Prospect Info: 2022 NHL Draft Hype

[DistantThunderRep]

google translated:



He has 2 years left on his contract with Avangard Omsk. I believe his agents are Mark Gandler and Todd Diamond of International Sports Advisors Co. They rep Mikhail Sergachev too. Their office is in Fort Lauderdale.

Who knows what's going on behind the scenes. Obviously getting him set up somehow to play in the CHL would improve his draft stock in every NHL GM's eyes.



There is some speculation right now to if he even ever returned to Russia after finishing his treatment in Germany.

Pulling the Alex Mogiliny. If he somehow slips to us, for all things that are holy, like the Apostle Jan Rutta, I hope we pick him.

 

[TheDaysOf 04]

 

[HanTykje]

What is the team needs?
Goalie is not needed atm need to wait to Vasy get old
Defender? Depends on the upside of; Roman Schmidt, Alex Gagne, Jack Tompson, Eamon Powell and Max Crozier?
Center? Not needed
Winger? Yes Killorn, Palat(?), Perry, Maroon will likely leave in soon in the future (1-2 years)

 

[DaBolts]

Wait, wha, wha, wha, what?

We are participating in the draft?

Who knew...

 

[Felonious Python]

What is the team needs?
Goalie is not needed atm need to wait to Vasy get old
Defender? Depends on the upside of; Roman Schmidt, Alex Gagne, Jack Tompson, Eamon Powell and Max Crozier?
Center? Not needed
Winger? Yes Killorn, Palat(?), Perry, Maroon will likely leave in soon in the future (1-2 years)

We're picking the best players available. These guys won't be in the lineup, likely for years.

 

[Bolt32]

We're picking the best players available. These guys won't be in the lineup, likely for years.

The only guy that could fall to us that I can see being in the line up in a couple of years is Ivan Miroshnichenko. Kid is going to be a star in this league. If he drops significantly I would say pull the trigger all day long. Let the Russian click help groom him, and it will extend our window for a few years. (Bold prediction I know.)

 

[Point21]

Miroshnichenko is probably the 1 guy i want the most, even if we have to move up a handful of spots to get him. Treat this man like we did Kucherov and pay for anything he needs and to get him over here next season for the CHL season

 

[TheDaysOf 04]

No one, and I mean no one, has any clue how this is going to shake out. It’s not something I should say when I try to build a mock draft, but it’s just the truth. There is such a wide array of opinions about this draft with debates starting at first overall and not ending until the final pick is made – or maybe even after.

I’ve been doing mock drafts for a long time and I can’t remember a year where it was harder.

31. Tampa Bay Lightning: Jagger Firkus, RW

This would be such a Tampa pick by getting a highly skilled scorer who is a bit undervalued because of his size. Firkus has good enough quickness and a killer release. I like the team-player fit right here.

Chris Peters has Firkus ranked 15th, but has him going 31st overall to us in his mock draft.

He also has Ivan Miroshnichenko, Luca Del Bel Belluz, and Filip Mesar available at pick 31. Dmen Calle Odelius, Noah Warren, Mattias Havelid, and Lane Hutson are there too.

 

[TheDaysOf 04]

Craig Button has Luca Del Bel Belluz (the #23 player in his rankings) going to us in his mock draft. On Button's draft board Firkus and Miroshnichenko are already taken.

Button:

"What a name. Luca Del Bel Belluz. The Tampa Bay Lightning better not trade him because when you think about name attraction, he has that. He also has a very slick game, an opportunity to create some offense, and some ability to play really good defense."

NHL Comparable: Mikael Backlund

 

[TheDaysOf 04]

Sam Cosentino on this drafts unpredictability:

"It's like nothing I've seen (before). I've been following the draft for a long time. At Sportsnet this is our 8th year, and my 8th draft as being the analyst, and I haven't seen this kind of volatility. It's funny because you talk to NHL scouts and they tend to have that type-A personality and don't tend to stray too far from what's in front of them, but to a man that I've talked to, my goodness the volatility is there and it's right there from the number 1 pick. A lot of this conversation is that we've had to this point: is it Shane Wright? Is it Juraj Slafkovsky? Is it going to be Logan Cooley or will Simon Nemec sneak in? All of these conversation points speak to the volatility at the top end of the draft and typically we don't see that. Part of that is this draft class doesn't have an Auston Matthews, a Connor McDavid or a Nathan MacKinnon available. So players are a lot more bunched up."

