2023 Draft Thread (Lottery Drawing 05/08/23 8PM)

[tunnelvision]

Too soon? I saw '23 draft threads on other teams' boards so I figured why not. Besides, Hlinka Gretzky Cup (July 31st - August 6th) begins this Sunday, there will be plenty of potential 1Cs to take an early look at... for that 10-15 range 1st round pick we all want so badly, am I right @EspenK?

Couple rankings I found this morning:

1. Connor Bedard - Center​

2. Adam Fantilli - Center​

3. Matvei Michkov - Wing​

4. Calum Ritchie - Center​

5. Dalibor Dvorsky - Center​

6. Leo Carlsson​

7. Cam Allen - Defense​

8. Zach Benson - Center/Wing​

9. Brayden Yager - Center​

10. Mikhail Gulyayev - Defense​

11. Will Smith - Center​

12. Charlie Stramel - Center​

13. Kasper Halttunen - Wing​

14. Theo Lindstein - Defense​

15. Quentin Musty - Wing​

16. Riley Heidt - Center​

Click to read more...

 

[Finner]

Michkov will drop out of top10. Never know if he can leave Soviet Union damn autocorrect. Meant Russia

 

[Cowumbus]

Obviously you want Bedard, Michkov or Fantilli. But Yager/Smith would be a nice C to have as well. Probably won’t pick that low bc we are “trying to be more competitive” and battle for a wildcard spot.

 

[Toe Pick]

I know these can change as the season progresses but 11 centers in the top 18 on that first chart is EXACTLY why we can't afford to deal a 2023 first.

Also interesting that the top of this draft is thin on D which makes the way our selections fell this year a nice bit of timing for the depth chart.

 

[koteka]

We probably won’t get a top center, but there are still guys like Will Smith, Charlie Stramel, Matt Wood, and Nate Danielson that might be in our range. Last year was a draft with a lot of good defensive prospects. Next year seems center heavy at this point. Which is just what we need.

 

[Tecmo]

I'm not even sure where I think the Blue Jackets pick in the '23 draft. Is Johnny good enough to will us into the playoffs or does the team still lack enough talent and thus end up with a higher pick?

My initial reaction is draft the best player available because I see us having a good enough season to not be in a position to pick a top-end player.

 

[Xoggz22]

I'm always interested to see how the rankings change from prior to the draft season for these players starting to how things shift throughout the season.

This certainly looks like a very, very deep first round. I'm also hoping to see how the overall depth is given we have more bullets in the 3rd and 4th round thus far. Maybe we add a 2nd and additional mid-round pick through trades. Either way, I think this is likely to be the last year of truly building the asset capital as the young players should be starting to contribute this year and next. That should allow for moves to raise the NHL talent level to new heights and not completely strip the prospect pool.

 

[JacketsDavid]

I'm not even sure where I think the Blue Jackets pick in the '23 draft. Is Johnny good enough to will us into the playoffs or does the team still lack enough talent and thus end up with a higher pick?

My initial reaction is draft the best player available because I see us having a good enough season to not be in a position to pick a top-end player.

Likely fighting for a wildcard spot, so right in between is my guess.

 

[LetsGOJackets!!]

Got Luca DBB with a #44, last year.. sometimes top players fall. Didn’t he just score twice last week. Going to be really good

Might as well get the lottery out of your mind. I heard somebody that can actually do something about the 2022-23 season say, "I didn't come here to see the views. I came here to win hockey games". I heard another being Patrik Laine say,"I heard we got Johnny Gudreau and my hands started shaking.. I couldn't scroll my phone" or something to that effect. You know those high level passes that didn't get finished in the past.. or the slick breakout pass from the wall that ended up just a tad out of reach? Those plays are going to get finished now so get your DVR's ready because you may need to rewind.

 

[alphafox]

Unless we have get very lucky and win the lottery there's no way we have a shot at the top 5. The draft seems pretty deep at C and we may be able to make a trade from say 12 to 7 and pick up a second-tier guy like Stramel or Carlsson, who would almost immediately be in the nhl center conversation.

I anticipate this being our last year to potentially have a top-10 pick as the roster turnover should start to hit in 2023-2024 with multiple first-rounders taking positions on the back end as well as growth up front. It feels like the 2023 draft will be the one to go all in to really make a cup push in '25 & '26.

 

[EspenK]

My goal is to have my top 88 by the start of the season...

 

[LJ7]

I think I'll make a preliminary list before their draft year seasons start as an experiment. I've never really cared about pre draft year performance but I'm curious to see just how much more important the draft season actually is compared to the D-1 year and before. Also doing it because I find ranking prospects very fun. Not sure I'll ever recapture the high of watching us take Jiricek and Mateychuk but my satisfaction with how that went left me wanting more

 

[ProfessorFink22]

Here's hoping this is the last draft we need to add one last blue chip piece to our prospect pools. Lots and lots of talent for us if we were a bubble playoff team in the 14-18 range. Count me in the camp that we are a year (at least) away from being truly competetive and should not trade this pick for anything this year. Beginning next year my comfort level for trading draft picks will probably rise, but please not yet, we aren't ready yet!

