Prospect Info: All-Purpose 2024 Draft Thread & Celebrini discussion (also the 14th pick and whatever else is draft related)

[Stewie Griffin]

Pronman's latest (last?) Mock:

1. Demidov (just kidding, Macklin)
2-3. determine a lot about the next few picks
Thinks that Sennecke will be gone top 10, Iggy will be gone 10-13, Yak gone top 10... basically has us choosing between Hage, Solberg, Jiricek, and MBN.
14. Has us taking Solberg, but "they need a D, Solberg or Jiricek." Says teams are split whether to be high on Solberg or wary of overvaluing him on the WC's alone.
Then Hage, then Jiricek. MBN falls to 18, Eiserman falls to VGK at 19. Chernyshov at 27 feels like a steal.

Notably available at 33: Artamonov (mocked), Badinka, Jecho, Pulkkinen, Hemming
Notably available at 42: Kleber (mocked), Eliasson, Pettersson, Ritchie, Gridin, Masse, C. Hutson

First goalie off the board: Yegorov (my choice as well, although sounds like nobody feels great about this class), 52 Washington.

Celebrini, Solberg, Artamonov, and Kleber would be great.

My ideal draft would be Celebrini, Solberg, and Emery (whether at 33 or use our 2 2nds to trade up)

 

[Grinner]

Pronman's latest (last?) Mock:

1. Demidov (just kidding, Macklin)
2-3. determine a lot about the next few picks
Thinks that Sennecke will be gone top 10, Iggy will be gone 10-13, Yak gone top 10... basically has us choosing between Hage, Solberg, Jiricek, and MBN.
14. Has us taking Solberg, but "they need a D, Solberg or Jiricek." Says teams are split whether to be high on Solberg or wary of overvaluing him on the WC's alone.
Then Hage, then Jiricek. MBN falls to 18, Eiserman falls to VGK at 19. Chernyshov at 27 feels like a steal.

Notably available at 33: Artamonov (mocked), Badinka, Jecho, Pulkkinen, Hemming
Notably available at 42: Kleber (mocked), Eliasson, Pettersson, Ritchie, Gridin, Masse, C. Hutson

First goalie off the board: Yegorov (my choice as well, although sounds like nobody feels great about this class), 52 Washington.

If Chernyshov drops into the 2nd half of the 20's, then the Sharks need to trade up from the 2nd for him

 

[STL Shark]

He isnt letting money impact his decision.

He has been planning on playing in the NHL for half his life. Vancouver, San Jose, 2 years at SSM, 1 year in Chicago, 1 year at BU. "College Life" isnt going to draw him back, he has basically been a professional athlete for years. Smith had ties to BC and he played there 1 year, I cannot fathom Macklin going back to BU.

He also literally got to play college hockey this year and experience that lifestyle. Sure, he's young and it's maybe not the same being 17 in college, but it's not as if he was someone like Smith that dreamed of college athletics and wouldn't have been able to if he turned pro right after the draft. Dude won the Hobey Baker and made the Frozen Four with a pretty mediocre BU team (for their standards) outside of himself. Nothing really left in college for him.

 

[STL Shark]

Sennecke would be unreal to have but Sojlberg just fits the D profile Grier has been going after and the D profile of cup winners. Big, skates well, and hits. No one should complain if he's the pick.

Either way, whether we draft F or D, we're still going to need an entire top pair for defenseman.

If we can train him to shoot right handed, then sure let's take him. He's not a top pairing D though so drafting him to try and fill that need doesn't make a lot of sense. He's the profile of a solid #4 (which is something we seem to already have figured out on the left side). Honestly rather go Jiricek than Solberg just because I value the handedness more and neither are projecting to be offensive contributors in the NHL. 2/3 pairing RHD at least fills a void more than the same profile but LH (Ferraro, Thrun, and Muk).