"There are a lot of different elements that are leading in my opinion to this volatility. You think about two Russian players who going back to the start of this draft year before things happened with Ukraine and Russia in Ivan Miroshnichenko and Danila Yurov who were in my opinion top 10 picks. ... The next is what we talked about already, there's not a lot of separation between these players. The next thing you have is you come off the recency vibes of the Cup. You think about big defensemen and you think about forwards who can withstand the heavy play. This draft class has a lot of smaller skilled forwards to offer, but it also has a lot of really big defensemen to offer. So does that change the value of the volatility of where those players might go? And then the last thing obviously is the pandemic. What has that meant to the development of those players? I speak specifically to the CHL because that's what I know best. The OHL didn't play so those guys missed a year. Does that mean that the 02s and the 03s that might have been passed over get a better look in this draft? In the Quebec league, fits and starts, an altered schedule last year. What does that mean for those players? And of course the Western Hockey League played just 24 games. So you really have essentially looked at all CHL players missing a good chunk if not a full year. ... You could say the same thing for the European players that were playing in the J20 or the U18s that didn't get that opportunity because they shut down, and if they were good enough to get called up, they didn't play much in their mens pro leagues because they weren't ready. So a lot of reasons why I think this has become unpredictable."

On players possibly slipping through the cracks:

"I think what we're going to see is more of an influx of the re-entry players. Guys that have gone through it once, or maybe twice because of that developmental time frame. The general sense that I'm getting is that this is not a strong draft class from those that I talk to. Now having said that there's probably 50 guys that are all potential first round picks. So does that mean that the draft class is better than we think, or does that mean that it's not as good and that's why there's so many? So you can kinda throw that question around a little bit. But getting back to the point about guys slipping through the cracks, there is going to be more of an emphasis on the re-entry players who you've had probably a book on their under-17 year, you had not much of a book on through last year, and then you've watched them play, especially the second half of this year when they had to the time to get back up to speed, and you're saying to yourself 'wow, this guy has progressed a long way from his U-17, and some of the things we picked apart in his U-17 year are now all of a sudden improved, they're different, they've grown, his game has expanded, he's added layers.' We're going to see a lot of that. But you will also see some of the players that are first year draft eligible who slip down through the cracks as you say that end up being better players than maybe projected because we have less information on that player."

On the potential for guys rated as 2nd rounders to move into the 1st round:

"I think there are a lot of guys here in their first year of eligibility who have the potential to get into that 27-32 spot that most of us won't have projected. But A lot of that depends on how many Russians go in the first round and how many guys does that push down? What do you think about drafting a positional need like a big defenseman, when maybe typically they're not 1st round guys, but this year they are because of recency bias because of how close we are to the end of the Stanley Cup? There's a lot of different elements that go into that. I think there's huge potential for several guys to jump into the end of that first round."

 

[Point21]

I really hope if we do trade our pick. its early on since i will most likely miss the final 10 or so draft picks due to taking my fiance to see Thor, all so she can get the collectible popcorn bucket...

 

[TheDaysOf 04]

Sam Cosentino mocks Del Bel Belluz to us.

31. Tampa Bay: Luca Del Bel Belluz, C, Mississauga Steelheads (OHL): May not have the same jam, but the overall package is Anthony Cirelli-like.

 

[Five Alarm Fire]

Sam Cosentino mocks Del Bel Belluz to us.

Talented forward who has questions about his skating. Great fit for us.

 

[DistantThunderRep]

Sam Cosentino mocks Del Bel Belluz to us.

If he has Miroshnichenko going only 4 spots up, I hope we try to make a move with Arizona and grab him.

 

[TheDaysOf 04]

Yzerman on Russian players for this draft:

"The Russian players were hard to assess and evaluate because it was difficult early to get in there early in the season (because of covid restrictions), and then you weren't getting in there at all or going there."

"You know it's always, the usual concerns are there (for drafting a Russian player), and throw in the uncertainty of what's going on in Russia and a little bit of uncertainty as to what players can and can't do. Will they be available now or any time in the future? It adds just another level of uncertainty to the whole drafting of Russian players and whatnot."

"I have no idea (how much that effects the lists). We're preparing our lists or organizing our lists as we normally would. I don't know what other teams are doing, but we'll continue with the same kind of strategy or same plan that we always have. Ultimately we want to draft really good prospects, and good kids, and go from there."

 

[TheDaysOf 04]

And more 7th round picks too!

 

[HoseEmDown]

Not seeing how they plan on trading back, Arizona practically owns all of the next 10 picks.

 

[DistantThunderRep]

Having trouble find a place to watch the draft.

I am idiot, i thought today was the 7th...

 

[These Are The Days]

Wanna see us go for Miroshnichenko simply because of the potential. This guy could be our last 1st round pick for a while

 

[Zwui21]

Good to see that Al Murray will not shy away from Russian prospects.
Seeing how things are, it will be a gamble. But at the same time we are in a position where high risk-high reward picks suits us the best. And we could see some very good prospects slide because of the geopolitical situation.
Depending on who and how much they slide, maybe trading our 1st for a couple of early seconds could be the play.