Official 2025 NHL DRAFT Thread | Page 100 | HFBoards - NHL Message Board and Forum for National Hockey League
Toggle sidebar

Official 2025 NHL DRAFT Thread

Biggest red flag on O’Brien is that I don’t know what his production looks like without Lardis. CHL players who weren’t driving the bus on their team scare me as top-of-the-draft selections.

Martone, on the other hand, does not remotely scare me. He’d be a prolific producer on just about any team. I give Desnoyers some benefit of the doubt for that reason too, but obviously Q numbers are harder to read.

I want gaudy, standalone statistics and/or projectable elite traits like Frondell’s shot. Give me something to have confidence that there’s something elite about you.

If Martone is there, the only way I hesitate is if Hagens and/or Frondell are there too. If not, you take Martone, and try finding a C by cashing in some other assets. Or trade up to swing on McQueen (I don’t love him, but who cares, you need to swing for the fence). Maybe both.
 
  • Like
Reactions: renberg, BernieParent and Larry44
I’ve warmed up on O’Brien. If he works on his weaknesses, bulks up a bit, and hits his 80%+ percentile he could be a star and 1C. But I don’t think he’ll be anything special otherwise. He’s another player who wouldn’t be shocking if he went in the top 5 and another homerun swing
 
  • Like
Reactions: Nabrules
Magua said:
It’s really hard for me to see Martone not being at least a 60 point complementary guy next to a plus transition player. Let him feast on the cycle + PP. That feels realistically slightly pessimistic. His small space skill is just too high, and it’ll translate. His physical pace needs to improve to talk high end outcomes — his skating seems fixable because the stride is fine — but that’s not his mental pace. He’s very good at manipulating pucks to extend windows too.

Meanwhile, it’s hard for me to see Desnoyers or Frondell’s ceilings being higher than that. Again, I like both players. There are far worse players they could take.

I feel like O’Brien is a popular name because he’s a 6’2 point producing center who feels like less of a known commodity. Which means imagined upside. But I don’t see that high upside. The more I watch the more his lack of urgency + lack of escapability bugs me. He almost has deceptively slow feet, the skill breaks down under tight checking, I see as much waiting/floating as anticipation. Some of his quality passes just don’t feel like NHL windows. His drastic PP/ES performance makes for positives and negatives. He honestly has the lowest floor of the popular names, but I don’t think his ceiling is any higher.
Click to expand...
Interestingly enough the OHL coaches poll came out few weeks back. They voted O'Brien ahead of Martone in basically every offensive Category: Smarts, Playing making and stick Handling.
 
StoneColdAnimal said:
This was my read on O'Brien: I thought his hands are legit. That said, I have real concerns about the skating, pace, and how often he glides without his feet moving. It’s hard for me to see how he hits his ceiling without a big jump in that area. I’d root for him if we drafted him, but I’d temper expectations in terms of him becoming a difference-maker.
Click to expand...
If you're worried about O'Briens skating and play of pace, what do you think about Martones? He's substantially slower but plays "faster"
 
I would hope Martone isn’t written off just because he’s a winger by the Flyers. You can draft 2-3 guys in the late 1st/early 2nd who can play the C position and hope one rises up. There are guys like Rossi, Zegras, Bourque you can take a shot on. Odds are that pick 6 will have the chance to play C but they shouldn’t pigeonhole themselves
 
  • Like
Reactions: BiggE, Devonator and Larry44
I’m pretty sure they would take him.

We already should have had two of the best young wings in the league. Then we should have had maybe 2 of the best young dmen in the league (at least 1). So who knows what will happen.

My dream is trading TK and getting a top pick and player and sending clear signal they intend to tank for the next two drafts.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Larry44, BernieParent and Antti
Gregor Samsa said:
Either way Briere should be spending lots of time on the phone with Chicago, Utah, and Nashville. He wanted to move up last year but couldn’t. This year he has the ammo
Click to expand...