 

[coooldude]

If we can train him to shoot right handed, then sure let's take him. He's not a top pairing D though so drafting him to try and fill that need doesn't make a lot of sense. He's the profile of a solid #4 (which is something we seem to already have figured out on the left side). Honestly rather go Jiricek than Solberg just because I value the handedness more and neither are projecting to be offensive contributors in the NHL. 2/3 pairing RHD at least fills a void more than the same profile but LH (Ferraro, Thrun, and Muk).

I don't think handedness should be that big of a determining factor for this pick at this stage of our rebuild. at least 3 top 15 picks next year are RHD, for one. For two, Ferraro is not necessarily even still on the team when (if) Solberg makes his debut. Thrun for sure isn't penciled in as a top 4 D on the left for a core we're really trying to build.

I think the decision is more D vs F and your perception of whether MBN/Hage is a better fit for us as middle 6 F's than a D in Solberg/Jiricek as a middle pair D. Jiricek is RD, but the impact of handedness is vastly washed out by the evaluation of him vs Solberg as players. My 2c.

 

[Gecklund]

You know who can play both sides? Buium

 

[Juxtaposer]

Pronman's latest (last?) Mock:

1. Demidov (just kidding, Macklin)
2-3. determine a lot about the next few picks
Thinks that Sennecke will be gone top 10, Iggy will be gone 10-13, Yak gone top 10... basically has us choosing between Hage, Solberg, Jiricek, and MBN.
14. Has us taking Solberg, but "they need a D, Solberg or Jiricek." Says teams are split whether to be high on Solberg or wary of overvaluing him on the WC's alone.
Then Hage, then Jiricek. MBN falls to 18, Eiserman falls to VGK at 19. Chernyshov at 27 feels like a steal.

Notably available at 33: Artamonov (mocked), Badinka, Jecho, Pulkkinen, Hemming
Notably available at 42: Kleber (mocked), Eliasson, Pettersson, Ritchie, Gridin, Masse, C. Hutson

First goalie off the board: Yegorov (my choice as well, although sounds like nobody feels great about this class), 52 Washington.

I can’t lie, I’d be pretty annoyed if our draft class ended up like this mock. I started saying “who?” at like, Adam Kleber and never stopped saying it. Also Parekh falling to 13 was really annoying.

If things fell like this, I’d go:

1 Macklin Celebrini
14 Michael Brandsegg-Nygard (though I don’t hate Solberg)
33 Dominik Badinka
42 Ben Danford
85 Ilya Nabokov
116 Tarin Smith
131 Kieran Walton
143 John Whipple
194 Mac Swanson

 

[STL Shark]

I don't think handedness should be that big of a determining factor for this pick at this stage of our rebuild. at least 3 top 15 picks next year are RHD, for one. For two, Ferraro is not necessarily even still on the team when (if) Solberg makes his debut. Thrun for sure isn't penciled in as a top 4 D on the left for a core we're really trying to build.

I think the decision is more D vs F and your perception of whether MBN/Hage is a better fit for us as middle 6 F's than a D in Solberg/Jiricek as a middle pair D. Jiricek is RD, but the impact of handedness is vastly washed out by the evaluation of him vs Solberg as players. My 2c.

Handedness is something that I think fans underrate but should actually be meaningful. If Solberg was the same player and RH, then I'd be good with that. If he was left-handed and was a point producer, I'd be good with that. However, as it stands I think a LH physical defenseman is a pretty easy to acquire archetype in the NHL.

I could well be wrong and he turn out great, I just don't see the differentiating skillset from a lot of what we already have and have questions about his meh production in one of the worst leagues in the world for mens hockey.

 

[Juxtaposer]

https://x.com/i/web/status/1803443881020682356

Is Logan really one of the best 9th overall picks of all time? Crazy.

 

[Alaskanice]

https://x.com/i/web/status/1803443881020682356

Is Logan really one of the best 9th overall picks of all time? Crazy.

That’s pretty wild. I had no idea.

