Kraken 2024 draft

[Kevinsane]

That the lottery result itself isn’t televised has always irritated me. It gives rise to the “fixed” conspiracy theories, and who knows? The NHL does have a documented history of covering up CTE and sexual assault, so the idea that tye League would help a franchise like Chicago return to legitimacy is not as far down the rabbit hole as it should be.
YouTube, TikTok, Facebook…the NHL doesn’t need network exposure to show absolute transparency about where those ping pong balls ended up.

 

[The Marquis]

That the lottery result itself isn’t televised has always irritated me. It gives rise to the “fixed” conspiracy theories, and who knows? The NHL does have a documented history of covering up CTE and sexual assault, so the idea that tye League would help a franchise like Chicago return to legitimacy is not as far down the rabbit hole as it should be.
YouTube, TikTok, Facebook…the NHL doesn’t need network exposure to show absolute transparency about where those ping pong balls ended up.

Well, remember the one time they did show the balls it made it a talking point that it was rigged.

 

[kihei]

I don't know why they just don't promote the lottery as a straight business decision. Maybe show profiles of the top ten prospects and/or give some insights into how NHL scouts go about their business and/or explore drafting for need versus bpa, and then finish it off with the actual lottery. I can envision a nice little televised package that would catch the interest of hockey fans and help build interest toward the eventual draft.

 

[RainyCityHockey]

According to Kevin Weekse there will be a "russian showcase" in Florida between June 18th - 23rd so teams can watch the prospects live.



Maybe Francis does decide to draft a russian with one of the Kraken's picks....

 

[Fistfullofbeer]

According to Kevin Weekse there will be a "russian showcase" in Florida between June 18th - 23rd so teams can watch the prospects live.



Maybe Francis does decide to draft a russian with one of the Kraken's picks....

If a prospect comes here and the teams can speak to them, I would have zero issues. Just gives us more options.

 

[luapejrug]

I would be pretty upset if Demidov dropped to 8 and we didn't pick him due to the russian factor.

 

[RainyCityHockey]

I would be pretty upset if Demidov dropped to 8 and we didn't pick him due to the russian factor.

I don't thik he will but yeah, that would be a bad move by Francis.

Though, so far since taking over in Seattle(while the Russia/Ukraine conflict has been going on) Francis hasn't drafted a single russian prospect.

 

[Fistfullofbeer]

I don't thik he will but yeah, that would be a bad move by Francis.

Though, so far since taking over in Seattle(while the Russia/Ukraine conflict has been going on) Francis hasn't drafted a single russian prospect.

We drafted Vyazovoy in our first draft but that was before the conflict.

 

[majormajor]

Earlier I made the case for going with a higher upside higher risk pick (Catton, Yakemchuk) over a safer lower upside pick (Dickinson, Helenius).

But this Brandsegg character is both very safe - looks NHL ready now - and potentially has a lot more upside than folks give him credit for.



His playdriving ability looks high end. By playdriving I mean his ability to push play forward and generate good results for his team, through a combination of positioning, passing, forechecking, etc...



He's usually ranked 10-20 but might crack top 10 by the draft, I'd certainly be considering him with the Kraken pick.

 

[kihei]

Earlier I made the case for going with a higher upside higher risk pick (Catton, Yakemchuk) over a safer lower upside pick (Dickinson, Helenius).

But this Brandsegg character is both very safe - looks NHL ready now - and potentially has a lot more upside than folks give him credit for.



His playdriving ability looks high end. By playdriving I mean his ability to push play forward and generate good results for his team, through a combination of positioning, passing, forechecking, etc...



He's usually ranked 10-20 but might crack top 10 by the draft, I'd certainly be considering him with the Kraken pick.

My first impression of him was similar to my first impression of Alphonse Freij, why is this guy not higher in the rankings? And he keeps popping up a lot lately, probably indicating a player on the rise. Ala Konsta Helenius, everybody seems to love how complete his game is and what a high IQ and compete level he has. Where do you rank him among this bunch of forwards:

Iginla
Catton
Helenius
Brandsegg-Nygard
Greentree

 

[majormajor]

Where do you rank him among this bunch of forwards:

Iginla
Catton
Helenius
Brandsegg-Nygard
Greentree

I was thinking that Catton would be the best pick for the Kraken, but I'm not settled yet.

