2025 NHL Entry Draft

[Pompeius Magnus]

I liked Vojtech Cihar's game against Canada last night, he was pretty noticeable in a very limited role. Still quite young too. He might be a guy to keep an eye on in the second round.

 

[WeThreeKings]

I liked Vojtech Cihar's game against Canada last night, he was pretty noticeable in a very limited role. Still quite young too. He might be a guy to keep an eye on in the second round.

He's great!

 

[SOLR]

I've only seen Reschny a couple of times, and I don't like him for the Habs. Give me one of the next 3 players chosen, and I will be very happy.

Yeah I have Reschny in the middle of the 2nd round.

 

[skidcells]

I want Caleb so bad but it looks with his play and our play that he is slipping away …

 

[SlafySZN]

 

[Pompeius Magnus]

Making the move might legit save his draft season. He really needed a change of scenery.

 

[WinterLion]

Making the move might legit save his draft season. He really needed a change of scenery.

That would be great!

 

[montreal]

Goal 1:18
Goal 8:09

 

[montreal]

Ryabkin Hit 2:01
Murtagh Nice Pass 2:28
Ryabkin Redirect Chance 3:54
McKinney Nice Pass/Trethewey Shot 4:08
Schock Rush Up Ice/Kvasnicka Goal 5:38
Ryabkin Hit 10:07
Schock Pass/Moore Goal 10:20
Ryabkin Goal 12:45
Ryabkin Goal 15:14

 

[Playmaker09]

Ryabkin Hit 2:01
Murtagh Nice Pass 2:28
Ryabkin Redirect Chance 3:54
McKinney Nice Pass/Trethewey Shot 4:08
Schock Rush Up Ice/Kvasnicka Goal 5:38
Ryabkin Hit 10:07
Schock Pass/Moore Goal 10:20
Ryabkin Goal 12:45
Ryabkin Goal 15:14

Not crazy about his pace of play, but he must've had at least a dozen hits that game. He's just looking to line guys up the entire time he's on the ice.

 

[montreal]

Not crazy about his pace of play, but he must've had at least a dozen hits that game. He's just looking to line guys up the entire time he's on the ice.

some of his shifts were way too long but who knows what they told him for his 1st game and they were saying at one point if he was named 1st star they didn't know if they would be able to do an interview in English.

He looks kind of lazy and clearly something wasn't working in Russia but I really like his physical game in the 4 or so times now that i've seen him. He's got that strong compact frame and likes to use it so I'm a fan, plus he's got a heavy shot as he can put some mustard on it.

 

[Deam78]

Eklund is real nice, love his motor and he shows his smarts. I didn’t get any viewing of him since last year, but to me he has increases his stock at this WJC.

Too bad we’re full of wingers

 

[SlafySZN]

Eklund is real nice, love his motor and he shows his smarts. I didn’t get any viewing of him since last year, but to me he has increases his stock at this WJC.

Too bad we’re full of wingers

He looks really good. Fantastic forechecker despite his size.

 

[Jabba11]

Okay, let's make the playoffs and pick Justin Carbonneau late 1st round?

 

[overlords]

mrtka has 11 pts in 13 whl games?

 

[MarkovsKnee]

Okay, let's make the playoffs and pick Justin Carbonneau late 1st round?

I would be OK with that. I also like Swedes Milton Gastrin & Melvin Novotny.

 

[SlafySZN]

Maybe the habs will be in a position to pick my favorite player of the draft, Carter Bear, after all.

I’d be more than OK with that even if we don’t get one of the top 4 guys.

 

[HuGort]

mrtka has 11 pts in 13 whl games?

Mrtka my first pick.

Eklund is real nice, love his motor and he shows his smarts. I didn’t get any viewing of him since last year, but to me he has increases his stock at this WJC.

Too bad we’re full of wingers

Small also, last thing we need is small winger

 

[rahad]

Maybe the habs will be in a position to pick my favorite player of the draft, Carter Bear, after all.

I’d be more than OK with that even if we don’t get one of the top 4 guys.

Drafting both Carter bear and Mrtka Would be the dream scenario. Unless , we win the draft lottery!

 

[Whitesnake]

Lyndon Lakovic.

 

[SwiftyHab]

Whose our pick at 32?

 

[JadedRandom]

mrtka has 11 pts in 13 whl games?

Mrtka's production is a textbook example of "stats don't tell the whole story". He got a lot of points in some games that were blowouts against bad teams (think he got something like 6-7 points in 2-3 games).

