Official 2024 NHL Draft Thread

[TheKingPin]

I don’t get how some people say we need to swing for the fences with guys with a high level skill set and then say they’d dislike a Yakemchuk pick.

Have you seen him play?? I don’t say this with any hyperbole, but his pick skills for a dman are the best since Dahlin. He has some warts to fix to be sure but make no mistake about it, his ceiling is sky high.

I think concerns are about his IQ. He has stuff on him that he does not make the right play while under pressure. Those guys never seem to translate to the player you take the big swing on. I want a guy that thinks so fast the game slows down. He’s big and old for his draft year so that makes you wonder what he will do in the NHL.

 

[renberg]

This draft is shaping up as a top nine of Celebrini, Lindstrom, Iginla and the six defensemen. There probably will be a wild card selection made in the top ten since that is a usual pattern to these drafts. After that it gets interesting.
Nygard, Helenius and Catton could well be available when the Flyers pick. The Euros both have a bit more size than Catton. However aside from Michkov, I have a difficult time remembering when the Flyers took a Euro over a NA player at the top of the draft. Then MM was a no brainer that fell into their lap more than anything else. No offense to Catton but with first round selections the Flyers scouting in the WHL hasn't been the greatest in the last decade. Patrick and Provorov never hit expectations and even Sanheim is a bit of an underperformer. If the Flyers did select Helenius or Nygard it might be some evidence that a new era is now settling in here in Philly.

 

[Magua]

you’ve labeled him the most skilled Defenseman in the last six drafts

I had the same visceral reaction to this as someone calling Avril Lavigne the most important punk musical artist of the last 2 decades.

 

[FLYguy3911]

I had a feeling a couple toe drags would make people say stupid things. He’s not even the most skilled defenseman in this draft.

 

[Tarpongg]

I had a feeling a couple toe drags would make people say stupid things. He’s not even the most skilled defenseman in this draft.

I mentioned it earlier, the most recent Athletic podcast with Pronman and Wheeler was throwing up one red flag after another. This coming out of the CHL prospect showcase and the combine. Testing numbers well below average as well as combine interview red flags.

YouTube scouting will only take people so far. I could watch Noah Cates YouTube highlights and think he’s the second coming of Bergeron.

 

[Magua]

YouTube scouting will only take people so far

There are 3 full shift videos available on YouTube. I’ve seen other games too, but no one has the excuse that they can only watch 4 minutes of deceptive highlights. Which honestly aren’t that overwhelming. 3 games is enough to form a reasonable opinion. We don’t have to pretend like it’s Grant McCagg’s opinion or bust.

I had a feeling a couple toe drags would make people say stupid things. He’s not even the most skilled defenseman in this draft.

I remember Isaac Ratcliffe had elite hands because he toe dragged some OHL forwards. Good times.

Most skilled since Dahlin is straight up trolling. Yakemchuk’s skill level is probably 40-50 grade at best. It’s competent. I don’t think Dickinson will be a massive contributor either, but his baseline puck skill is higher. If you watch Parekh, Buium, and Yakemchuk and you arrive at the opinion the latter is the most skilled, you’re Stevie Wonder. Sorry not sorry. I have that guy blocked anyway when he had a meltdown last year about answering specifics.

 

[FlyerNutter]

Only matters to my heart if he’s the best skating out of the defensemen.

If he “needs to work on that part of his game”, he’s catfish bait.

Elite skaters only. Give it to me.

 

[Wangstar]

We have guys that can shoot,score, even though we are lacking offence. Name our playmakers, since Giroux left, we haven’t replaced him. I will just say at 12, if Eiserman is the only player available, we not take him. Bank on a playmaker

 

[FLYguy3911]

I remember Isaac Ratcliffe had elite hands because he toe dragged some OHL forwards. Good times.

I knew Ratcliffe had bad hands when he dropped the Flyers jersey they gave him after he got drafted.

 

[Chinatown88]

I had the same visceral reaction to this as someone calling Avril Lavigne the most important punk musical artist of the last 2 decades.

The fact that The First Take brought her in to do two videos pains me.

 

[FLYguy3911]

Avril had some bangers tho.

 

[TheKingPin]

We have guys that can shoot,score, even though we are lacking offence. Name our playmakers, since Giroux left, we haven’t replaced him. I will just say at 12, if Eiserman is the only player available, we not take him. Bank on a playmaker

I’d Iove him personally.

