody in the top 10 "reaches" for one of those D to fill a need rather than going for "BPA". We see it all the time.
I just hope it isn't us that does it. We need offense every bit as much as we need defense and this years forward crop has a LOT of what we need to round things out.

The question is what happens if we slide into that 10-15 range. I really like Spence and Bear, but it would be hard to pass on Hensler or Mrtka if they're there. RHD is definitely a weak spot in our pipeline.

2- Mrtka is absolutely a "project" but his upside is incredibly appealing. He could be something along the lines of a Dougie Hamilton if he puts it all together. I think somebody is going to take a gamble on him much higher than he's projected. Again, I don't necessarily want it to be us; but that package is extremely tantalizing.

 

[LGB]

1- The top 10 is extremely forward dominant at the moment.
But you have Mrtka, Hensler and Smith sitting in that 10-15 range.

It's entirely possible somebody in the top 10 "reaches" for one of those D to fill a need rather than going for "BPA". We see it all the time.
I just hope it isn't us that does it. We need offense every bit as much as we need defense and this years forward crop has a LOT of what we need to round things out.

The question is what happens if we slide into that 10-15 range. I really like Spence and Bear, but it would be hard to pass on Hensler or Mrtka if they're there. RHD is definitely a weak spot in our pipeline.

2- Mrtka is absolutely a "project" but his upside is incredibly appealing. He could be something along the lines of a Dougie Hamilton if he puts it all together. I think somebody is going to take a gamble on him much higher than he's projected. Again, I don't necessarily want it to be us; but that package is extremely tantalizing.

Why do you view him as a project? IMO he is the safest D in the draft outside Schaefer.

 

[kimzey59]

Why do you view him as a project? IMO he is the safest D in the draft outside Schaefer.

His in zone defensive game still needs a lot of work and he needs to put on a LOT of weight.

 

[MortiestOfMortys]

There's just way more left shots compared to right shots. You used to rely on RW being right-shots, but in more recent times, you see RW prefer to be on their off-side to be able to cut into the ice like Tarasenko did. I think wings is less of an issue because it's easier to find a winger that can play both sides, Buchnevich is an example. And how many of our young wingers do we feel are pretty safe bets to be top 6 NHL guys.

Eklund would also project to be our best winger, so similar to I wouldn't pass up a LD that projects to be better than Broberg and Lindstein, just because we have Broberg and Lindstein.

I get it, and for the most part I agree. “Take the best guy and figure it out later” is generally a good strategy, especially when they won’t hit the ice for a few years.

But a team of all southpaws would be at a significant strategic disadvantage. If everyone’s stick is pointing the same way, you just go the other way and boom, forecheck/backcheck complete. It doesn’t really matter when all of these guys are on the junior circuit, because they’re all on different teams. But when they get to Springfield, it’s a problem.

Drafting too many / exclusively lefties means you’re gonna have to play guys out of position. LHD playing the right side have a much harder time keeping the puck in the zone, forwards have a harder time forechecking exits, etc. So the AHL team is worse off overall, and you stunt the development of good players who could grow into something valuable if they weren’t hampered by their stick curving the wrong direction for their position.

It also limits the number of prospects you can “properly” develop at any given time. There’s only (usually) 8 forward positions a leftie can play on a given team, and 3 D slots. Guys that prefer to play their offside are outliers, so let’s ignore that for a second. You’re limiting the depth of your bench on the right side, weakening your ability to win faceoffs wherever, and foregoing any strategic positional advantage that righties give you. If Kyrou goes down, there’s no one in SPR to come up and backfill the position if you’ve just got all lefties.

It does matter, is all I’m saying. Eklund or whoever may be better than what we have now, in which case fine draft the kid. I just think it’s a bad idea in the grand scheme of things to keep doubling down on building depth at positions that everybody already has too much of.

 

[bleedblue1223]

I get it, and for the most part I agree. “Take the best guy and figure it out later” is generally a good strategy, especially when they won’t hit the ice for a few years.

But a team of all southpaws would be at a significant strategic disadvantage. If everyone’s stick is pointing the same way, you just go the other way and boom, forecheck/backcheck complete. It doesn’t really matter when all of these guys are on the junior circuit, because they’re all on different teams. But when they get to Springfield, it’s a problem.

