Prospect Info: Berkly Catton - Forward(Round 1, Pick #8, 2024 Draft)

[Fistfullofbeer]

By 2027-28 its going up tp 113 M plus...so 93 M next year 103 M in 2026-27...that's significant

Yes. But we can also expect the players' contracts to go up with the raise in the cap. Stephenson as a 3C should be ok for the later half of this contract.

 

[kihei]

Yes. But we can also expect the players' contracts to go up with the raise in the cap. Stephenson as a 3C should be ok for the later half of this contract.

At 50 million for 7 years for Matty, this could roughly apply to him, too, no? This might seem outrageous, but if Wright continues to improve and Catton realizes his potential, a future where Beniers ends up our 3rd line centre is not utterly inconceivable. In fact, it might be ideal.

 

[Fistfullofbeer]

At 50 million for 7 years for Matty, this could roughly apply to him, too, no? This might seem outrageous, but if Wright continues to improve and Catton realizes his potential, a future where Beniers ends up our 3rd line centre is not utterly inconceivable. In fact, it might be ideal.

Yeah. That could certainly happen as well. And I don't think it is all that outrageous. Matty is on pace for less than 45 points this season. It's a slight improvement over the 37 points for last year but still not as good as the 2022-23 season, where he had 57 points.

None of those numbers are good enough for a "good" 2C. Yes, he is defensively responsible, but he needs to start producing more, or he could very easily be pushed down to our 3C.

 

[Dead Coyote]

I don't care who our 3C is, I just hope Wright or Catton hit their peaks and become our 1C. Or we get lucky and get Hagens or something.

 

[CLW]

I don't care who our 3C is, I just hope Wright or Catton hit their peaks and become our 1C. Or we get lucky and get Hagens or something.

I admit I haven't seen much of Hagens, but he gives me Turcotte in his draft year vibes. Good player in a good setting with good playmaking - but I want to see much more, I haven't seen that extra gear/dimension to his game that the true top talent have. As it is I'm not convinced he'll be a true game breaking 1C at the NHL level. Maybe Misa will be that.

Beniers has a great motor and hustle, but he gives me Roslovic+ vibes at times. Maybe he's trying too hard. Hopefully experience will "streamline" his game a bit and he learns to pick his spots. Stephenson is kind of the polar opposite funnily enough; he can scoot when needed but he isn't an energizer bunny on the ice, he relies more on positioning.

 

[Dead Coyote]

I admit I haven't seen much of Hagens, but he gives me Turcotte in his draft year vibes. Good player in a good setting with good playmaking - but I want to see much more, I haven't seen that extra gear/dimension to his game that the true top talent have. As it is I'm not convinced he'll be a true game breaking 1C at the NHL level. Maybe Misa will be that.

Beniers has a great motor and hustle, but he gives me Roslovic+ vibes at times. Maybe he's trying too hard. Hopefully experience will "streamline" his game a bit and he learns to pick his spots. Stephenson is kind of the polar opposite funnily enough; he can scoot when needed but he isn't an energizer bunny on the ice, he relies more on positioning.

I don't see that at all. Hagens has absolutely destroyed every WJC he's been in and routinely has plays where I'm like "jesus christ how did he see that" truly sublime playaker who reminds me a lot of MSL. His hands are outrageous too. Shot isn't the best but he occasionally wows me with a play where he dekes through 4 guys to score too. And a lot of the times I've seen him it's been obvious that he thinks the game very well and that a lot of guys, especially in his D-1 just couldn't keep up with his passes. A lot like Bedard in Chicago right now. I'd take him 10/10 times over Misa/Martone. I've watched a ton of both due to mostly being a CHL watcher and Misa is more of a jack of all trades who is good or above average at everything and Martone is more of a sniper/PWF who has people enamored with his size but has other aspects lower than the other two like IQ/skating. Hagens is the one IMO who has the most elite talent and is also just above average at everything.

 

[CLW]

I don't see that at all. Hagens has absolutely destroyed every WJC he's been in and routinely has plays where I'm like "jesus christ how did he see that" truly sublime playaker who reminds me a lot of MSL. His hands are outrageous too. Shot isn't the best but he occasionally wows me with a play where he dekes through 4 guys to score too. And a lot of the times I've seen him it's been obvious that he thinks the game very well and that a lot of guys, especially in his D-1 just couldn't keep up with his passes. A lot like Bedard in Chicago right now. I'd take him 10/10 times over Misa/Martone. I've watched a ton of both due to mostly being a CHL watcher and Misa is more of a jack of all trades who is good or above average at everything and Martone is more of a sniper/PWF who has people enamored with his size but has other aspects lower than the other two like IQ/skating. Hagens is the one IMO who has the most elite talent and is also just above average at everything.

I'm not sure I was totally blown away by his WJC this winter but this is kinda oddly reassuring to read. Unless we win the lottery we are unlikely to get to pick that high, but this is still a very interesting draft for where we are expected to pick.

 

[Fistfullofbeer]

I don't see that at all. Hagens has absolutely destroyed every WJC he's been in and routinely has plays where I'm like "jesus christ how did he see that" truly sublime playaker who reminds me a lot of MSL. His hands are outrageous too. Shot isn't the best but he occasionally wows me with a play where he dekes through 4 guys to score too. And a lot of the times I've seen him it's been obvious that he thinks the game very well and that a lot of guys, especially in his D-1 just couldn't keep up with his passes. A lot like Bedard in Chicago right now. I'd take him 10/10 times over Misa/Martone. I've watched a ton of both due to mostly being a CHL watcher and Misa is more of a jack of all trades who is good or above average at everything and Martone is more of a sniper/PWF who has people enamored with his size but has other aspects lower than the other two like IQ/skating. Hagens is the one IMO who has the most elite talent and is also just above average at everything.