 

[SolidSnakeUS]

I think he is going to. His upside is very high, but I personally cannot shake Drouin vibes when I watch him. Nothing wrong with Drouin. Solid player, but he did not live up to the hype his IQ and skill created. My own belief is a low motor/compete lead to Drouin underachieving. Unfortunately, I personally think Catton shares those traits and I would imagine I'm not the only one who thinks so. Plus he is south of 6' which many teams may avoid. Many believe size is needed to build a true contender, and the Panthers success can easily be pointed at to support that belief. Could he be Brayden Point? Sure, it is possible. It is also possible he will not be as well

The main reason I believe he is likely to fall is the NHL is a Copycat league. Everyone is trying to build a winner and as Florida looks poised to win it this year that makes them the model to copy. If the Cat's FAs play ball, they could easily run it back next season and potentially win back-2-back cups. Which makes their model that much more appealing to copy.

The reality of using Florida as the basis for roster construction is there is no "Catton" type of player on the Cats roster. Helenius? Yup. It is like I'm already watching him play. Iginla? No doubt. Nygard? 100%. Lindstrom? Decent fit. Sennecke? Also decent. Catton? Nope. Not present. Evan Rodriguez is closest possible comp and their game is not similar nor are their motors. So yeah I would not be surprised to see him fall.

I don't exactly see Drouin, as he was a kind of play that had and still has mental issues to his game. Not even IQ, but mental health stuff. The guy was generally fragile mentally and had problems. That's an uncommon trait from a higher draft pick and it's not exactly predictable. I think considering his Drouin isn't correct.

Also being small isn't as much of a problem these days as getting the bigger guy doesn't always mean the better play. While I'm not saying his skill level is of Bedard, but he's under 6 foot. Kucherov is under 6 foot and the guy is their current franchise player. Same with Kaprizov. Then you have 2023 picks in Michkov, Benson, Yager, Moore, Perreault and Cowan all going in in the first round, all under 6 foot, and project to be pretty damn good players. Shit, we're even getting smaller elite goalies and the era of tall as hell goalies seems to be going away. By the way, Bolts won 2 cups in a row with Point, who is under 6 foot, as their top center.

Also using Florida as the barometer when they technically still haven't won the cup yet, is kind of silly. Flyers as they are now are also not Florida. They will also need a future center to be able to feed to and take passes from Michkov, and I think Catton can be that kind of player. His offensive ceiling is much higher than that of Helenius, Nygard, Lindstrom and Sennecke. However, if Iginla is there, I think you have to really consider taking Iginla over Catton. I think both are going to be good.

Anyways, getting off track, to say that Catton is Drouin I think is silly. From what I can tell, the issues that Drouin was going to have didn't really show up on scouting reports, especially his mental stability. Also, I think scouting is generally getting better with every year, so some of this stuff can be sniffed out better, I think, then in the past 10 years.

 

[ponder719]

We have guys that can shoot,score, even though we are lacking offence. Name our playmakers, since Giroux left, we haven’t replaced him. I will just say at 12, if Eiserman is the only player available, we not take him. Bank on a playmaker

I cannot emphasize this enough: DO NOT draft for need. DO NOT draft based on who and what is here now. Draft players that have at least one A to A+ skill in their toolbox. Who we have now (Edit, 6/23/24: Except Michkov!) is utterly irrelevant to the team we will be when our Cup window should theoretically be opening; half of these players won't be here, and another quarter will have had years of growth and development between now and then. A slight few will be then roughly who they are now, another couple will be on the downswing. Ultimately, you build a winner by finding players who can do one or two things better than anyone else, and building around those things they do well, supplementing with free agents to plug the small holes left over. You don't build by assuming that the team's overall skillset will always match what it is now; that's a recipe for creating massive new holes in areas where we used to be good.

 

[Rebels57]

I cannot emphasize this enough: DO NOT draft for need. DO NOT draft based on who and what is here now. Draft players that have at least one A to A+ skill in their toolbox. Who we have now is utterly irrelevant to the team we will be when our Cup window should theoretically be opening; half of these players won't be here, and another quarter will have had years of growth and development between now and then. A slight few will be then roughly who they are now, another couple will be on the downswing. Ultimately, you build a winner by finding players who can do one or two things better than anyone else, and building around those things they do well, supplementing with free agents to plug the small holes left over. You don't build by assuming that the team's overall skillset will always match what it is now; that's a recipe for creating massive new holes in areas where we used to be good.

There is no Cup window in our future at the moment.

 

[ponder719]

There is no Cup window in our future at the moment.

That's why I said "theoretically."

 

[renberg]

I cannot emphasize this enough: DO NOT draft for need. DO NOT draft based on who and what is here now. Draft players that have at least one A to A+ skill in their toolbox. Who we have now is utterly irrelevant to the team we will be when our Cup window should theoretically be opening; half of these players won't be here, and another quarter will have had years of growth and development between now and then. A slight few will be then roughly who they are now, another couple will be on the downswing. Ultimately, you build a winner by finding players who can do one or two things better than anyone else, and building around those things they do well, supplementing with free agents to plug the small holes left over. You don't build by assuming that the team's overall skillset will always match what it is now; that's a recipe for creating massive new holes in areas where we used to be good.