And I feel much better about filling our defensive prospect cupboards this year, looking at the lack of D in 2023. Some teams later on in the first round, maybe even in later rounds, might end up reaching to get Dmen with the lack of them, to our benefit if we can just draft BPA.

 

[tunnelvision]

My goal is to have my top 88 by the start of the season...

Fantastic, it would help me a lot with my 3-round mock draft I'm planning on doing after first week of regular season.

 

[CBJx614]

I'm hoping we won't be spending too much time in here during the season next year!

 

[Viqsi]

Hello, everyone. I'm Officer Viqsi of the Fun Police; I'd gotten some unconfirmed reports of people talking about the draft far in advance of the legally permitted timeframe, and I just wanted to check in and make sure that everything is well and nothing of the sort is going on, because I'm sure you're all perfectly decent law-abiding citizens who would never ever cross that line and would obviously not even dream of talking about the 2023 draft until 2023 itself at the earliest...

 

[EspenK]

Marchenko,KJ,Sillinger,and anyone else who is waiver eligible to Cleveland to aid in our Tank Hard for Bedard campaign.

 

[koteka]

Hello, everyone. I'm Officer Viqsi of the Fun Police; I'd gotten some unconfirmed reports of people talking about the draft far in advance of the legally permitted timeframe, and I just wanted to check in and make sure that everything is well and nothing of the sort is going on, because I'm sure you're all perfectly decent law-abiding citizens who would never ever cross that line and would obviously not even dream of talking about the 2023 draft until 2023 itself at the earliest...

Are we allowed to talk about 2024 prospects? That Macklin Celebrini looks pretty good.

 

[Ippenator]

Are we allowed to talk about 2024 prospects? That Macklin Celebrini looks pretty good.

As a Finn I must absolutely add Aron Kiviharju!

 

[Viqsi]

Marchenko,KJ,Sillinger,and anyone else who is waiver eligible to Cleveland to aid in our Tank Hard for Bedard campaign.

* * *​

Are we allowed to talk about 2024 prospects? That Macklin Celebrini looks pretty good.

I dunno. That sounds suspiciously like it has the potential for... "fun".

 

[koteka]

As a Finn I must absolutely add Aron Kiviharju!

The Finnish defensive wunderkind? Wasn’t he playing in adult leagues when he was eight years old? You Finns do love talking about him. His HF thread is already 21 pages long.

LD Aron Kiviharju - TPS, FIN JRS (2024 Draft)

His Birthdate is January 25. 2006 - Age 11. Height: 5'1", Weight: 105 lbs He played in the D2(u13) AAA(highest level) league this season as his team's alternative captain. His team won the title. Also, while he didn't win the scoring title(Several players played on two teams and had nearly...

forums.hfboards.com

 

[Ippenator]

The Finnish defensive wunderkind? Wasn’t he playing in adult leagues when he was eight years old? You Finns do love talking about him. His HF thread is already 21 pages long.

LD Aron Kiviharju - TPS, FIN JRS (2024 Draft)

His Birthdate is January 25. 2006 - Age 11. Height: 5'1", Weight: 105 lbs He played in the D2(u13) AAA(highest level) league this season as his team's alternative captain. His team won the title. Also, while he didn't win the scoring title(Several players played on two teams and had nearly...

forums.hfboards.com

Well, yeah it was a bit crazy when he was discussed already really young. But last season he was really showing that he is already realisticly a very promising prospect. Was probably Finland’s best defenceman as a double underager in the last U18 WJC. He will be in Finland’s Hlinka-team in August, so interesting to see how he will do there.

I have understood that he quite probably will be getting at least some Liiga games in TPS Liiga team, when the season starts. He is still physically very raw and weak, so I’m not sure what to think about it. On the other hand he has shown so far exceptionally high hockey IQ and passing skills, which has helped him do so far very well when he has been years younger than the players he has been playing against.

 

[koteka]

I think it is because you guys have been producing elite offensive talent and good goalies, but the weakness of a Finnish national team is the defense. So he has been seen as some sort of potential savior from a very young age. An elite center would get plenty of notoriety, but you already have Barkov and Aho. But you don’t have what some people project Kiviharju to be. I have been following that thread for a few years. It will be interesting to see what he becomes.

 

[Jovavic]

Who was the greatly hyped Finnish D before Miro, Pitaknen?

 

[Ippenator]

Who was the greatly hyped Finnish D before Miro, Pitaknen?

I guess you mean Joni Pitkänen? He was quite talented, but his career was horribly ruined by injuries, and he had to retire quite early because of that too. I wouldn’t say that he was as talented as Heiskanen anyway. And definitely not as talented as Kiviharju is, when he was Kiviharju’s age.