Drafting too many / exclusively lefties means you’re gonna have to play guys out of position. LHD playing the right side have a much harder time keeping the puck in the zone, forwards have a harder time forechecking exits, etc. So the AHL team is worse off overall, and you stunt the development of good players who could grow into something valuable if they weren’t hampered by their stick curving the wrong direction for their position.

It also limits the number of prospects you can “properly” develop at any given time. There’s only (usually) 8 forward positions a leftie can play on a given team, and 3 D slots. Guys that prefer to play their offside are outliers, so let’s ignore that for a second. You’re limiting the depth of your bench on the right side, weakening your ability to win faceoffs wherever, and foregoing any strategic positional advantage that righties give you. If Kyrou goes down, there’s no one in SPR to come up and backfill the position if you’ve just got all lefties.

It does matter, is all I’m saying. Eklund or whoever may be better than what we have now, in which case fine draft the kid. I just think it’s a bad idea in the grand scheme of things to keep doubling down on building depth at positions that everybody already has too much of.

I agree it matters, my view is we'll figure it out at the NHL level once we figure out who develops and who flops.

 

[Mike Liut]

If we fall to 10-12, I’d look hard at Malcolm Spence. He’s a hard nose player who can score. Perfect Blue

 

[Blueswin]

I get it, and for the most part I agree. “Take the best guy and figure it out later” is generally a good strategy, especially when they won’t hit the ice for a few years.

But a team of all southpaws would be at a significant strategic disadvantage. If everyone’s stick is pointing the same way, you just go the other way and boom, forecheck/backcheck complete. It doesn’t really matter when all of these guys are on the junior circuit, because they’re all on different teams. But when they get to Springfield, it’s a problem.

Drafting too many / exclusively lefties means you’re gonna have to play guys out of position. LHD playing the right side have a much harder time keeping the puck in the zone, forwards have a harder time forechecking exits, etc. So the AHL team is worse off overall, and you stunt the development of good players who could grow into something valuable if they weren’t hampered by their stick curving the wrong direction for their position.

It also limits the number of prospects you can “properly” develop at any given time. There’s only (usually) 8 forward positions a leftie can play on a given team, and 3 D slots. Guys that prefer to play their offside are outliers, so let’s ignore that for a second. You’re limiting the depth of your bench on the right side, weakening your ability to win faceoffs wherever, and foregoing any strategic positional advantage that righties give you. If Kyrou goes down, there’s no one in SPR to come up and backfill the position if you’ve just got all lefties.

It does matter, is all I’m saying. Eklund or whoever may be better than what we have now, in which case fine draft the kid. I just think it’s a bad idea in the grand scheme of things to keep doubling down on building depth at positions that everybody already has too much of.

yes the Sabers seem to have this problem with their best defenseman all shooting left & it does seem to be an issue.

 

[PerryTurnbullfan]

I would be very happy with eklund. Kids dynamic and competitive af.

FWIW I haven't watched O'brien yet.

I don’t think you take an undersize player in a non-premium position when you have several top six centers and top four defenseman still on the board that are top caliber picks. That’s my own personal opinion right or wrong. He’s not good enough to make me forget that I don’t have a number 2 center or 4 good defenseman. I would still rather have Dalibor Dvorsky and Nate Danielson than Zach Benson.

 

[PerryTurnbullfan]

Why do you view him as a project? IMO he is the safest D in the draft outside Schaefer.

How so? Go back and watch Seattle vs Spokane and tell me how good defensively Mrtka is. He consistently lost board battles to Andrew Cristall and Berkeley Catton. Board battles….never mind the open ice show these two normally play on everyone. He’s a project. Very slow. Reminds me of Jakub Dvorak drafted in 2023. Big dude but slow reactions and pivots. If somehow he gets quicker…I agree. You have something. I am warming up to him but not in the top 25.

 

[DatDude44]

I don’t think you take an undersize player in a non-premium position when you have several top six centers and top four defenseman still on the board that are top caliber picks. That’s my own personal opinion right or wrong. He’s not good enough to make me forget that I don’t have a number 2 center or 4 good defenseman. I would still rather have Dalibor Dvorsky and Nate Danielson than Zach Benson.