 

[gaucholoco3]

Pronman's latest (last?) Mock:

1. Demidov (just kidding, Macklin)
2-3. determine a lot about the next few picks
Thinks that Sennecke will be gone top 10, Iggy will be gone 10-13, Yak gone top 10... basically has us choosing between Hage, Solberg, Jiricek, and MBN.
14. Has us taking Solberg, but "they need a D, Solberg or Jiricek." Says teams are split whether to be high on Solberg or wary of overvaluing him on the WC's alone.
Then Hage, then Jiricek. MBN falls to 18, Eiserman falls to VGK at 19. Chernyshov at 27 feels like a steal.

Notably available at 33: Artamonov (mocked), Badinka, Jecho, Pulkkinen, Hemming
Notably available at 42: Kleber (mocked), Eliasson, Pettersson, Ritchie, Gridin, Masse, C. Hutson

First goalie off the board: Yegorov (my choice as well, although sounds like nobody feels great about this class), 52 Washington.

At least he got rid of his cut and paste write up of Jiricek.

 

[coooldude]

Handedness is something that I think fans underrate but should actually be meaningful. If Solberg was the same player and RH, then I'd be good with that. If he was left-handed and was a point producer, I'd be good with that. However, as it stands I think a LH physical defenseman is a pretty easy to acquire archetype in the NHL.

I could well be wrong and he turn out great, I just don't see the differentiating skillset from a lot of what we already have and have questions about his meh production in one of the worst leagues in the world for mens hockey.

I played enough hockey to fully understand the importance of handedness. I'm just saying, at this stage of our rebuild, I don't think handedness outweighs the evaluation of the player. I don't see Solberg and Jiricek as comparable - I think Solberg is a better prospect now, not just because of the knee injury risk. If we were further along and really missing that RD piece, maybe it's more important. We have another 2 years of drafting top 5 and a second 1rd pick next year to target RD.

Also, maybe a minor quibble, but if LH top 4 physical defensemen that are capable are so easy to acquire, I sure as shit hope we acquire one this offseason so that Ferraro doesn't have to play top pairing minutes.

 

[Hodge]

Handedness is something that I think fans underrate but should actually be meaningful. If Solberg was the same player and RH, then I'd be good with that. If he was left-handed and was a point producer, I'd be good with that. However, as it stands I think a LH physical defenseman is a pretty easy to acquire archetype in the NHL.

I could well be wrong and he turn out great, I just don't see the differentiating skillset from a lot of what we already have and have questions about his meh production in one of the worst leagues in the world for mens hockey.

It might be one of the worst pro leagues in the world but it's also leaps and bounds better than college or junior hockey, which most of these prospects are coming from.

Also so few players have gone from the Norwegian league to the NHL historically that nobody really knows how good the league is in 2024. It's possible an 18 year old defenseman scoring 24 points in 59 games (with presumably limited minutes) is actually super impressive.

 

[PattyLafontaine]

Would you take Sennecke / MBN / Helenius over Yakemchuk / Solberg / Jiricek? Should be at least one of those guys from each side available

Yes to the first three over the last three. Yakemchuk is not worth the risk. Solberg is more of 20s pick and Jiricek is late teens.

 

[Juxtaposer]

It might be one of the worst pro leagues in the world but it's also leaps and bounds better than college or junior hockey, which most of these prospects are coming from.

Also so few players have gone from the Norwegian league to the NHL historically that nobody really knows how good the league is in 2024. It's possible an 18 year old defenseman scoring 24 points in 59 games (with presumably limited minutes) is actually super impressive.

Well, the Norwegian men’s league was dominated last year by Peter Quenneville, who, three years ago at age 27, managed to put up a point per game in the ECHL. So, uh, I’m not convinced that it’s better than the NCAA.

 

[Hodge]

Well, the Norwegian men’s league was dominated last year by Peter Quenneville, who, three years ago at age 27, managed to put up a point per game in the ECHL. So, uh, I’m not convinced that it’s better than the NCAA.

As if college hockey isn't largely dominated by prospects who never go on to have any sort of pro career?

