ORRFForever
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Bob McKenzie Pre Season 2025 Draft Rankings
- Thread starter Antiillafire
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ORRFForever
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Steve Kournianos
@thedraftanalyst
Juxtaposer
Outro: Divina Comedia
A more salient point is that among the four guys you listed (Crosby, Stamkos, Hughes, Bedard), only Crosby is a true center. Stamkos has played the best years of his career at wing, Hughes played mostly wing last season, and Bedard is already getting questions about if he should move to wing because he's quite poor defensively in addition to being small.
I actually like Hagens' chances to stick at center more than Stamkos/Hughes/Bedard because he's much more committed defensively than any of those guys, but I absolutely think it's a fair question to ask. There are almost zero 5'10" centers in the league. It's like, Crosby, Point, end of list.
Pavel Buchnevich
"Pavel Buchnevich The Fake"
Shouldn’t we be referring to Hagens as 5’11 now? For the record, I agree with your short centers point, although I would say it’s below 5’10, not 5’10, that is the turning point.
Czechboy
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Steve Kournianos
@thedraftanalyst
Whether he plays wing or center shouldn’t matter. Chances are the team drafting him this year will already have at least two blue-chip center prospects anyway, so who cares if he’s a perennial 80-point winger at 23 or 24.
The implication that his size should be concern for teams drafting him is ludicrous.
Hagens’ pre-combine listing is 5’11, 176. He’s going to add muscle by June and he plays a tough, inside game.
Draft-year ht/wt:
Barzal 5’11 (post)
Aho 5’11 (post)
Suzuki 5’11 (post)
Thomas 5’11 (post)
Juxtaposer
Outro: Divina Comedia
If he's truly 5'11", then sure. But as you know I've watched a lot of Hagens and unless he's grown since the U18 (which is definitely possible) then I don't quite believe 5'11".
As a fan of one of those teams who has two blue chip center prospects, I personally don't care if Hagens ends up a winger or center if my team ends up with 1st overall and Hagens is still the clear-cut BPA at the end of the year, but what about, say, the Flames? If I were a Flames fan, I would be very invested in whether Hagens will end up a center or winger. And while Hagens is definitely big enough that I have no concerns that he'll play, it'll definitely be a talking point.
Dominance
99-66-4-9-87/97
To your point - this will especially be the case if his closest competition come June has an enormous size advantage and comparable skating. Obviously McQueen will not be scoring 4 goals a game all season, but if he puts up 1.5-1.75+ P/GP and shows well internationally, that 6’5” 195 foundation could put him over the top for some teams.
Pavel Buchnevich
"Pavel Buchnevich The Fake"
This isn’t some random website listing. NHL Central Scouting reportedly measured him and probably weighed him too. It’s been four months since the U18’s (1/3 of a year). Not at all unreasonable he’s grown since then.
And look, we might be talking about 1/2 an inch or 3/4 of an inch that takes it from 5’10 to 5’11. He was 5’10 for essentially like a year or more in the NTDP listings. Hard to believe he didn’t grow at all in that long span of time, if he wasn’t done growing. Might’ve been that he went from like 5’9.5 to 5’10.25 in that span. And maybe now the new jump is from 5’10.25 to the now listed at 5’10.75 (5’11) rounded up. Sometimes these height listings are on the margins of both extremes, and the change from one height to the next is not a full inch.
I don’t know. It seems believable to me anyone could grow that type of amount in four months, or even like a month.
landy92mack29
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JackSlater
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This isn't pertinent to the thread but this very topic (ignoring height) has interested me for a while. Slowly in Canada it became decided that big time prospects growing up would play at centre, even if they play more in the manner that a winger traditionally would. MacKinnon would be another who fits in that mold, McDavid too in many ways. Going back many decades you go from a situation where wingers were equal to or in some cases beyond centres as stars/talents/prospects and it becomes increasingly rare until the country produces relatively few star wingers, and those who are star wingers are often late bloomers and many times are still tried at centre.
Anyway, I'll see myself out. Looks like Hagens will go first.
ORRFForever
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Posters want to see a kid from their country go first (I'm guilty of it, too) and they'll fight to the death to prove he belongs.
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Interestingly enough, though I guess expected, none of the 3 upper talented, small guys got much of a mention. (Schmidt, Benák, Mooney)
Pavel Buchnevich
"Pavel Buchnevich The Fake"
NHL teams have proven that they don’t like players like this that much. It is what it is. The USHL player of the year last year only went round 7. I don’t see any of those guys being earlier than round 2, and it might not be easy for them to get picked round 2 either.
Misa should break out this year with an increased role due to the departures. Last season he had 11 goals on the PP with the extra quality TOI this season that will have to change. Having Willis, Parekh, Mangone, Epperson to start and Chernyshov ready for the new year. Misa will light it up this season. He played banged up in the MC and showed his maturity with a solid two way game at 17. 100 pt + this year will help rise his stock for the draft.
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ORRFForever
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