2025 NHL Entry Draft
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JadedRandom
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1. I like Alex Huang's game overall. He isn't the biggest but kind of feisty at times and should only improve on that front with seasoning given that his frame could let him get 15-20 pounds heavier if he goes hard on the gym in the next couple of years.
As for his skills, well, Huang skates well overall, especially his edges, he stickhandles at a very high level with head feints and some strong manipulation of would-be checkers, shoots decently well, and passes the puck well. His overall offensive toolset is strong and he has quite a bit of room to grow physically still.
There's a lot to like about Huang's game, as I've said.
Thing is though, I'm a bit ambivalent as to Huang's decision-making at times as I feel that he will often deke players out, which is well and good, but with those same moves he will then sometimes proceed to put himself into actual worse situations than if he just passed the puck.
Which brings into mind the fact that Huang will really need to simplify his game a LOT if he wants to reach the NHL.
Sometimes he'll be a "one-man breakout machine" for the Sags with his overall good feet, dekes, and his very good first-pass. Other times Huang will make one or two unnecessary moves, "uselessly flashy dekes" as I call them, lose the puck in the neutral zone or worse at the opposing team's blueline, and then have to skate like a madman to get back in time when the opposite side rush materializes off his turnovers.
One theory that I have about this is that maybe Huang "wings-it" out too much on the ice, improvises when a good simple dump-in or lobbing the puck would be best, and/or that there's not enough planning and purpose when he starts putting up those highlight-reel type of 1-on-1 dekes of his.
Oh, and don't get me started on how bad the local announcer's "Huang-man show" comments are whenever Alex Huang manages to make a nice play to help his team score. That pun is insufferable and cringy as all hell, it makes me mad each time I hear it.
Moving on, sorry but I had to get that off my chest.
When analyzing Huang's offensive play with the puck on his stick, how fast he processes information and makes plays off of it, I've found that in my viewings Huang rarely will choose an outright "bad" or dead play, which is definitely impressive.
And I like how he manages to keep the puck "alive" on multiple occasions each game through deft pinching and applying pressure on the would-be puck carrier for the other team. But Huang also doesn't consistently make the "optimal" play out there, which would be the hallmark of high-end offensive vision/IQ for me.
A guy like Hutson in his draft year for example would constantly make the "A+" play when under pressure (whie being much smaller, a worse skater, and WAY more skilled admittedly). Something that I don't see much of in Huang's game in comparison.
I'd conclude on that front by saying that I think that Alex Huang's play selection is overall "good" and reasonably fast/effective as a prospect, but not "elite" by any means. And the same could be said of his playmaking overall as I don't think he succeeds most of the time when attempting slot passes, nor is necessarily the most creative when passing overall.
Defensively is where I start to see a lot of warts in Alex Huang's game.
He struggles against the cycle, has difficulty boxing his man in front of the net owing to size/strength problems though he does try. On the boards I don't really like Huang's play at all, as I think that he struggles against bigger forwards and doesn't angle-off opponents effectively.
Huang's use of his teammates on D isn't the greatest either, having trouble when switching assignments due to permutations because of the cycle.
There's also the fact that Huang has the tendency to give the puck in "bad spots" for his teammate to react and make plays, leading to quite a few "suicide passes" out there and losses of possession as a result. More than the average player to my eyes at least, don't know if this is a player trait or simply a factor of my viewings skewing things. Could be.
So then it becomes a question of whether a team thinks that the "good" in Huang's game, the stickhandling, the skating, and overall tools in Huang's game are conducive to an NHL career in spite of Huang's intrinsic weaknesses.
For me, I think that Huang will and should be drafted, but I don't know if I'd go higher than the middle section of the second round at best when selecting Huang, and possibly lower if I'm completely honest.
2. Carter Amico would be a second-round grade type of prospect for me, but likely gets taken in the first-round (would be #8 on my list of D this Draft). Still, he'd be a great pick-up. Kind of a Scott Mayfield type of pick if he turns out in the NHL.
He'd certainly fit in well for us at RD considering what we already have in our pipeline and on the roster.
One other player that I like quite a bit would be Henry Brzustewicz. I like him better as a prospect than I did his brother in his draft year and think Henry Brzustewicz would be good value for us after the 40th pick or so at the Draft.
Brzustewicz's raw tools aren't the greatest, but I like his Hockey IQ a lot and think he could be a top-4 defenseman in the NHL with some positive development here and there and improvements to his skating.
That said, he could also fail to make any sort of impact and bust since a lot of his tools are "vanilla". That's the risk with Brzustewicz.
Another option would be Charlie Trethewey. He has fallen on some of the draft rankings (including mine) from a first-round grade earlier in the year but still shows some "+" tools (skating and transition game) that could lead him to have some success in the NHL though I don't really like his handling skills under pressure nor his creativity.
