2023 NHL Entry Draft

[ReHabs]

f you pick Dvorsky at 5, it is not because of his intagibles and responsible games. They are secondary attributes and simple constituant of his play style. You pick him there because you expect him to be that big time point producer.

i think we all agree Michkov is the biggest talent in the draft after Bedard and an immediate star. The bottom line is that the Habs cannot fail their top selection this year. It would be a franchise killing move. It would kill the momentum of the rebuild. On this specific case, i will stand with the organisation decision because Michkov is such an obvious pick that if they don't make it, i think we can safely speculate that the due diligence have been inconclusive. Even if Dvorsky or Leonard or Benson become only 60 points player, if Michkov don't come, it is a steep opportunity price to pay and a major wasted opportunity, let alone if one of them becomes a 1C or a top line player.

Skipping Michkov will kill the franchise much worse than picking Michkov and it not working out (due to bust, nuclear war, or anything there in between).

Skipping Dvorsky will be fine, there are other players where we are drafting that have higher point production upside and can be reasonably projected to approach it. I think Benson, Smith, Cristall, etc.

It would be a gut punch if they took the guy who got 14pts in 38gp. Enough's enough.

 

[Jack Skellington]

That's a coordination issue, IMO. He's a huge dude who's still a bit clumsy. My bet is that it won't always be the case, and then he'll be a real force in the NHL.

Obviously his IQ and ice mapping will never be a huge strength, but it doesn't have to be for him to be a successful NHL player because of the insane physicals he possesses. I agree there are coordination issues but I feel a lot of them are being caused by a big lack of confidence that is clouding his decision making, coupled with the faster speed of the NHL. We saw him playing very very well at the World Championship, which I actually did rate very highly as a predraft feat for him, unlike the Spengler Olympics. His decision making was good and his processing speed was better and there were some pretty decent NHL players in that tournament. I think he simply needs a few years to get used to the NHL.

 

[ginomini]

There is very strong recency bias with you last sentence. Slaf struggled at 18 in the NHL but very few players don’t. Wood would struggle if he was in the NHL at 18, I have little doubt there.

Well, yes he would struggle. But no, no recency bias. I rated Slafkovsky’s offensive IQ rather low at his draft too. Nothing has changed there for me.

 

[ReHabs]

Well, yes he would struggle. But no, no recency bias. I rated Slafkovsky’s offensive IQ rather low at his draft too. Nothing has changed there for me.

It's tough to score on NHL-ice if you have bad hockey IQ because there's less room AND the defenders are the best-in-the-world.

Drafting a player who has questionable hockey IQ and has not shown the ability to produce in his draft year is a really dumb approach.

Doing it two years in a row with top5 picks is franchise sabotage dumb. Let's see how dumb Gorton and Hughes are.

 

[Estimated_Prophet]

He's not a superior prospect to Slafkovsky. Disagree on B.

I think it is a difficult call as I value IQ/skill/character combination over everything and Wood imo has Slaf beat in the 1st two, especially IQ.

Slaf is such a physical anomaly that his progression is difficult to accurately project. They are both great prospects with a single glaring weakness and their floors and ceilings have significant separation.