And in the games against good teams he's looked decent although I noticed him getting a bit caved-in on the forecheck and not reacting well to pressure. But Mrtka is a CHL rookie so some confusion on the switches in coverage when defending the cycle are to be expected.

I saw some of Mrtka's recent games against Prince Geroge, and basically Mrtka held his own but wasn't a standout in those.

I genuinely think that Mrtka still has a lot of work to do on his game defensively, and on how he deals with speedy rushers (reads and gap control need massive touch-ups if he wants to be an NHLer), but that at the same time the tools are definitely there in his case to be a tremendous pro if he develops properly.

A 6'5/6'6 RD with Mrtka's skating and feel for the puck is a rare and potentially valuable commodity.

So yeah, despite Mrtka's flaws I'd still have him as a clear first-round type of prospect. But he'd be my #6 defenseman on the board right now.

I'd have Mrtka lower than guys like Hensler and Fiddler too (the former just has all-around better tools in my opinion, and the latter just seems faster, smoother to me than Mrtka whilst having similar tools) as the top-2 RHDs, that are #4 and #5 for defensemen on my list this year.

I wouldn't be mad if the Canadiens drafted Mrtka with a late-first, early-second round pick, but I also wouldn't be very excited.

If we draft Mrtka with a higher pick than 20 I am not a very happy camper provided he doesn't show improvement in the backhalf of the season.

 

[Habs7631]

I started looking at players for our 2nds. I’m intrigued by Bill Zonnon. Anybody can tell me more about him? His HF thread doesn’t have much comments, but apparently he’s playing as a Center this year, pacing for 100+ pts, he looks huge out there and seems physical?

 

[Jabba11]

Whose our pick at 32?

I would take a chance on Milton Gastrin. Because his first name is awesome, but his last name is sickening.

 

[JadedRandom]

I started looking at players for our 2nds. I’m intrigued by Bill Zonnon. Anybody can tell me more about him? His HF thread doesn’t have much comments, but apparently he’s playing as a Center this year, pacing for 100+ pts, he looks huge out there and seems physical?

Zonnon's a rangy, determined, smart, and talented player that is doing very well in the Q in scoring this year.

But he is one that I think benefits quite a bit from talented linemates (20 Y.O. Verreault that dummied the Q last year just fine on his own) and also a pretty clear strength-advantage vs. the average player in the QMJHL (owing to what I like to call the "Colby Barlow Effect", or early physical maturity).

Also, although I like a lot of what Zonnon does in the offensive zone, I find that a lot of his eventual "scoring plays" come off of what I'd call "junior goals", ergo the type of plays that just isn't there in the NHL.

As you can see, I am not the highest at all on Zonnon. But there is still some outside potential as a top-6 wing there, or more likely 3rd or 4th line grinder in my opinion.

And the reason for that low evaluation is that, unfortunately, Zonnon's skating is not quite bad enough to be reasonably called "horrible", but close to it from a mechanics perspective.

Worse is that Zonnon doesn't compensate that lack in technique with any kind of pure-talent/athleticism skating-wise; he lacks explosiveness, agility, top speed, his edges aren't bad but also not that great. Simply put, Zonnon is a heavy-footed player, and that is quite the flaw to have.

I actually think that he and Nathan Behm are in a similar spot as far as prospects go in that they have some very good tools and you can't help but want to cheer for them seeing them play HARD on the ice at times.

But they also have very real skating limitations that might stop them from ever making it into the NHL barring massive improvement in their skating itself, some key adjustments using Hockey IQ on their parts, or a bit of both.

Basically, both Behm and Zonnon are boom/bust top-6 wingers with size that also hold some potential as bottom-6 grinders if all else fails. Just, the bust factor in those two is higher than usual given their lack in skating.

In the end, I think that both Zonnon and Behm should realistically be second-rounders at best. I'd personally have them as late second-rounders, possibly even third-rounders, because flaws of that magnitude in skating scare me (look no further than a much-more talented Joshua Roy who has struggled making an impact in the pros, and his skating/pure talent is quite a bit better than both Behm's and Zonnon's).

Both Behm and Zonnon will get drafted in the end, but teams will have to gauge when exactly in the draft their respective talents become too good to pass on.

Of course, either one of those players could turn great and make me look absolutely foolish. But I really don't like their mobility, and that is one of the single-most important aspects in a prospect's game so I turn doubtful of any prospect almost immediately if they have that level of skating ability unless they show NHL-elite traits to offset that.

I would take a chance on Milton Gastrin. Because his first name is awesome, but his last name is sickening.

He'd be a great pick there in my opinion depending on who's available.

But I mostly wish our picks ended up being the 32nd of every round as you replied to. That would be amazing.