2022 NHL Entry Draft part 14

[NotProkofievian]

Yes, but his j20 production was anything but complimentary. 2 PPG in any league is pretty impressive.

I really struggled with my 20-21-22-23 rankings. (Kulich, Ohgren, Gauthier and Yurov.) All very similar. Turns out I ranked them from most skilled to least, in my opinion. Id say all those guys fit the "positive attributes:" group. All in all, I like him. He's good, I just expected Gretzky when I saw that 2.00 ppg.

Definitely not a Gretzky, that's for sure.

 

[morhilane]

I thought it was very telling that Lecavalier had a conversation with Wright, and then mentioned today he may have the conversation with the other players they are considering at 1st. Considering the combine was a month ago, and the draft is in 3 days, if those conversations were going to happen I figure they would have already.

They are making the choice tonight. I don't think those conversations are happening.

 

[Scintillating10]

W

He said that the scouts he spoke to project both Slaf and Wright as 2nd liners.

Where did he say this? Wasn't on 690

 

[WeThreeKings]

I'd be betting on Shane Wright, right now but I don't feel like Cooley is completely out of the conversation.

Does seem telling Vinny did more due diligence on Wright than the other two and the draft is in 3 days.

 

[FrankMTL]

They are making the choice tonight. I don't think those conversations are happening.

I know thats what they're saying, but I call bullshit. I'm betting the decision has been made for a few weeks already (after the combine and interviews). They'll get together tonight for some greasy pizza and a belching contest (Gorton is on a whole other level) before putting together a game plan for their other draft picks, but unless Hughes has an epiphany, they know who they're picking at 1.

 

[Frozenice]

Wright gives me a ‘Smart like tractor’ vibe. Nothing wrong with that but nothing to get excited about, either.

 

[FrankMTL]

Wright gives me a ‘Smart like tractor’ vibe. Nothing wrong with that but nothing to get excited about, either.

I never heard that expression before, but thank god for Urban Dictionary.

Not sure I agree with that assessment of Wright.

 

[Saxon]

I know thats what they're saying, but I call bullshit. I'm betting the decision has been made for a few weeks already (after the combine and interviews). They'll get together tonight for some greasy pizza and a belching contest (Gorton is on a whole other level) before putting together a game plan for their other draft picks, but unless Hughes has an epiphany, they know who they're picking at 1.

They'll definitely be working tonight, on the other picks. I don't buy this "we aren't sure yet" line either. Outside of Patty Roy, it's the same line every year.....

 

[WeThreeKings]

They'll definitely be working tonight, on the other picks. I don't buy this "we aren't sure yet" line either. Outside of Patty Roy, it's the same line every year.....

He mentioned its the first time they were all gonna be together in a room. So I believe its a truth that they havent' decided. It's clear they're leaning one way, Hughes said that he was.

But the final decision accurately hasn't been made but it will be tonight.

 

[JeffreyLFC]

Wright gives me a ‘Smart like tractor’ vibe. Nothing wrong with that but nothing to get excited about, either.

That's exactly the type of comment I hate on hockey forum. This bring nothing argument and the fact he is the most talked prospect in hockey at this moment and have to go through to more interviews than all other prospects is clearly not ideal for a 18 years old. You should mention why you think that of him instead of just dropping free shot at him like that. To me, he seems like a very mature kid with a head on his shoulder.

 

[Habs Icing]

I don't know why but I have this feeling we are walking away with both Wright and Cooley.

I can tell you why. Too much ayahuasca.

 

[jrom]

I thought it was very telling that Lecavalier had a conversation with Wright, and then mentioned today he may have the conversation with the other players they are considering at 1st. Considering the combine was a month ago, and the draft is in 3 days, if those conversations were going to happen I figure they would have already.

I understood that he talked to Wright not about the pressure coming from being picked 1st OA but for the pressure of being the expected 1st OA at the start of the season (he was the only one that had to deal with that on top of the rest).

Wright gives me a ‘Smart like tractor’ vibe. Nothing wrong with that but nothing to get excited about, either.

He sounds mature and intelligent in interviews. Good grades also, not sure why you would say that.

Cooley sounds like a typical teen in interviews and Slaf like a happy going Chad.

 

[WeThreeKings]

They're all f***ing 18. Doing media interviews and being grilled.

Do you remember your first job interviews? I doubt the interviewers thought we were fully developed, well articulate human beings.

 

[ginomini]

Not a discussion of our number 1 pick:


I think there is a decent chance that Anaheim picks one of Chesley, Bichsel at 10.


Lots of mock drafts have them taking Korchinski, but they have a lot of talent everywhere and with Zellwegger and Drysdale on D I imagine they could value defensive standouts like Chesley and Bichsel trying to hit on the next Lindholm/Slavin.

