HF Habs: 2024 NHL Draft Thread

[vokiel]

I keep hearing Gorton talk about how the Habs are cognizant of how hard it is to add skill.

Leads me to believe Eiserman is going to be the pick. He's also going to BU next year, the Habs management love that program.

Habs were in 38 games decided by 1 goal this year. They want more goals, Eiserman does that.

Eiserman has less skills in his tool box than Iginla, Catton and Demidov. Not sure why you're jumping straight to Eiserman. He's a great shooting winger, there are just a bunch of them available every draft. Not the same with the latter 3.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

I was about to ask this very question.

I haven't seen Eiserman play but I remember watching Caufield at the U18s. My jaw dropped. I thought he would be a perennial 50 goal scorer. He still has to hit 30. Now if Eiserman's shot is not noticeably better than Caufield's, I don't see how posters can call him a 50 goal scorer. Caufield has other attributes and he hasn't hit 30 yet.

Some context needed on Caufield though. At 21,22 years old Caufield put up 48 goals in 82 games. No, it wasn’t over one season but the production was there.

This year he’s on pace for around 315 shots. Of players with more than 200 he has - by far - the worst shooting percentage in the league. At least year’s percentage he’d be on pace for 50.

Caufield very likely would’ve been around 50 last year if he wasn’t hurt and that injury may have impacted this season as well.

I think Caufield is more of an argument FOR drafting Eiserman than against.

 

[Whitesnake]

My April top 15
Celebrini
Demidov
Catton
Dickinson
Iginla
Eiserman
Yakemchuck
Lindstrom
Parekh
Levshunov
Buium
Hage
Silayev
Helenius
Greentree

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

My April top 15
Celebrini
Demidov
Catton
Dickinson
Iginla
Eiserman
Yakemchuck
Lindstrom
Parekh
Levshunov
Buium
Hage
Silayev
Helenius
Greentree

No love for Lidstrom eh? Not enough games for you to be comfortable or you think others just have better upside?

 

[MasterMatt25]

I'm fine taking a defenseman if its the right defenseman. Plus if its a righty like Yakemchuk/Levshunov/Parekh that solidifies our top 2 pairings of the future.

Mailloux then gets shopped as trade bait for an offensive forward

 

[vokiel]

Order of preference, in progress:

Celibrini
Demidov
Catton
Dickinson
Buium
Iginla
Levshunov
Lindstrom
Eiserman
Helenius
Silayev
Parekh
Chernyshov
Brandsegg-Nygård
Yakemchuk
Jiricek
Connelly
Greentree
Boisvert
Surin
Hemming

 

[TheBuriedHab]

Eiserman has less skills in his tool box than Iginla, Catton and Demidov. Not sure why you're jumping straight to Eiserman. He's a great shooting winger, there are just a bunch of them available every draft. Not the same with the latter 3.

I mean I obviously think Demidov will be gone.

Iginla has been the one I've been advocating for but I think Eiserman is the homerun swing they will prefer this year now that things are falling into place, Newhook and Roy looking like top 6 players gives them more room to make a pick like this. Team needs a gamebreaker that has a ceiling to be better than Roy or Newhook. They are going to eventually have to gamble on a player like that and trust their development.

 

[vokiel]

I mean I obviously think Demidov will be gone.

Iginla has been the one I've been advocating for but I think Eiserman is the homerun swing they will prefer this year now that things are falling into place, Newhook and Roy looking like top 6 players gives them more room to make a pick like this. Team needs a gamebreaker that has a ceiling to be better than Roy or Newhook. They are going to eventually have to gamble on a player like that and trust their development.

I understand your point better. It's more you want the highest tool, not the guy with the biggest toolbox, but is that what Gorton is aiming for? I have to think that if it would have been the case, we would have been drafting Benson last draft and aimed for Silayev or Parekh for this one. They seem to be more interested in tool boxes imho. More complete players than specialists.

 

[Whitesnake]

No love for Lidstrom eh? Not enough games for you to be comfortable or you think others just have better upside?

Well....some love....but frankly, my method is really....who do I want between him and the guy behind. I just prefer and/or be more excited with the guys in front. Nothing THAT concerning about Lindstrom though I do have one tinky bit of hesitation as far as his ceiling. Somehow. And watching the games...I often ended up liking Basha a little more.

But yeah, I'd love more games for sure.

 

[Andrei79]

I don't see the 50 goal potential in Eiserman at all.

 

[Anardil]

In the recent fluff piece about Eiserman it was mentioned that Eiserman spends a ton of free time at the practice facility and specifically in the "shooting room" working on his shot. I think the quote was something like he basically lives there because his billet family is only 2min away.

That does show he has that desire to improve that Hughes/Bobrov/MSL have all talked about as what they want/look for. The million dollar question is do we think our development staff can channel that desire into other areas of his game.

Great! He works hardest on improving his best quality. Exactly what the Habs need.

 

[MON4NHLTOR4MLB]

Reinbacher seems alright, we’ll wait and see with him before judging but that’s why I didn’t love the pick last year. We all knew we’d be here with a bunch of high end D prospects on the board in this draft. We should have taken Michkov or Leonard and went with one of the D this draft

 

[Anardil]

Have you watched their games or you are just basing it on international games?