We need elite talent. Drafting for positional need when most players don’t make an impact until they’re 21-22+ 3+ years from being drafted isn’t smart.

If there is a high end D available, I’m with ya. But don’t pass up on a potential elite talent to settle for a decent player at a positional need.

With Dvorsky in our pool, center isn’t as much of a need either.

I get it though, we have a glutton of wingers and need a #1 D prospect.

But trades and free agency can be used.

Take BPA when drafting 18 year olds. Figure out the team composition later.


I don’t wanna be like MTL taking Kotkaniemi over Brady Tkachuk ya know

 

[PerryTurnbullfan]

We need elite talent. Drafting for positional need when most players don’t make an impact until they’re 21-22+ 3+ years from being drafted isn’t smart.

If there is a high end D available, I’m with ya. But don’t pass up on a potential elite talent to settle for a decent player at a positional need.

With Dvorsky in our pool, center isn’t as much of a need either.

I get it though, we have a glutton of wingers and need a #1 D prospect.

But trades and free agency can be used.

Take BPA when drafting 18 year olds. Figure out the team composition later.


I don’t wanna be like MTL taking Kotkaniemi over Brady Tkachuk ya know

Eklund isn’t elite. The jury out whether he is a first or third line player when it’s all said and done.

If it’s Ecklund or O’Brien, then I’m taking O’Brien every day of the week. Brady wasn’t an undersize winger. Porter Martone or Malcolm Spence would be a good comparable to him.

I’ve watched a lot of Thunderbird games. I’m not convinced he will stay at center. That’s not a bad problem. He will score plenty on the wing. We will just have to see if his wheels come a little better along. It’s strange. One game he looks like he can keep the pace. The next game he looks a touch slow. He may be battling some injuries?

 

[LogosBlue]

What's everyone's thoughts on the new decentralized format for the NHL draft with Bettman announcing all the 1st rnd picks. How will this effect the day trades during the draft? Is this a good format for all teams moving forward? Was this an NHL decision or were the GM's part of this decision making process? Will GM's meet with their picks after they are selected? Is it just me or does this change seem to sterilize the entire draft process?

 

[taylord22]

I’ve watched a lot of Thunderbird games. I’m not convinced he will stay at center. That’s not a bad problem. He will score plenty on the wing. We will just have to see if his wheels come a little better along. It’s strange. One game he looks like he can keep the pace. The next game he looks a touch slow. He may be battling some injuries?

I don't watch as many as you, but I've gotten the feeling that he's got another few levels of conditioning to get through. That might be stating the obvious, but specifically to him: I think the way he protects the puck and is essentially body to body often takes a lot out of any player. Combine that with him needing a little extra gas on the fire to get up to speed, and getting used to the game volume...it's a lot.

I don't think his conditioning is by any means poor, but, shift management is going to be critical for him to learn as his conditioning builds.

I expect it will be a focus for him in the offseason - and I'm assuming the Blues are likely to push to get him back to STL early to help steer that conditioning. I think he needs as much muscle endurance in his upper body as he does in his lower, which strikes me as fairly dynamic programming that you wouldn't rely on a 19-20 year old to handle in full from 5000 miles away.

 

[SirPaste]

What's everyone's thoughts on the new decentralized format for the NHL draft with Bettman announcing all the 1st rnd picks. How will this effect the day trades during the draft? Is this a good format for all teams moving forward? Was this an NHL decision or were the GM's part of this decision making process? Will GM's meet with their picks after they are selected? Is it just me or does this change seem to sterilize the entire draft process?

No it will be fine, I dont know if you ever watch the NFL draft but this is basically what they have been doing for a long time and they have a ton of trades, more than the NHL for sure I would say. Teams will still have representitives there too greet the players but the GMs will likely be huddled wherever they decide to have their war room.

 

[PerryTurnbullfan]

I don't watch as many as you, but I've gotten the feeling that he's got another few levels of conditioning to get through. That might be stating the obvious, but specifically to him: I think the way he protects the puck and is essentially body to body often takes a lot out of any player. Combine that with him needing a little extra gas on the fire to get up to speed, and getting used to the game volume...it's a lot.

I don't think his conditioning is by any means poor, but, shift management is going to be critical for him to learn as his conditioning builds.

