[Discussion] 2023 NHL Draft Defensemen Sleeper Picks

[Peachkings1922]

Roberto Mancini 6'3 215 03. Plays in Saginaw with Mintyukov worth a peek.
This season GP-37 G-9 A-7 PT-16 +17. Last year Detroit had a look at him.
GP-61 G-11 A-17 PT-28 last year.

 

[neelynugs]

I think Carter Sotheran fits the description quite well. CHL rookie hovering around .5 PPG without PP time. Young for the class. Huge, projectable frame, and underrated skill. He led his previous two teams in scoring as a defenseman. I would say he'd take off as soon as the second half of the season, but Cagnoni is eating up most of the minutes and will until he turns pro. May have to wait until he's 19 to see the true breakout.

would add justin kipkie to this suggestion of sotheran. played on a terrible team but he looks like a nice mid round nab

 

[Castle8130]

Tristan Bertucci and Andrew Gibson. They likely go in the 2nd or 3rd rounds, but both have a great skating ability to go along with size and physicality

 

[SeaOfBlue]

I have a simple model that tries to identify D sleepers.

It is still early, but there a two players who the model likes at this point:

Peteris Bunlans
Arttu Kärki


For those who aren't really sleepers but the model thinks might be slightly undervalued:

Oliver Bonk
Beau Akey

I also have a simple model. Definitely could see Bulans but I think he suffers from the same sort of fate as Fenenko last year... And I believe the lack of exposure at the U20's (not really his fault as I believe he was injured) really hurts him. That is often where a lot of Lavian prospects can make their names.

Not really seeing the appeal on Karki though. Needed to play pro games unless he plans on going the NCAA route, and even then, he needed to show more in international competitions from a production stand point because his defensive game was certainly not good enough for him to be a sub-PPG defenseman in those tournaments (even as a late-born). I think he is a late-round project who has some desirability if everything comes together, but it would take a lot of work for him to get to that point.

 

[SeaOfBlue]

Roberto Mancini 6'3 215 03. Plays in Saginaw with Mintyukov worth a peek.
This season GP-37 G-9 A-7 PT-16 +17. Last year Detroit had a look at him.
GP-61 G-11 A-17 PT-28 last year.

would add justin kipkie to this suggestion of sotheran. played on a terrible team but he looks like a nice mid round nab

Both Kipkie and Sotheran are worth looking at. Sotheran is easily a 3rd round pick for me, but ranking Kipkie (and his partner Kalem Parker) is just very difficult. Parker was okay as a #7 on a weaker Canadian squad in the U18's last year, and I had him in the top 100 for a while.

But their WHL resume is a massive question mark for me; so much so that they could range from the late 3rd to being undrafted altogether. Good point totals and logging a ton of minutes in all situations playing on a bad team. But they also had a lot of rough moments; some of it because of their team, but they also made some really bad reads and decisions both at the blue line and in their own end. They showed flashes of puck skill and puck moving ability, but it is inconsistent.

They are also competing with another sleeper pick out of the WHL in Kaden Hammell, who similarly showed offensive promise but also some inconsistency in his own end. Hammell is probably the most physical out of the bunch, but also probably has the worst skating. He also played on much better teams so his weaknesses/mistakes are probably less glaring than Parker/Kipkie.

Those three (Hammell/Parker/Kipkie) are three of the guys I think I need to go back and get a better read on before the draft. Out of all of the later round target candidates I have on my board, they may be the best bets to fill out the last spots I have available in my top 100.

 

[SeaOfBlue]

Who would your top 5 be?

Not exactly my top 5. I have to exclude some for being massive sleepers. So I am going to include some who are probably still on enough radars to not be totally unknown but still are underrated.

1) Matthew Mayich
2) Francisco Dell'Elce
3) Larry Keenan
4) Aaron Pionk
5) Donovan McCoy

HM's (mostly because they are probably even more known than the mentioned list): Jordan Tourigny, Albert Wikman, and Rodwin Dionicio.

 

[Steve Kournianos]

Kiiskanen
Mynio
Zavragin
Kantserov
Barkey
Thoreson
Foster
Fowler
Fischer
Peltonen
Konnor Smith
Rehkopf
Macnamara
Willis
Pitre
Asplund
Sidorov
Loshko

Edit: Sorry didnt see it was just dmen so I bolded them.

 

[emptyNedder]

I also have a simple model. Definitely could see Bulans but I think he suffers from the same sort of fate as Fenenko last year... And I believe the lack of exposure at the U20's (not really his fault as I believe he was injured) really hurts him. That is often where a lot of Lavian prospects can make their names.

Not really seeing the appeal on Karki though. Needed to play pro games unless he plans on going the NCAA route, and even then, he needed to show more in international competitions from a production stand point because his defensive game was certainly not good enough for him to be a sub-PPG defenseman in those tournaments (even as a late-born). I think he is a late-round project who has some desirability if everything comes together, but it would take a lot of work for him to get to that point.

Agree on Karki--he rates average now that the season is over.

In fact, the model doesn't have many D prospects scoring well. Only three really stand out:

Bulans
Fischer
Bergstrom

Though Brzustewicz will be under-valued if he falls past 40 as he should be a late 1st.

 

[Warh1ppy]

Some solid finds in here. Looking through, a good number of these kids have the potential to really be the epitome of a sleeper pick if they are allowed to develop properly!