 

[WinterLion]

'kay its time

Here the final ranking.
Did a top 90 and I probably stretched it too long anyway. 4 and 5 is to trigger WTK more than anything
Typical WHL small skilled forward that is overrated and typical small MHL forward that is overrated. Had to.

Quick comments on the first 70 prospects, after that I got lazy.

Rank	Player
1​	Shane Wright	Shut up he's a franchise player
2​	Simon Nemec	Shut up he's a franchise player
3​	David Jiricek	Shut up he's probably a franchise player
4​	Frank Nazar	This dude has it all, 2nd best inside game in the draft and skills for days.
5​	Logan Cooley	2nd best passer in the game, best vision, lack of shooting prowess is scaring me. His inside game isn't as good as Nazar and he's not as good a shooter. Elite everywhere else though.
6​	Juraj Slafkovsky	Beeg factor is in full force. Im ready to be wrong and to crown him best in the draft if the team that drafts him takes its time.
7​	Pavel Mintyukov	Guys Minty, what can you say.
8​	Jonathan Lekkerimaki	2nd or 3rd best shot in the game, unsure. Dynamic as one can be, Cole if Cole was a bit worse and pasty.
9​	Matthew Savoie	Injuries, smol factor and a bit of a junior game scare me, but theres no denying the talent. Top 2 most talented player in the draft.
10​	Jagger Firkus	Kids a circus. Most dynamic dude in the draft. Best offensive package in the draft.
11​	Joakim Kemell	2nd or 3rd best shot in the draft, good wheels, good inside game. Unsure about some viewings where he may have showed low iq?
12​	Matias Havelid	Nothing to say here, kids gets pucks on net at an alarming rate. He's insane at walking the line and keeping pucks in with either quick low shots or smart decisions. The Joel Edmundson uno-reverse card.
13​	Connor Geekie	Kotkaniemi if Kotkaniemi wasn't a bust, he'll have time to hone his skills offensively and thats what he needs.
14​	Gleb Trikozov	Question mark kid. IQ is Reed Richards levels.
15​	Brad Lambert	McDavid if McDavid had a brain problem.
16​	Ivan Miroschnichenko	Full package kid, his offensive game is elite and he plays with an edge I like.
17​	Calle Odellius	Much like Havelid, just a tad bigger and a tad worse offensively. Pretty safe shot to be a 2nd pair D IMO.
18​	Marco Kasper	Love the motor, good brain, gritty, waterbug big boi. I question his offensive game at times, he looks like Mackinnon sometimes (Without the world bending skills.)
19​	Noah Ostlund	Kinda like Kasper, but smaller and with the world bending skills. He tends to paint himself in a corner and pulls sick moves to get loose, Im just unsure he can pull that off steadily at the next level.
20​	Jiri Kulich	Well-rounded forward. Wish he had more grit to his game, that wouldve made him a top 10 pick. Kinda lacks anything special but very nice overall.
21​	Liam Ohgren	Kinda like Kulich, maybe a bit better of a shooter and a bit better of an inside game. I didn't like his production. Something is fishy.
22​	Cutter Gauthier	Kulich-Ohgren-Kasper-Gauthier-Yurov is all the same. He's just the American version. A bit on the dumb side sometimes ? Lots of bad shooting, perimeter shots... Inside cuts that didn't work much.
23​	Danila Yurov	Yurov is the Russian version. Probably the best of the 4 on the rush, probably the dumbest of the 4 in the zone.
24​	Filip Mesar	Another Ostlund, maybe a faster skater ? Im unsure if Ostlund benefitted too much from his linemates and Im underrating Mesar or I got it right. Anyway, small factor is beeg.
25​	lian Bischel	BEEG. Mean. Aggressive. Good shot, smooth hands. Good skating. I wanted to rank him higher but could not.
26​	Owen Pickering	Smooth skater. He's a big project and its likely he becomes a depth D if he doesn't develop more but the upside is too good at this point.
27​	Denton Mateychuk	I hate myself for ranking him this low. So hard to judge. Hes probably going to end up as the "How is he producing 50 points a year" player.
28​	Isaac Howard	Howard is a victim of the team he's on. Pretty sure he'd be higher if he was anywhere else. Zegras award ?
29​	Mats Lindgren	Is he the best skating D in the draft ? Insane mobility.
30​	Rutger McGroarty	A big body that can shoot it like he can is worth it at this point. Skatings average but we just seen Corey Perry be an effective player in the NHL at 69 years old so Im not sure its a concern.
31​	Lane Hutson	Oh boy. He's gonna make us all look silly for ranking him so low, isn't he ? He'S fIvE NiNe! Who cares.
32​	Reid Schaefer	Not quite the skater Anderson is, not quite as dirty as Wilson but somewhere between the two theres this beauty.
33​	Kevin Korchinski	He's kinda dumb and his skating isn't as good as people think it is. Still, good package, and if he can overcome his troubles you have a top 4 D.