If you made me pick right now:

Catton
MBN
Iginla
Helenius
Greentree

 

[kihei]

I was thinking that Catton would be the best pick for the Kraken, but I'm not settled yet.

If you made me pick right now:

Catton
MBN
Iginla
Helenius
Greentree

I'm not settled either.

Iginla
Catton
MBN
Helenius
Greentree

A lot of the people whom I have been reading and listening to seem to think that MBN has a second-line ceiling and that Iginla has a first-line ceiling which is one reason for my present ranking.

I will say this for MBN (at the very least) he takes the anxiety out of the worst case scenario of going 10th.

 

[majormajor]

I'm not settled either.

Iginla
Catton
MBN
Helenius
Greentree

A lot of the people whom I have been reading and listening to seem to think that MBN has a second-line ceiling and that Iginla has a first-line ceiling which is one reason for my present ranking.

I will say this for MBN (at the very least) he takes the anxiety out of the worst case scenario of going 10th.

Neither Iginla or MBN are going to be 90 pt guys leading your topline, but I could see both of them becoming topline complements that help out and score a lot of goals.

 

[Fistfullofbeer]

I'm not settled either.

Iginla
Catton
MBN
Helenius
Greentree

A lot of the people whom I have been reading and listening to seem to think that MBN has a second-line ceiling and that Iginla has a first-line ceiling which is one reason for my present ranking.

I will say this for MBN (at the very least) he takes the anxiety out of the worst case scenario of going 10th.

Yeah. I would not be too worried about falling to 10th in this draft. Very likely to end up getting a really good prospect who has a real good chance to prove that he should have gone higher.

 

[majormajor]

Here's another late riser:



Incredible hands.

We might see a lot of churn in the lists leading up to the draft. Some of the top forwards didn't have good playoffs (Catton, Lindstrom) or were inconsistent (Iginla). This Sennecke kid is torching the OHL playoffs. He has a lot of room to fill out on his 6'2 frame.

 

[Fistfullofbeer]

Here's another late riser:



Incredible hands.

We might see a lot of churn in the lists leading up to the draft. Some of the top forwards didn't have good playoffs (Catton, Lindstrom) or were inconsistent (Iginla). This Sennecke kid is torching the OHL playoffs. He has a lot of room to fill out on his 6'2 frame.

He looks good. Good motor. Good hands. Also 6'2" so should be quite a force once he packs on some muscle.

Though, I don't know if he falls into the the top-10. Regarding Lindstrom and Catton, they both missed the playoffs due to injuries.

 

[majormajor]

Regarding Lindstrom and Catton, they both missed the playoffs due to injuries.

Well they played, just not as well as they could have if they were healthy.

In Lindstrom's case, his injury came from off ice training so I'm guessing many will look past it. At least I'm more willing to look past it. I'm sure he'll go ahead of pick #8, probably top 5.

Catton is thin and frail looking though, and when those guys get injured, scouts immediately wonder if he's going to be another smallish junior star that gets too dinged up in the NHL. I think there's a good chance he'll be there for us at #8 or #9, and a smaller chance but I can't rule out that Sennecke will be picked before him.

I would expect MBN to get picked before Catton.

 

[RayMartyniukTotems]

Here's another late riser:



Incredible hands.

We might see a lot of churn in the lists leading up to the draft. Some of the top forwards didn't have good playoffs (Catton, Lindstrom) or were inconsistent (Iginla). This Sennecke kid is torching the OHL playoffs. He has a lot of room to fill out on his 6'2 frame.

Impressive,hows the rest of his game...I see in the stats he's paired with Callum Ritchie which can't be bad right

 

[majormajor]

Impressive,hows the rest of his game...I see in the stats he's paired with Callum Ritchie which can't be bad right

I only know from watching the shift-by-shift video I posted above.

What I saw was a kid who had good sense about where to be, but he's still pretty thin and has some awkwardness in his skating, so the execution isn't always good. He's shown some really good vision for passing. It's not just fancy dangles.

 

[Fistfullofbeer]

Well they played, just not as well as they could have if they were healthy.

In Lindstrom's case, his injury came from off ice training so I'm guessing many will look past it. At least I'm more willing to look past it. I'm sure he'll go ahead of pick #8, probably top 5.

