Since it's draft week, here's my official guess post for our pick at No. 28.
I posted about what I thought the Canes should be looking for in another post and I centered around about five players. Now keep in mind, it's *very* likely -- extraordinarily likely, even -- that most of us are saying "we could have gotten this guy with one of our second-rounders" after our pick. But there are only seven picks between our first and our back-to-back seconds, and only ANA, BUF, BOS, OTT, LA, NJ, DET make picks in there. I think it's incredibly likely we get three guys out of four or five on our list, so who goes 28th vs. who goes 36/37 is kinda irrelevant, IMO. There's a tier of players around 22-40, IMO, and all of them are good picks at any of our three slots.
To start, if any of these players are available, my Guaranteed Pick TM is null and void and we should take him: Jack Hughes, Kaapo Kakko, Dylan Cozens, Alex Turcotte, Bowen Byram, Vasily Podkolzin, Kirby Dach, Cole Caufield, Trevor Zegras, Matthew Boldy, Peyton Krebs, Alex Newhook, Spencer Knight, Arthur Kaliyev or Philip Tomasino.
So, I basically grouped these guys together and picked the one I thought fit our needs best. The guys were: Patrik Puistola, Bobby Brink, Nils Hoglander, Nick Robertson and Jakob Pelletier. And the guy in that group that I think will be the best NHL player is Nick Robertson, so he's my pick.
Along with Brink, Hoglander and Pelletier, Robertson is on the small size at 5-9, 160. The difference, to me at least, is upside. As one of the youngest players in the draft (Sept. 11, 2001, yes, *that* Sept. 11), Robertson has barely begun to scratch the surface. Despite his age, Robertson finished in the top 10 of several fitness categories at the combine. He's got Saarela's shot/release, Foegele's work ethic, as well as great speed/edges and a high hockey IQ. He rocked up Central Scouting's list from 30 at mid-season to 17 after the season.
His comparatively low numbers are mostly the result of a wrist injury suffered in 2018 that cost him a few months. But looking at his shot the second half of the season, he's obviously got no lasting effects. IMO, if he had a full, injury-free season this year, we'd be talking about this guy in the 10-20 range, if not higher.
I'm a bit miffed by McKenzie's ranking having him at 42. Maybe the kid is a jerk, or a lousy interview. These are things I can't know. But with the type players ranked around 25-40 and us having three picks, I think we can afford to jump up and grab a guy with this kind of upside.