 

[Juxtaposer]

As if college hockey isn't largely dominated by prospects who never go on to have any sort of pro career?

Okay? That doesn’t run contrary to my point, which is that it seems to me like the NCAA is probably has a higher quality of hockey than the Norwegian men’s league.

 

[coooldude]

Okay? That doesn’t run contrary to my point, which is that it seems to me like the NCAA is probably has a higher quality of hockey than the Norwegian men’s league.

As if college hockey isn't largely dominated by prospects who never go on to have any sort of pro career?

I think top college hockey is almost certainly better than top Norwegian hockey, and bottom end D1 hockey is not. That said, you're obviously not drafting Solberg at 14 because of the bulk of his season in the Norwegian league, you're drafting him for his late rise, his development, and his athleticism. The whole debate is whether that's enough to take the risk, or whether that's overweighting the World Championships.

If you think it's too much weight on the World Championships, you pick him in the 20's. If you think the WC's and end of season and combine was really exciting and shows his potential, then he's definitely in play at 14. He's a very interesting case in this draft. So is Hage, so is Jiricek, Yakemchuk even more interesting and challenging, but none are as interesting as Eiserman, but I clearly fall on the "don't draft at 14" side for Eiserman.

 

[Hodge]

Okay? That doesn’t run contrary to my point, which is that it seems to me like the NCAA is probably has a higher quality of hockey than the Norwegian men’s league.

You could be right but it's certainly better than junior hockey and I think an OHL defenseman with Solberg's size and physicality profile whose production spiked that much at the end of the season and playoffs, coupled with a solid showing at Men's Worlds, would be a reasonable target in the middle of the 1st round. And, again, the Norwegian league is certainly a step up from the OHL.

 

[Erep]

but none are as interesting as Eiserman, but I clearly fall on the "don't draft at 14" side for Eiserman

I read your discussion with that delusional Rangers fan, so I know we mostly agree on this, but I have not read a single clearly positive comment from a team affiliated source.

Everyone, other than Craig Button (lol), focuses on the "...but..." part of the commentary. Every team is going to have their guy they are excited about, and it seems like not a single team source has Eiserman as that guy. So when they are making their pick, who is going to pick Eiserman over "their guy"? No one.

Pronman, based on his writing in his mock today with Eiserman at 19, I think, has caught onto this. And this situation is the recipie for someone to fall even further than that.


(Basically, I don't see any way the Sharks pick him.)

 

[gaucholoco3]

Wasn’t Josi undervalued because he came from a league that “never produced an NHL player”. Maybe Solberg has a higher ceiling than people think.

 

[Juxtaposer]

You could be right but it's certainly better than junior hockey and I think an OHL defenseman with Solberg's size and physicality profile whose production spiked that much at the end of the season and playoffs, coupled with a solid showing at Men's Worlds, would be a reasonable target in the middle of the 1st round. And, again, the Norwegian league is certainly a step up from the OHL.

Agreed, it’s gotta be better than the CHL. And I definitely think Solberg would be a reasonable pick at 14. I just don’t know if there’s a world where Solberg’s offense in league play this season was “actually super impressive”.

That is to say, without his Worlds, he’s not even a first rounder.

 

[Wedontneedroads]

The logic is simple. Drafting a RHD means more right handed sticks at the equipment sale.

Jiricek at 6'2 is the perfect option. Make it happen.

 

[Juxtaposer]

The logic is simple. Drafting a RHD means more right handed sticks at the equipment sale.

Jiricek at 6'2 is the perfect option. Make it happen.

You make a strong point. We should draft Mac Swanson so I can buy his stick at an equipment sale. I’d have to uh hit the gym so I could flex it, but we both shoot lefty and we’re basically the same height!

 

[Wedontneedroads]

You make a strong point. We should draft Mac Swanson so I can buy his stick at an equipment sale. I’d have to uh hit the gym so I could flex it, but we both shoot lefty and we’re basically the same height!

Picked up a Tennyson stick years ago thinking the 110 flex would be no big deal.

I was wrong.