Catton is thin and frail looking though, and when those guys get injured, scouts immediately wonder if he's going to be another smallish junior star that gets too dinged up in the NHL. I think there's a good chance he'll be there for us at #8 or #9, and a smaller chance but I can't rule out that Sennecke will be picked before him.

I think the bolded is a reach. He played all 68 games in the regular season. He played 63 games last season.

Not saying his small stature is not a concern but its more to do with how his game will translate to the NHL and less to do with his injury history.

I would expect MBN to get picked before Catton.

Before the U18's I would have said not a chance. But with Catton getting injured, people having a good U18 would certainly have a chance to pass him. Same with Sennecke to a point but I have more doubt about that.

Helenius is another one who could bypass Catton. At the end of the day, all these kids are good prospects but how a team ranks them is what matters. Are they ranking them on the basis of their ceiling, floor, high end skills, NHL readiness, etc.

 

[majormajor]

I think the bolded is a reach. He played all 68 games in the regular season. He played 63 games last season.

Not saying his small stature is not a concern but its more to do with how his game will translate to the NHL and less to do with his injury history.

Every year I'm reading all the quotes of NHL scouts that I can find. Pronman quotes scouts on each player, and the best source is actually the hockeyprospect Black Book which has dozens of pages of quotes from NHL scouts. Each time with a smaller player, the scouts bring up injury risk. They talk about players getting too many injuries that it lessens their skill, or getting knocked out of the league entirely. Of course they also talk about whether the playstyle will translate.

And I think these are hard earned lessons that they have from seeing so many of their favorite prospects bust over the years because of injury. It's not just the old boys club being biased against small players for no reason.

 

[kihei]

Recently Yakemchuk seems to have fallen off a cliff in terms of pre-draft rankings as more commentators point out the holes in his defensive game and the fact that his hockey IQ in general is not exactly stellar. Silayev seems to be dropping as well, though that one I find harder to fathom. At worst, he is going to be a mobile 6'7'' shutdown defenseman who doesn't shy away from contact. Freij seems to be moving upward, but one guy offered a cautionary note that as the competition he plays against improves, his defensive shortcomings appear more glaring. It now looks, at the moment anyway, that Buium will be the first defenseman chosen in the draft.

 

[majormajor]

Recently Yakemchuk seems to have fallen off a cliff in terms of pre-draft rankings as more commentators point out the holes in his defensive game and the fact that his hockey IQ in general is not exactly stellar. Silayev seems to be dropping as well, though that one I find harder to fathom. At worst, he is going to be a mobile 6'7'' shutdown defenseman who doesn't shy away from contact. Freij seems to be moving upward, but one guy offered a cautionary note that as the competition he plays against improves, his defensive shortcomings appear more glaring. It now looks, at the moment anyway, that Buium will be the first defenseman chosen in the draft.

I think it should be Buium first. I'll need to see more video of Yakemchuk, there isn't much online.

Silayev is a good shutdown D at worst, but that's also him at best.

 

[kihei]

I think it should be Buium first. I'll need to see more video of Yakemchuk, there isn't much online.

Silayev is a good shutdown D at worst, but that's also him at best.

I'm not going to jump to conclusions about him, but I'm not sure that he is incapable of developing an offensive game at some point. Perhaps Nizhny Novogorod just might not be a team that encourages offense from him or provides him with the necessary coaching. Certainly wouldn't be the first KHL team that stresses defense over offense. Buium seems clearly the prize now, but Silayev isn't going too drop to far on my list just yet.

 

[majormajor]

I'm not going to jump to conclusions about him, but I'm not sure that he is incapable of developing an offensive game at some point. Perhaps Nizhny Novogorod just might not be a team that encourages offense from him or provides him with the necessary coaching. Certainly wouldn't be the first KHL team that stresses defense over offense. Buium seems clearly the prize now, but Silayev isn't going too drop to far on my list just yet.

I don't think Silayev has any offense in him, he didn't come close to producing even when he was against juniors late in this season. I'm not saying he's overrated or not a good pick in that #8-#10 range. I've wanted the Kraken to take a risk and go for someone with high upside, but Silayev would be a good pick if you wanted a risk averse approach. He'll be a good shutdown D.