2024 NHL Entry Draft Discussion, June 28-29th

[rt]

I kind of like Zane Parehk..Right D that can skate and shoot..

However I think we draft Silayev if we don’t win the lottery

I’d be surprised if we used three 1st rounders in consecutive years (two top ten picks) on three players all with the same profile. Lamoureux, Simashev, and Silayev is a ton of draft capital to invest in players with fairly limited offensive upside who are unlikely to help your PP at any point. I have Silayev in my top ten and I’m a huge fan of his. But I don’t think you can build a backend that’s so completely homogeneous.

I’m not saying they won’t pick big defensemen who can skate. I’m sure they’d love to. But I think it will need to be a little different profile. Someone who projects to be able to pair with a Simashev and Lamoureux type and be a good compliment. Someone who can PP1. A guy like Dickinson is big and can skate but I think he’s a better fit. Levshunov is big and can skate. I think he’s a better fit, too.

Now in the second round, I think you can go with another Silayev/Simashe/Lamoureux type. I don’t think that’s too many eggs in the same basket. I’m fine with that. I even have a couple of big time favorite players who I’m a little obsessed with that both fit the profile: Stian Solberg and Tomas Lavoie. I’d be thrilled with either in the 2nd. Heck, give me both. Just not in the top ten. Not again.

 

[Llewzaher]

I’d be surprised if we used three 1st rounders in consecutive years (two top ten picks) on three players all with the same profile. Lamoureux, Simashev, and Silayev is a ton of draft capital to invest in players with fairly limited offensive upside who are unlikely to help your PP at any point. I have Silayev in my top ten and I’m a huge fan of his. But I don’t think you can build a backend that’s so completely homogeneous.

I’m not saying they won’t pick big defensemen who can skate. I’m sure they’d love to. But I think it will need to be a little different profile. Someone who projects to be able to pair with a Simashev and Lamoureux type and be a good compliment. Someone who can PP1. A guy like Dickinson is big and can skate but I think he’s a better fit. Levshunov is big and can skate. I think he’s a better fit, too.

Now in the second round, I think you can go with another Silayev/Simashe/Lamoureux type. I don’t think that’s too many eggs in the same basket. I’m fine with that. I even have a couple of big time favorite players who I’m a little obsessed with that both fit the profile: Stian Solberg and Tomas Lavoie. I’d be thrilled with either in the 2nd. Heck, give me both. Just not in the top ten. Not again.

I have watched a little bit more of Dickinson .. ( not eh actual games like you do , but just the highlights) and man does that guy have a canon of a shot

 

[Freddy Sjostrom]

Watching some Yakemchuk, he’s so hard to read, they have him doing everything except playing goalie. He checks a lot of boxes, but I can see the argument he is not a top ten kid. Do you see a scenario where BA takes him?

 

[rt]

Watching some Yakemchuk, he’s so hard to read, they have him doing everything except playing goalie. He checks a lot of boxes, but I can see the argument he is not a top ten kid. Do you see a scenario where BA takes him?

Calgary isn’t in the playoffs? You sure you got the right kid?

Either way, I think Yakemchuk is very likely to be rated between 5-10 on Utah’s final list.

 

[Freddy Sjostrom]

Calgary isn’t in the playoffs? You sure you got the right kid?

Either way, I think Yakemchuk is very likely to be rated between 5-10 on Utah’s final list.

Yeah, YouTube. Interesting there is a wide variance among media scouts. Given his size, shot, and premium position, looks like a kid BA would covet.

 

[Kaizen]

Draft lottery is May 7 - time TBD.

 

[Mosby]

I’d like to SJ win if not us. They have almost always been a good team and never shamelessly tanked. Nowadays they just plain suck.

 

[rt]

Yeah, YouTube. Interesting there is a wide variance among media scouts. Given his size, shot, and premium position, looks like a kid BA would covet.

Gotcha! I definitely like watching some of those YouTube packages. I love that Blue Chip Prospects guy, he’s awesome. The Recrutes Sick Podcast has some good highlight segments, too. I like two of the Elite Prospects guys but really don’t like a few of the others.

Some are pretty bad. I watched one yesterday that was so embarrassing. The guy is doing a Zeev Buium feature and he’s roasting his game with words while showing clips of plays that will ostensibly support what he’s saying. Problem is, nothing you see actually supports what he says. And the vast majority of his criticism makes no logical sense and contradict themselves and show an apparent lack of understanding of how hockey works.

It was supposed to be a roast video. But the clips so clearly contradicted what the guy was saying and logic undid so many of the other points, that it actually really made me like Buium a lot more. In dismissing all criticisms so easily in this 15min video, it reaffirmed how much I like the prospect. Ironic because this video was meant to expose Buium as a fraud. Instead it was extremely revealing about the scout, rather than the player.

I’d like to SJ win if not us. They have almost always been a good team and never shamelessly tanked. Nowadays they just plain suck.

Also his dad works for the Golden Stste Warriors.

 

[lanky]

Yeah Blue Chip Prospect is the best. I remember a fair bit of sadness on HF Boards when that French-Canadian YouTuber stopped publishing videos because he was going to scout for the Habs. That guy was good but this guy is better IMO. And he gave me a quick shout out last year on his Dragicevic video so I think that makes me leader of the fan club.