Under most circumstances I would agree with you. However with the Flyers overloaded in numbers at wing, defense and goal, the need to find center ice players is too great. There just aren't top two line centers in the system. This lack of quality shows in games in Philly and LHV. They can't compete in the middle of the rink. It has to be remedied now and for the future. If a trade helps solve this issue, then fine but if not it has to be a priority in the draft.

 

[JojoTheWhale]

Avril had some bangers tho.

 

[pit]

Under most circumstances I would agree with you. However with the Flyers overloaded in numbers at wing, defense and goal, the need to find center ice players is too great. There just aren't top two line centers in the system. This lack of quality shows in games in Philly and LHV. They can't compete in the middle of the rink. It has to be remedied now and for the future. If a trade helps solve this issue, then fine but if not it has to be a priority in the draft.

It's dangerous thinking that things will proceed the way we want/expect them to proceed. The organization is perilously thin just about everywhere even if things do go well for us.

Where is the LW depth? If they lose Konecny to FA, where is the RW depth? Sanheim goes down, how good is our D really? People griped about drafting goalies when we had Hart and we see how that went.

Anything can happen and when it does it's better to have the best possible players. If we happen to end up with a surplus of a particular position, then look to make a trade to address need.

Unless you're at a absolute coin flip of a decision between two players and you think potential position matters, sure. But I think if you go chasing after a center, you're going to leave better players behind and regret it.

I could watch Noah Cates YouTube highlights and think he’s the second coming of Bergeron.

Exactly which scouting position do you hold with the Flyers? It's got to be a pretty influential one because they agree with this opinion.

 

[Fire Tortorella]

Under most circumstances I would agree with you. However with the Flyers overloaded in numbers at wing, defense and goal, the need to find center ice players is too great. There just aren't top two line centers in the system. This lack of quality shows in games in Philly and LHV. They can't compete in the middle of the rink. It has to be remedied now and for the future. If a trade helps solve this issue, then fine but if not it has to be a priority in the draft.

Prospects can just as easily be valuable trade chips, do you should almost always take the best skater available.

Goalies just take one or two every draft and see how it goes.

TINSTAAGP

 

[BigToe]

 

[ponder719]

Under most circumstances I would agree with you. However with the Flyers overloaded in numbers at wing, defense and goal, the need to find center ice players is too great. There just aren't top two line centers in the system. This lack of quality shows in games in Philly and LHV. They can't compete in the middle of the rink. It has to be remedied now and for the future. If a trade helps solve this issue, then fine but if not it has to be a priority in the draft.

Sorry, I still can't get on board here. Positional need should be no more than a tiebreaker between two players you otherwise have equal grades on. Given the choice between a player you think is the next Kucherov and a player you think is the next Frost, you'd be shooting your goddamn foot off taking the latter because your center depth is bad. Take the better player. Who knows, maybe he's a center at the next level anyway. G was drafted as a winger.

 

[mr figgles]

It's dangerous thinking that things will proceed the way we want/expect them to proceed. The organization is perilously thin just about everywhere even if things do go well for us.

Where is the LW depth? If they lose Konecny to FA, where is the RW depth? Sanheim goes down, how good is our D really? People griped about drafting goalies when we had Hart and we see how that went.

Anything can happen and when it does it's better to have the best possible players. If we happen to end up with a surplus of a particular position, then look to make a trade to address need.

Unless you're at a absolute coin flip of a decision between two players and you think potential position matters, sure. But I think if you go chasing after a center, you're going to leave better players behind and regret it.


Exactly which scouting position do you hold with the Flyers? It's got to be a pretty influential one because they agree with this opinion.

Where is the RW depth? Outside of Michkov, Foerster, Tippett, Brink, and Tuomaala I can‘t think of anyone.

 

[Larry44]

Sorry, I still can't get on board here. Positional need should be no more than a tiebreaker between two players you otherwise have equal grades on. Given the choice between a player you think is the next Kucherov and a player you think is the next Frost, you'd be shooting your goddamn foot off taking the latter because your center depth is bad. Take the better player. Who knows, maybe he's a center at the next level anyway. G was drafted as a winger.

Gagne was drafted as a C and became a star LW too. It is going to be tough, given the good choices they will get at 12, to project who is going to be a star 5 years from now, regardless of position. But that's the scouts' very tough job. Agree on BPA always.

 

[FLYguy3911]

Yakemchuk as a Center convert. Can’t let generational toe drags like that waste away on the blueline.