I expect it will be a focus for him in the offseason - and I'm assuming the Blues are likely to push to get him back to STL early to help steer that conditioning. I think he needs as much muscle endurance in his upper body as he does in his lower, which strikes me as fairly dynamic programming that you wouldn't rely on a 19-20 year old to handle in full from 5000 miles away.

When he is most dangerous is handling the puck at top speed. He doesn’t miss a beat. Needs to quit slowing things down to AHL level or less. Then he losses it.

 

[LGB]

I don't watch as many as you, but I've gotten the feeling that he's got another few levels of conditioning to get through. That might be stating the obvious, but specifically to him: I think the way he protects the puck and is essentially body to body often takes a lot out of any player. Combine that with him needing a little extra gas on the fire to get up to speed, and getting used to the game volume...it's a lot.

I don't think his conditioning is by any means poor, but, shift management is going to be critical for him to learn as his conditioning builds.

I expect it will be a focus for him in the offseason - and I'm assuming the Blues are likely to push to get him back to STL early to help steer that conditioning. I think he needs as much muscle endurance in his upper body as he does in his lower, which strikes me as fairly dynamic programming that you wouldn't rely on a 19-20 year old to handle in full from 5000 miles away.

I think to become a great puck protector and possession player he just needs to add more general strength and do puck protection work against stronger players. Definitely could benefit from a higher aerobic capacity as well. I have a lot of thoughts on strength and conditioning but I think it’s best summarized like this. The goal is to get stronger and better conditioned, that’s it. To translate those qualities to sports performance you just need to practice those specific things in your sport. Most “sport specific” gym work is bullshit. There are exceptions for sports that are very heavily based on force production in specific positions like sprinting, but definitely not hockey.

The biggest thing for Dvorsky in the offseason though is still skating. Any improvements he can make will pay dividends.

 

[taylord22]

I'm anxious to see him with Kyrou. There's some risk with that pairing, especially as he's learning the NHL, but they feel complimentary of one another in the OZ. Through the neutral zone/rush, I think Perry's point about him being indecisive with speed is going to be a larger struggle. I'd love if he developed a Kovalchuk-esque ability to use changes in speed to create time and space, but we haven't seen it in the AHL.

@LGB Interesting nugget i heard the other day from Vitale on Thomas. It really wasn't until the Avs playoff series that it became obvious how much stronger he was going to need to be to anchor the top line. Came back much stronger the following year, but in being heavier it stepped his conditioning back due to how he plays along the boards, how he ties guys up, etc. That style of play/defending wasn't in his repertoire before due to his lack of strength. In being an option, it resulted in him burning far more energy than previous baseline.

His point in this was that we NEED him to be able to extend shifts like Eichel/Mack/etc. and he's just not able to right now with the ankle and current (great, not elite) conditioning level.

To your point, the cause and effect of gym work is a double edged sword. He put on some serious mass, which was necessary, but it's certainly delayed him getting to that 'elite' conditioning level.

 

[LGB]

I'm anxious to see him with Kyrou. There's some risk with that pairing, especially as he's learning the NHL, but they feel complimentary of one another in the OZ. Through the neutral zone/rush, I think Perry's point about him being indecisive with speed is going to be a larger struggle. I'd love if he developed a Kovalchuk-esque ability to use changes in speed to create time and space, but we haven't seen it in the AHL.

@LGB Interesting nugget i heard the other day from Vitale on Thomas. It really wasn't until the Avs playoff series that it became obvious how much stronger he was going to need to be to anchor the top line. Came back much stronger the following year, but in being heavier it stepped his conditioning back due to how he plays along the boards, how he ties guys up, etc. That style of play/defending wasn't in his repertoire before due to his lack of strength. In being an option, it resulted in him burning far more energy than previous baseline.

His point in this was that we NEED him to be able to extend shifts like Eichel/Mack/etc. and he's just not able to right now with the ankle and current (great, not elite) conditioning level.

To your point, the cause and effect of gym work is a double edged sword. He put on some serious mass, which was necessary, but it's certainly delayed him getting to that 'elite' conditioning level.

That is interesting because I honestly feel like Thomas would be better off a little leaner than he currently is. He’s pretty heavy for his height and I feel he’s lost a touch of speed and agility as well as the endurance.