And the injury issues he's had the last couple of seasons scare me a bit too.
Then there's Haoxi Wang.
There's a lot to his game that I plain don't like (defensive reads, offensive reads, handling skills, passing, the list goes on), and Wang is simultaneously arguably THE raw-est defensive prospect slated to be drafted in the top 3-4 rounds of the draft.
But it's hard to argue against a guy that huge (6'5 or 6'6) with the kind of insane four-way mobility and physical potential that Wang has.
Wang could bust completely (most likely scenario in fact) and end up having a career dwarfed by the likes of Jarred Tinordi. But he could be also be a massive home-run of a pick if he develops well and is left to marinate for a good 4-5 years at least in the NCAA/AHL.
Given what we have in our pipeline, there would be quite a few other RDs that we'd be interested in I think, although this post is getting pretty long so I won't elaborate more on it.
Only to add that one of my darkhorse picks for late-round RDs this year though is Maxim Agafonov. I saw him play that one time in the VHL (watching Demidov's brother) this year and thought he was good, but that could have been a mirage so I'll watch further to make sure it isn't.
And that's it from me. Cheers.
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SannywithoutCompy
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- Dec 22, 2020
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Schmidt is going to go way lower than he should despite having more tools than almost anyone in the draft. Unfortunately, people don't consider small players "toolsy" for whatever reason.
Pompeius Magnus
Registered User
TBF, he not just small, he's downright tiny. They have him at 5ft7 and 161 lbs on his team's official site and from having watched him a few times, they're probably padding it a bit. Caufield and Hutson are big guys next to him.
SannywithoutCompy
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- Dec 22, 2020
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He's also feisty as hell and possibly the best skater in the draft, I don't think size is going to be a concern for him with those attributes
JadedRandom
Registered User
Cameron Schmidt should not get into the 20s at the Draft, even under the worst-case scenario. Anything lower than that and GMs are clearly over-emphasizing size in his case and thus mis-scouting Schmidt.
Schmidt has blazing speed, great work ethic, an ultra high-level skillset with the puck on his stick, high-level instincts offensively, a strong sniper's natural ability, understated playmaking abilities, and a propension for big hits and physical play that isn't normally found on guys as small as he is,
Personally, I'd have Schmidt solidly in my top 10. But I realistically think he'll get drafted anywhere from #11 to about the 15th rank.
And the same is true of Carter Bear unfortunately; many community scouting sources have Bear inside their top-10.
But I think that is fairly generous considering that Bear lacks any kind of "+" size, and is only a "good" skater so teams will most likely pass up on him in favor of less polished guys with perceived higher physical potential.
Not really, no.
Lakovic has lesser physical attributes to Slaf's in his draft year. Slafkovsky was a physical beast at 17-18, Lakovic is more of a tall, lanky kid that could stand to gain 15-20 pounds of muscle still.
To add, Lakovic is much weaker against contact than draft-year Slaf, doesn't battle nearly as well along the boards, nor does he project as a future power-forward in the NHL
Instead, Lakovic shows a bit more of a scorer's streak than Slaf did in his draft year in his positioning. I'd also say that Lakovic's decision-making with the puck seems a bit steadier at the same age.
Defensively, Lakovic isn't bad but also not great.
But what I like most about Lakovic is how he manages to shield the puck from checkers using skill/reach and make plays in-tight even with a defenseman close by.
Basically, Lakovic's blend of skill, size, skating, and IQ make him a very good target for any team just outside the top-10 looking for a potential top-6 forward (most likely a wing, but Lakovic did play center before joining Moose Jaw so maybe there's something there) with a lot of good tools that all individually project as quite a bit above-average in the NHL.
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Depends where we picking but man, seems like the type of player we need in the pipeline….drives the net, a net hound and great compete, like Gallagher in that sense.
Decent size too…will be following him more closely from here on out
Boyon90
Registered User
- Sep 23, 2013
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we should throw a hailmary and try to move up for mcqueen (outside 10)
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Jake O'Brien
Aidan Lane
its bold because I copy pasted, dk how to remove this
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Kaiden Ghoul
Youppi va t’il devoir chauser ses patins calvaince
- Jan 19, 2020
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HuGort
Registered User
Big right D are more valuable and fewer , Mrtka should go higher than ranked. I am thinking top 10Spence/Bear and Mrtka would be not bad at all
Kaiden Ghoul
Youppi va t’il devoir chauser ses patins calvaince
- Jan 19, 2020
- 1,124
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Top 10 i doubt... i guess it will dépend which team pick where and their org need, if they pick on talent, i dont think he goes top 10, they are like 3 D ahead of him and plenty of fwd also