That is good to hear. I will admit I haven't watched much of Hagens but the main board discussions make it sound like he is a good playmaker but nothing more than that. Also, that he is definitely not worth the 1OA pick.

 

[Dead Coyote]

I'm not sure I was totally blown away by his WJC this winter but this is kinda oddly reassuring to read. Unless we win the lottery we are unlikely to get to pick that high, but this is still a very interesting draft for where we are expected to pick.

That is good to hear. I will admit I haven't watched much of Hagens but the main board discussions make it sound like he is a good playmaker but nothing more than that. Also, that he is definitely not worth the 1OA pick.

You have to remember that was the U20s and he had *just* turned 18. He was 7th in scoring and no other draft eligible was above him in points. Hutson is a year older and every other player is 2 years older than him.

The only other draft eligible who came close was Eklund who was only a PPG on Sweden. Most guys weren't even invited.

And honestly, yeah I was a bit disappointed in his WJC U20 performance- but he was playing second fiddle very obviously to Perreault/Leonard and while I don't think he played *amazing* he still played really well and his talent level was obvious to see, lots of opportunities for him to have collected a few more points and be up there with players like Tavares or Cooley in points production. The fact he has more goals than assists kind of says it all. He's definitely not a shoot first player but he still put up 5 goals in 7 games playing against players much older than him. Eiserman as well could have done a lot better and I think both of them could have put up at least a few more opportunities, the chances were there for the most part.

He still holds the record *all time* for most points at the U18s though and is only listed as 17 because of his birthday being what, 50ish days before the event? He was one of the youngest players there.

He has a somewhat disappointing stat line in the NCAA this year but again, he's very young and isn't surrounded by top talent either- he only really plays with Perreault and Leonard on the PP and otherwise doesn't have much to work with.

Looking at him based on stats will only get you so far...to me much like Eiserman he has skills that translate really well to the NHL and plays a mature game that he shouldn't need to do much to succeed outside of bulking up and getting older and finding confidence. Unlike Eiserman he's much better in other aspects of the game than just offense (not that Eiserman is as bad as people say, I'm just talking about him because he's another prospect I've talked about a lot and watched a lot and who I have basically the opposite opinion of from many scouts and people).

Much like Bedard, Misa plays the game in a totally different way than Hagens, he could be as much or more of a game changer than Hagens is but they're two different players and I have slightly more questions about Misa's game working in the NHL than I do Hagens. Misa wants to drive play, he wants the puck on his stick, he wants to attack off the rush and he wants to shoot the puck, he wants to dangle around kids and take their lunch money and plays a north south game. He's big enough and might eventually be strong enough that he can do all that in the NHL too. He reminds me stylistically a lot of McDavid in the OHL, he's just bigger and stronger than a lot of players and can insert his will into the game and pull off plays he shouldn't be able to. Reminds me of Mackinnon too. I had a lot of questions about Bedard being able to do that in the NHL because he's so small, often fragile, and he also loves to play bigger than he is and is liable to get crushed some day because he just isn't strong enough yet. It's why I had Michkov #1 over him and why I think Carlsson will be a better overall player some day (not that Bedard isn't a special talent, he just needs to take the Crosby route to succeed). Misa plays a similar game but isn't as much of a spark plug as Bedard is, has a worse shot, but is bigger and stronger by far.

Hagens is patient, eons better without the puck, likes to find players and deliver the puck to them perfectly, when he does shoot he has a lethal wrister and his puckhandling is also very good, he's quite capable of pulling off the same plays Misa does but he's more of an east-west type of player who likes to open up defenses and draw defenders with his stickhandling and skating and then find the open player, he's the perfect PP QB and his IQ really serves him well in seeing plays develop both with and without the puck. When I was watching Michkov in his draft year I said that he was the best user of space I had ever seen, he was able to manipulate and measure exactly what kind of space he needed to make passes or get around guys and his skating and edgework was so good that you never knew what he was going to do. Hagens is a little bit like that but uses his stickhandling more, his edgework is quite good as well.

Martone is like a bull in a china shop, he attacks the puck, attacks the net, and often goes straight to the middle. He's just a much weaker skater than anyone else in the top 10. He's gonna struggle getting back and he's gonna struggle off the rush and on one on ones against NHL defenders. His stackhandling is pretty good in tight and his shot is great but he doesn't have the kind of IQ Hagens does and he doesn't have the skating Misa does. If you're taking Martone over the other two it's because you're willing to wait on him and hope that he develops really well and becomes the next Ovechkin/Tkachuk style player (but both of those guys were eons above him at his age) and not the next *insert big player who was drafted high but hasn't met expectations yet* Pulju/Kakko/Slaf etcetcetc

IF we get a top 3 pick I'd rank Schafer > Hagens > Misa with the latter two being very close. If we're outside of the top 3 though I think I'd much rather have Eklund/Frondell or Mrtka than Martone. Mrtka especially I'm enamored with lol, he seems like a slam dunk and I'd be tempted to take him over Schafer depending on what day you catch me. And I know that people will say that they want the PWF and the guy who has the highest ceiling and I can appreciate that, but I'd much rather have a guy who is unlikely to bust, because the bust potential with Martone specifically is a lot higher than it should be.