Hawks/Flyers dont make good trade partners here since Flyers cant provide an asset worth trading down for

Flyers have futures in form of draft picks but Hawks at this stage are moving out of accumulating picks down line since they have made large selection of prospects in early rounds since Davidson took over

Davidson selections in first 3 rounds as GM

2022
1st round - D Kevin Korchinski (7th overall)
1st round - C Frank Nazar (13th overall)
1st round - D Sam Rinzel (25th overall)
2nd round - C Paul Ludwinski (39th overall)
2nd round - C Ryan Greene (57th overall)
3rd round - LW Gavin Hayes (66th overall)
3rd round - LW Samuel Savoie (81st overall)
3rd round - C Aiden Thompson (90th overall)

2023
1st round - C Connor Bedard (1st overall)
1st round - C Oliver Moore (19th overall)
2nd round - G Adam Gajan (35th overall)
2nd round - RW Roman Kantserov (44th overall)
2nd round - Martin Misiak (55th overall)
3rd round - LW Nick Lardis (67th overall)
3rd round - C Jiri Felcman (93rd overall)

2024
1st round - D Artyom Levshunov (2nd overall)
1st round - C Sacha Boisvert (18th overall)
1st round - LW Marek Vavanacker (27th overall)
3rd round - C John Mustard (67th overall)
3rd round - C/W Anthony Spellacy (72nd overall)
3rd round - RW Jack Pridham (92nd overall)

And Hawks themselves have bevy of future picks to utilize as trade chips to improve NHL roster potentially

1747136841611.png


If Flyers want to move up its hard to see it happening

- Utah wants to make splash and get in playoffs potentially if they were to make #4 available they would want an impact player (Unless Briere is willing to trade away Konecny they don't seem to fit as trade partner)

- I honestly don't know what the hell Trotz is doing in Nashville at this point, He has made some terrible moves since being hired as GM

As an outsider I am not very familiar with Flyers pipeline but it appears you need C and W as most pressing needs right now for Flyers. Luchanko and Berglund selections last year do provide some Flyers depth in system at C but it still seems very thin

Honestly Flyers are probably best to hold onto those late 1st's and other picks to stock farm system instead of looking to trade them
 
  • Like
Reactions: IronMarshal and Larry44
Blackhawkswincup said:
Hawks/Flyers dont make good trade partners here since Flyers cant provide an asset worth trading down for

Flyers have futures in form of draft picks but Hawks at this stage are moving out of accumulating picks down line since they have made large selection of prospects in early rounds since Davidson took over

Davidson selections in first 3 rounds as GM

2022
1st round - D Kevin Korchinski (7th overall)
1st round - C Frank Nazar (13th overall)
1st round - D Sam Rinzel (25th overall)
2nd round - C Paul Ludwinski (39th overall)
2nd round - C Ryan Greene (57th overall)
3rd round - LW Gavin Hayes (66th overall)
3rd round - LW Samuel Savoie (81st overall)
3rd round - C Aiden Thompson (90th overall)

2023
1st round - C Connor Bedard (1st overall)
1st round - C Oliver Moore (19th overall)
2nd round - G Adam Gajan (35th overall)
2nd round - RW Roman Kantserov (44th overall)
2nd round - Martin Misiak (55th overall)
3rd round - LW Nick Lardis (67th overall)
3rd round - C Jiri Felcman (93rd overall)

2024
1st round - D Artyom Levshunov (2nd overall)
1st round - C Sacha Boisvert (18th overall)
1st round - LW Marek Vavanacker (27th overall)
3rd round - C John Mustard (67th overall)
3rd round - C/W Anthony Spellacy (72nd overall)
3rd round - RW Jack Pridham (92nd overall)

And Hawks themselves have bevy of future picks to utilize as trade chips to improve NHL roster potentially

View attachment 1034913

If Flyers want to move up its hard to see it happening

- Utah wants to make splash and get in playoffs potentially if they were to make #4 available they would want an impact player (Unless Briere is willing to trade away Konecny they don't seem to fit as trade partner)

- I honestly don't know what the hell Trotz is doing in Nashville at this point, He has made some terrible moves since being hired as GM