34​	Nathan Gaucher	I like him. He's heavy. He's gritty. He's skilled. Good shot. Good north-south game. I think he ends up being a very good cycler too.
35​	Ryan Chesley	Played a lot of game with Hutson and he played that Devon Toews role to a T. I wonder if theres more upside when hes the guy.
36​	Vladimir Grudinin	What do you get when you combine russian and small together ? A f***ing steal.
37​	Owen Beck	Becks good. He's kinda like Leblanc when he was drafted. Good everywhere, inside game kinda guy.
38​	Seamus Casey	I don't even know. I wanted to rank him higher but at some point someone has to fall, right ? If youre not putting up record breaking numbers as a diminutive offensive minded D, youre not getting in the club on day one.
39​	Sam Rinzel	I dont know, everyone loves him on the board, I haven't watched a second of his games. Im trusting fools on this one.
40​	Adam Ingram	Hes big, can skate and can shoot... Plus hes going NCAA. Good gamble.
41​	Alex Perevalov	Great gamble. Much like Grudinin.
42​	Julian Lutz	Lekhonen had a babe somewhere and hes name Julian Lutz.
43​	Noah Warren	I rarely ever rank defensive Ds in the top 50 but this kid is good.. Like 3rd best defensive D in the draft good. Does he have an offensive game?
44​	Ludwig Persson	Did someone mention Lekhonen because damn.. Thats another clone.
45​	Adam Sykora	Remember Lekhonen ? Yeah.
46​	Tristan Luneau	IDK Luneau looks like Savard out there. Good shot, good instincts, takes away time with patience. Wheels under construction. Big-ish. You could do worse than that here... Not exciting.
47​	Dimitri Bulchenikov	Exciting.
48​	David Goyette	Exciting-er.
49​	Jimmy Snuggerud	Yikes why is he ranked so high. (Probably a 3rd liner, he has qualities.)
50​	Vinzenz Rohrer	Good skater, super young. Good skills too! OHL crop is weird, Im sure this kid will be a riser.
51​	Luca Del Bel Belluz	Same as Rohrer. He looked average at times but he also looked good and has room to grow.
52​	Rieger Lorenz	BCHL shot in the dark. Good production.
53​	Jack Hughes	Pretty smart kid. Unsure if theres any upside there.
54​	Jordan Dumais	Kid is skilled. And he seems to have a chip on his shoulder... Or is it entitlement ? Idk. Anyway, at this point you take a shot at the shot.
55​	Servac Petrovsky	Underrated kid. Weird shot, but its works. He kinda gets lost into his defensive game, I wish he just went all out offensively.
56​	Viktor Neuchev	Beeg, skilled, shot... Like what else do you want ?
57​	Fraser Minten	Also Mint, just a bit less.
58​	Artyom Duda	Hopefully he's not a dud.
59​	Jani Nyman	Glides a lot and doesn't move his feet but theres a good shot in there and he's competitive.
60​	Cameron Lund	He's big and he's kind of a floater but who cares, you got ten years to fix him. Plays like Kovy... mostly for the bad part.
61​	Kirill Dolzhenkov	Silky hands on the big man.
62​	Bryce Mcconnell-Barker	He's fast, he works super hard and he's average everywhere else. (Good shot and good inside game.) Theres 100% a player in there.
63​	Simon Forsmarck	He's a budget Chesley. Does everything pretty good, probably a bit limited offensively. We'll see.
64​	Tomas Hamara	I don't know why he's that low honestly. Feels like a top 50 pick but I couldn't find a reason to rank him ahead of others. There's upside. There's a certainty in his game. He's cool as a cucumber. I don't like that his shot is Mete levels.
65​	Hunter Haight	Low key might have the best edges in the draft. He probably goes first round in a non-covid year but that production is hard to ignore.
66​	Topias Leinonen	Best goaltender in the draft. Good size, good rebounds, swallows the puck. He's a good shot at a decent netminder.
67​	Chris Kyrou	That production is hard to explain and hard to ignore. He's older and small but his brother is decently sized. He does have skills though. All over the board. Probably ranked too low.
68​	Filip Bystedt	He's big, has some skills and plays a good simple game I dont know, I like him. Has a lot of the same qualities Geekie has without the shooting and the crazy creativity. Lars Eller maybe ?
69​	Matias Sapovaliv	Another OHL that probably suffers from last year. Weird but he kinda reminds me of Slafkovsky.
70​	Isaiah George	He's fast.
71​	Gavin Hayes
72​	Ty Nelson
73​	Danny Zhilkin
74​	Gavin Hayes
75​	Michael Fisher
76​	Zam Plante
77​	Dylan James
78​	Logan Morrison
79​	Topi Ronni
80​	Nicola moldenhauer
81​	Connor Hvidston
82​	Paul Ludwinski
83​	Matthew Poitras
84​	Elias Salomonson
85​	Alexander Suzdalev
86​	Ryan Greene
87​	Michael Buchinger
88​	Michael La Starza
89​	Tyler Brennan
90​	Devin Kaplan

