Okay, no more drafting players under 6 foot out of junior hockey unless they score at least 2.5 points per game in their draft year.
It's not their fault but it's undeniable that drafting a small player based entirely on his performance against teenagers is a huge risk. Whereas with NCAA and especially European pro leagues there's at least some proof of concept that the player can succeed against physically developed opponents.
I don’t disagree with this, but you could say that as much about a 5’11” guy as a 6’0” guy. Do you really think one inch matters that much? My point is that there should be no hard-and-fast rules. Obviously size is something you would and should take into consideration. I think Catton is one of the best players in this draft but I wouldn’t take him with a puck in the top five partially because he is a small and slight guy. But if he were somehow available at 14, you sprint to the podium to grab him because he’s by far the most talented player available.
Helenius has a high degree of structure to his game with high offensive and defensive IQ, with potential to be more and a decent strength base already.
His thread? There's plenty of discussion about inconsistent defensive decisions and inability to win board battles.
draftprospectshockey.com
I think you'd be fine if you didn't make blanket statements. It's okay to analyze each individual player separately.
I agree. I made mention of this a while back about how a majority of our prospects/kids are under 6'. We're still gonna need some physicality if the team ever wants to go on a long run.
www.nhl.com
No way he doesn't come haha cmonCelebrini, projected No. 1 pick in 2024 Draft, interviews with Sharks | NHL.com
Lindstrom limited in testing for precautionary reasons; NTDP well-represented
Celebrini met with the Sharks today.
I haven't seen much on him on these boards/ various articles, but the little I've seen tends to be positive. As opposed to people who seem kind of all over the place on many Russian prospects (Silayev as high as 2 and as low as high teens, Chernyshov as high as 12ish and as low as 40s+, even some people down on Demidov as a top 5).
No thanks. He’s a very dumb player. Consistently tries to take on the entire team. Works in the MHL no where else though.
Reading his scouting reports he sounds like a Russian Ben Eager.
Reading his scouting reports he sounds like a Russian Ben Eager.
I’d definitely consider him at 42. I’m pretty locked on defense at 33 though.
This was a fascinating quote to me because I feel like Nurse is a pretty decent comparison. Nurse has the size, skating, physicality, shot, and he can make some great individual offensive plays, but the package doesn’t add up to what it should. I think Dickinson lands somewhere between Nurse (#4D who can eat minutes but also drives you a little crazy) and Hanifin (solid if unspectacular #2D). He’s one of the guys who I think it will be fascinating to follow. To me, he feels like a coach’s dream… which may end up biting a team in the ass when he’s playing too many minutes too early a la Ristolainen. I think you could also say that about Levshunov, so it’s kinda pick your poison. With all that said, he’s still worth a pick in the 6-8 range. Floor is two high to fall any further IMO.
I'd be curious to hear what they have to say about Demidov.I’d definitely consider him at 42. I’m pretty locked on defense at 33 though.
I have an EP Premium membership and spent the last three or four hours reading through hundreds of pages of scouting reports. Pretty insane amount of content. My favorite part of it is the “Industry quotes” section where anonymous NHL scouts give sound bites to EP. Really interesting to see what real NHL scouts are saying.
I obviously won’t give up a ton of paid content, but if anyone has any specific questions on any specific prospects I can give an overviews. They have microstat tracking profiles, tool grades, projections, etc. I also like the cute little icons that they tag each profile with. Macklin has “sniper”, “tactician”, and “got that dog in him”.
I was particularly intrigued by some NHL scout quotes on Dickinson and Yakemchuk. They reflect things that I have seen myself, though I’m higher on both players than EP.
Dickinson:
This was a fascinating quote to me because I feel like Nurse is a pretty decent comparison. Nurse has the size, skating, physicality, shot, and he can make some great individual offensive plays, but the package doesn’t add up to what it should. I think Dickinson lands somewhere between Nurse (#4D who can eat minutes but also drives you a little crazy) and Hanifin (solid if unspectacular #2D). He’s one of the guys who I think it will be fascinating to follow. To me, he feels like a coach’s dream… which may end up biting a team in the ass when he’s playing too many minutes too early a la Ristolainen. I think you could also say that about Levshunov, so it’s kinda pick your poison. With all that said, he’s still worth a pick in the 6-8 range. Floor is two high to fall any further IMO.
Yakemchuk:
There were some more disparaging quotes from other NHL scouts, but this one was the worst IMO. The game reports from the EP scouts mirrored a lot of what I’ve seen too.
On the whole, this defensive class may be a little overrated. Levshunov and Dickinson have hockey IQ questions. Yakemchuk has hockey IQ and skating questions. Parekh has physicality and defensive questions. Silayev has puck-handling and offensive questions. And Buium has translatability questions, though I believe in him the most.
All this to say that I’d be thrilled with any of those defensemen at 14, but holy hell are well lucky to have Macklin. I don’t envy the teams in the 2-5 range that have to distill something from this mess.
He’s firmly locked into the #2 spot for them and has been all year. They believe he has as high or maybe higher offensive upside than Celebrini, though they don’t think there’s any debate or argument for Demidov at #1. They think he’s a potential superstar offensively, only real knocks on him aside from the league he plays in is perhaps that he overhandles the puck at times and his skating stride is a little weird.