As an outsider I am not very familiar with Flyers pipeline but it appears you need C and W as most pressing needs right now for Flyers. Luchanko and Berglund selections last year do provide some Flyers depth in system at C but it still seems very thin

Honestly Flyers are probably best to hold onto those late 1st's and other picks to stock farm system instead of looking to trade them
Click to expand...
I think most are fine with staying put IF we had faith that the Flyers would just take the best player from the Schaefer, Misa, Hagens, Frondell, Martone, Desnoyers group but their obvious need of center prospects has fans afraid they would reach if Martone is the player at 6 or if they don’t see Hagens or Frondell as a center. A Martin or O’Brien may turn into a great player, even better than some of the 6 listed above but it would just be luck in a faulty process

The positive of a sparse farm system and 7 picks in the first 2 rounds this year means they can’t cut corners and are almost forced to be a bad team that gets high draft picks until the prospects arrive and make a impact. Cates-Poehling-Couturier is not a center group that will make noise and Luchanko and the 2025 draft picks are 18 years old.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Blackhawkswincup and BernieParent
Nabrules said:
If you're worried about O'Briens skating and play of pace, what do you think about Martones? He's substantially slower but plays "faster"
Click to expand...
I hadn’t previously taken the time to dig into Martone — I just couldn’t see us drafting a winger. But with all the recent discussion and your questions, I finally watched about 30 minutes of film on him (mostly highlights).

This is another guy I have real concerns about in terms of skating and pace. Honestly, his skating might be worse than O’Brien’s. His first two steps are rough, and his top speed isn’t much better — though he does seem to play with slightly more pace overall. Still, it’s a concern. That said, he’s got a ridiculously long reach paired with a really nice set of hands. There’s a confidence to his game that I like — he plays like he thinks he’s the best player on the ice, and in all the good ways.

He handles the puck well in traffic and looks comfortable as both a passer and a shooter. I wouldn’t say he has a heavy shot, but the release is quick, accurate, and he shows decent deception in tight. He has good hands around the net, and his reach definitely helps compensate for the skating issues. I don’t remember Joe Thornton well enough from junior, but something about Martone’s game is triggering that kind of comparison for me. He’s also willing to go to the greasy areas, which I like.

He seems to make the right play more often than not — yes, these are highlights, so there’s some bias there, but there were a lot of highlights, which suggests he’s doing plenty right.

Overall, there’s something about his game that makes me think the skating won’t hold him back as much as it might with O’Brien. I think it’s his ability to really leverage his length and hands in tight areas that helps neutralize the skating limitations.

I will say I expected a bit more physicality. I probably need to watch full games to fairly assess that aspect, but in 30 minutes of highlights I saw one hit.

P.S. — his cellys are on point. Between him and Michkov…
 
  • Like
Reactions: Nabrules
Random Forest said:
Biggest red flag on O’Brien is that I don’t know what his production looks like without Lardis. CHL players who weren’t driving the bus on their team scare me as top-of-the-draft selections.

Martone, on the other hand, does not remotely scare me. He’d be a prolific producer on just about any team. I give Desnoyers some benefit of the doubt for that reason too, but obviously Q numbers are harder to read.

I want gaudy, standalone statistics and/or projectable elite traits like Frondell’s shot. Give me something to have confidence that there’s something elite about you.

If Martone is there, the only way I hesitate is if Hagens and/or Frondell are there too. If not, you take Martone, and try finding a C by cashing in some other assets. Or trade up to swing on McQueen (I don’t love him, but who cares, you need to swing for the fence). Maybe both.
Click to expand...
Lardis didn't outproduce him by a large margin last year. I think Obrien's relative production last year and this year is good.
 
BringBackHakstol said:
I really can't picture them taking a RW at 6. It just doesn't fit their pattern. I have a feeling they pass on Martone and it's another buium situation
Click to expand...
I mean the team admits they draft for current need, not BPA, so high chance. (and this doesnt have to do with Martone being BPA or not)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Users who are viewing this thread

  • ... and 7 more.
    • Total: 26 (members: 19, guests: 7)

    Latest posts

    Ad

    Ad

    Top Bottom