He had been running up the score a lot. He is by far the most talented player on his team who is by far the most talented team in the league. All their games are basically exhibition for them. Not a good environement to develop or make a proper evaluation. Good for the highlights reel though. Not questioning his talent but it makes it a bit more risky.

The fans don't mind that risk, but the GM and owner do think about it. Especially if you have a piss poor team without decent defender in the pipeline.

If there is one poster here who has definitely seen Russian prospects it is @Kshahdoo

 

[MON4NHLTOR4MLB]

If our top forward prospects are all drafted by our pick, I think you’ll see us just move the pick instead of drafting another D

 

[Kshahdoo]

Have you watched their games or you are just basing it on international games?

He had been running up the score a lot. He is by far the most talented player on his team who is by far the most talented team in the league. All their games are basically exhibition for them. Not a good environement to develop or make a proper evaluation. Good for the highlights reel though. Not questioning his talent but it makes it a bit more risky.

The fans don't mind that risk, but the GM and owner do think about it. Especially if you have a piss poor team without decent defender in the pipeline.

Overly talented kids always destroy opposition in junior leagues, Bedard was 2.5 PPG in the WHL as 17 yo so does it mean WHL is a B level junior league?

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

Yeah, no thanks. I'd still take a forward before him.

If we won the secondary lottery and got the number two pick, I’d probably trade down to 5th. A whole whack of blueliners will likely go anyway and we just flat out need forwards.

 

[JeffreyLFC]

Overly talented kids always destroy opposition in junior leagues, Bedard was 2.5 PPG in the WHL as 17 yo so does it mean WHL is a B level junior league?

WHL has lost qualities but Bedard also could not play pro hockey unlike Demidov. Also to this point Demidov is playing to one of the richest russian club in the world and overflowed with talent both Michkov and Demidov are not even playing in their KHL main team, that's insane. To your point, Bedard was part of one the shittiest WHL club, that was impressive to do what he did with that team. That being said, I am not shitting on Demidov, just the situation surrounding him. The main issue I have with him is the lack of comparable to his peer because he has not featured against other nations in international competition for the past two years.

For instance, Bedard annahilated the doubt we could have (if anybody had doubt) when he dominated at the WJC.

 

[JeffreyLFC]

If there is one poster here who has definitely seen Russian prospects it is @Kshahdoo

Which is fine, MHL is loaded with talents but it is becoming harder to compare versus other league.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

I don't see the 50 goal potential in Eiserman at all.

He’s not fancy and he’s not the play driver. But he can finish. It’s very Bossy-ish, Brett Hull-ish. Get lost in traffic and shoot.



He’s not Steve Yzerman or Denis Savard and based on what I’ve seen he’s not going to make a lot of highlight type plays. But this is the kind of guy who’s going to score a lot of goals.

 

[Scintillating10]

I would. I can't imagine how strong that D would be with a Dickinson or a Yakemchuck. Insanely strong. Then...just make sure you draft a superstar forward at the end of 1st round....lol

Or trade Jets pick for top 6 forward. Our first line is doing fine

 

[JeffreyLFC]

He’s not fancy and he’s not the play driver. But he can finish. It’s very Bossy-ish, Brett Hull-ish. Get lost in traffic and shoot.

We are not in 1980/90 anymore, which player is comparable to Bossy or Hull in 2024? Maybe Laine?

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

We are not in 1980/90 anymore, which player is comparable to Bossy or Hull in 2024? Maybe Laine?

There aren’t Denis Savards anymore either.

The way to score goals is to get lost in the weeds and fire off. Ovechkin (a dynamic player who did more than just score) scored tons of his goals this way. Caufield was doing this as well. Matthews isn’t fancy either - though he’s a solid two way player.

I see little reason to doubt that Eiserman will be anything less than a 40 goal guy. That doesn’t mean we should draft him ahead of others or that he’s got a complete game - but that shot’s amazing and he knows how to use it.

The main thing about him is that he’s only 17 and I think the other aspects can be taught. I love the ceiling. I just don’t want us to take Doug Jarvis over Mike Bossy again.

 

[BergevinBurner]

He’s not as good as Caufield was and we are still waiting on Cole to hit 30 goals.

I mean 50 goals is a ludicrous amount. There’s like 4-5 players that will hit that mark per season, and they are all far better players than Eiserman projects to be. Either you have to be elite in many facets of the game (ie Matthews, Ovechkin) or you play with generational-level talent (Hyman, Rantanen). He’s not the former and we have no one near the latter.

I'd disagree on that part. Caufield was playing alongside Hughes in his draft year and yet Eiserman still has a higher draft year PPG in the USHL and the NTDP. Caufield's definitely slowed down since his shoulder surgery(which could add more incentive to go Eiserman), but before that he had an 82 game stretch where he was playing at a ~45 goal pace.

If Eiserman rounds out his game then I could easily see him being a better Caufield that has more options since he won't be as limited by his size.

 

[Whitesnake]

Or trade Jets pick for top 6 forward. Our first line is doing fine

You won't have that for that pick.

 

[JeffreyLFC]

You won't have that for that pick.

Exactly. Unless that top 6 is Gaudreau or Huberdeau