You are the best! I love the RLR type comments! Well done... obviously I disagree very much with a few things but that makes it even better! Thank you for sharing!!

 

[SlafySZN]

He mentioned its the first time they were all gonna be together in a room. So I believe its a truth that they havent' decided. It's clear they're leaning one way, Hughes said that he was.

But the final decision accurately hasn't been made but it will be tonight.

Hughes described character, compete level on the ice as something important and cited Gallagher as an example. Which is interesting, many have discussed this about Wright on this forum and outside (scouts, medias, ect…)

 

[Goldenhands]

I think Gaucher highlights a strange feature about us prospect nerds. I think it's weird that his size and skating, and the fact that he has a pretty good shot isn't seen as compensating for his mediocre production (it's bang on average in this year's sample, accounting for league). But rather, because he has all these physical tools, he must have something wrong with him to not dominate.

That seems strange, we should want the bigger stronger faster athlete at any given production level, shouldn't we?

With Gaucher the offensive upside is limited, I think we all are awere of this. You draft him to play on your third line in a shutdown role mostly. He has some nice tools, but lack offensive IQ and finess to his game. Still, you need that type of player on your line-up to make opponents' life miserable, especially in playoffs.

 

[Justin11]

Bell Centre under prep for draft day

 

[WinterLion]

With Gaucher the offensive upside is limited, I think we all are awere of this. You draft him to play on your third line in a shutdown role mostly. He has some nice tools, but lack offensive IQ and finess to his game. Still, you need that type of player on your line-up to make opponents' life miserable, especially in playoffs.

I have a thing for small smart & skilled players, but you need to draft big toolsy guys too. They are important and can really help fill the bottom 6 but also every once in a while they develop into more and that is another kind of slam dunk.

 

[WeThreeKings]

I have a thing for small smart & skilled players, but you need to draft big toolsy guys too. They are important and can really help fill the bottom 6 but also every once in a while they develop into more and that is another kind of slam dunk.

I'm fine with that when the timing is right.. but we've got so many support types, we need to go for upside right now.

There's just no way I'm taking Gaucher if there's guys like Ostlund, Mateychuk, Firkus on the board and they could be top 4/top 6 pieces.

 

[waffledave]

W

Where did he say this? Wasn't on 690

It was on his special on TSN where he revealed his final list.

 

[NotProkofievian]

With Gaucher the offensive upside is limited, I think we all are awere of this. You draft him to play on your third line in a shutdown role mostly. He has some nice tools, but lack offensive IQ and finess to his game. Still, you need that type of player on your line-up to make opponents' life miserable, especially in playoffs.

Yeah I'd agree with that. We're not getting our 1st line center with him. But he could be interesting enough to draft on his other merits.

I'm fine with that when the timing is right.. but we've got so many support types, we need to go for upside right now.

There's just no way I'm taking Gaucher if there's guys like Ostlund, Mateychuk, Firkus on the board and they could be top 4/top 6 pieces.

The value of the prospect is another issue. You have to pay top dollar for Östlund and Mateychuk, but Firkus I think will slide to the early 2nd. Mark was saying some NHL scouts he's talked to have him as an ND, not a lot of buzz around him.

 

[WinterLion]

I'm fine with that when the timing is right.. but we've got so many support types, we need to go for upside right now.

There's just no way I'm taking Gaucher if there's guys like Ostlund, Mateychuk, Firkus on the board and they could be top 4/top 6 pieces.

Yeah those guys would be great... add Howard to that list for me...

Also is it me or is Mateychuk slipping a bit? Seems like some are getting scared... but it only takes one team to fall in love. He is pretty damn dynamic. Not without flaws though.

 

[The Gr8 Dane]

Surely we are going for an offensive dman or boom/bust offensive skill forward with our 26th pick. Right?
Hope we don't go for a Poehling type is all. And I really liked the Poehling pick but this feels like a draft where we need an influx of skill not sure NHL'ers (third/4th liners)

 

[The Gr8 Dane]

and yeah im talking full boom/bust Nikita Scherbak type pick. Yeah I said it. Gotta bite the bullet sometimes