The way I was thinking:
I like the size/rawness element to Honzek. He seems like a guy who is sort of "just coming into his own" now, and has done things thus far while being a little weaker/lankier than where he's going to get to when he fills out? One thing I would try to do with him is INSIST (somehow) on him trying things back at Center again. I hope Vancouver just started out thinking, hey, we've got Ostapchuk, we've got our veteran overager Thorpe, we want to play Honzek in the top-6, but we don't have a center spot. Whereas he seems to skate... well let's say "adequately"... does kill penalties. I would love to make a full court press next season if I drafted him in terms of trying to convert him into a center. It may not work. But it's worth a try. If it worked, I guess I would dare to dream of him becoming something of a Pavel Zacha type of player. If it didn't work... well, fair enough.
I suspect Sale will be gone to Philly or New York. The thing that interests me about him is the upside. Or perceived one, anyhow. He has had fans who have been putting him into the top-10 for the past couple years. But then he played in a men's league at 17, maybe he didn't get a lot of minutes, maybe his motor/compete started to lag. So he has fallen. He's a pure wing, but at least a Left shot. To me, he'd be a consideration because if you were going to "swing for the fences" and it was just a kind of off/down year for him and he regains the mojo of being a top-10 caliber talent, then getting him at #24 could turn out to be a bit of a "steal". But I guess that's where you have to gauge via the interviews and so on if he really has the fire in his belly to prove people wrong. Kemell seems to.
And then Stenberg is the one who actually plays center. But at 5'11"/180, will he? It will be interesting to see what the Combine measurements say, he does not look "small" to me. Tearing up the U18 seems to have vaulted him back onto the radar as a 1st rounder. I wouldn't be choosing him just based on that though. He was the captain of that team and got 16 pts in 7 games, so that's pretty amazing, no doubt. But looking back through his history and his J18/J20 story and injuries and what happened there relative to his high-profile teammates (LDN say), I think I understand the lower junior league numbers.
That is kind of what is going through my mind on the players I have at the top of my list right now. We're going to have a chance at 1 of them (in this mock, not necessarily in the real NHL). It becomes an easy choice if the next 2 picks are two of them.