 

[rt]

Yeah Blue Chip Prospect is the best. I remember a fair bit of sadness on HF Boards when that French-Canadian YouTuber stopped publishing videos because he was going to scout for the Habs. That guy was good but this guy is better IMO. And he gave me a quick shout out last year on his Dragicevic video so I think that makes me leader of the fan club.

You talking about Andy Lehoux? Andy was the man!

 

[lanky]

You talking about Andy Lehoux? Andy was the man!

Yeah that's the guy. He was good for sure.

 

[rt]

Sam Dickinson was incredible in game 1 against Saginaw. He’s so smart and so reliable. He’s suffocating defensively, is a one man break out, and is always getting the puck just where it needs to be. He’s also phenomenal at always being an option for a teammate in trouble. And he can always buy time and settle things down. His passing is phenomenal but it’s really his decision making. Plus the physical tools. What an absolute package. He’s behind only Celebrini, Buium and Demidov for me.

 

[Heldig]

Sam Dickinson was incredible in game 1 against Saginaw. He’s so smart and so reliable. He’s suffocating defensively, is a one man break out, and is always getting the puck just where it needs to be. He’s also phenomenal at always being an option for a teammate in trouble. And he can always buy time and settle things down. His passing is phenomenal but it’s really his decision making. Plus the physical tools. What an absolute package. He’s behind only Celebrini, Buium and Demidov for me.

Dickenson has been hyped for years.

I would be very happy with drafting him. Could be an ideal partner for Durzi.

 

[Mangosteen]

3rd D ceiling?

 

[Heldig]

3rd D ceiling?

2D IMO. Probably does not have the offense to be a number 1 but he can be the defensive partner on a top pairing.

 

[Mangosteen]

That's what I like to hear. Durzi is a good 3 / 4 d man so I believe you were just talking about for now?

 

[rt]

Dickinson has excellent offensive upside.

I ran some numbers, going back to 2010. Fifteen years including this draft. Looking at top 15 pick D from the OHL.

In the OHL there have been 12 picks (including Fowler, Hamilton, Nurse, Ekblad, and Sergachev).
E. Bouchard had the most points (87) and the best points per game at (1.29).

The average OHL D T15 picked over this span was picked 9th, played 59 games, had 15g 40a 55pts (0.93ppg).

Dickinson has 68gp 18g 52a 70p (1.03ppg). 3rd best.
Z. Parekh has 66gp 33g 63a 96p (1.46ppg). 1st best.

So Dickinson had superior production over Fowler, Hamilton, Koekkoek, Ceci, Nurse, Ekblad, Juolevi, Sergachev, Drysdale, and Mintyukov, in that span (15yrs) for top 15 picks from the OHL.

You can go back further and he’s still above some really high end names like Doughty, Pietrangelo and Chychrun.

And yes London scores a lot but he was in on 22% of all Knights goals. Which is incredible. For reference, Keller lead Arizona with about 28% this season.

 

[rt]

——

Having said all of that, it’s not even the offense that has me so high on this kid.

The thing that’s really made my jaw drop is how he’s been so unbelievably automatic in shutting down zone entries. He steps right up on the puck carrier at just the right time, gets a very strong stick right on the puck and breaks up the entry. He’s been especially automatic at this these playoffs. It’s crazy

When faceoffs are in his zone or there’s a dump in, he’s been so good at forcing plays to the outside, boxing out the front of the net and clearing the zone. He’s absolutely suffocating. And his passing is 10/10 elite level. As good as outlet passing can possibly be for any draft eligible D in any draft class. It’s so valuable.

These aren’t counting stats you see in box scores. But it impacts wins and losses so so much.

He also supports plays so well. He’s always an option for a teammate in trouble. Extremely smart support player. He’s such a reliable bail out option. And he himself rarely gets into trouble. And when he does, he doesn’t panic. He’s really good at minimizing his own problems when he’s in trouble and really good at helping bail out his teammates.

When he’s on the ice, shifts are so much easier for the other four skaters and for his goalie. He just makes the game so much easier on his teammates. They must love this dude. His coaches must too. He does everything as a coach that you’re always trying to get your players to do.

His own evaluation of his game is spot on. And his coaches and teammates say much the same:

:


NHL Central Scouting describes Dickinson as “a very good skating and puck-moving D-man.” Hunter calls him a “beautiful skater.”

Dickinson himself says his two best attributes are his size and skating.
Said Dickinson: “There’s not a lot of guys my age, or even who play hockey, who can really put those two things together as well as I do and it helps me out defensively shutting down plays and getting the puck out, transitioning the puck up quick, and then in the offensive zone to create space and use my feet to create as well.”

Bonk, a 2023 first-round pick (No. 22) of the Philadelphia Flyers, hasn’t hesitated to remind his teammate not to let the noise around the draft get to him.

“He knows that he’s going to go very high. … He’s just an offensive weapon. He can play defense too, which is kind of getting more rare. Now when you see an offensive D, usually they kind of sacrifice the defense. But with him, I feel like he’s always back, he’s always getting back to help his teammates,” Bonk said. “His offensive instincts, his passes, his shooting, his shot is unreal. Like, I wish I had that.”

As for the defensive side of his game, he says it’s among “the strongest there is,” something Hunter agrees with.

“For a guy (his size), not many guys like that come around,” Hunter said. “The offensive stuff is kind of more natural when you have guys come in. It’s natural ability of being able to stickhandle or skate. But the defensive side is more of a learning game and he does it really well. He can break up rushes, he knows how to play the game. He played against all the top lines, which is hard to do with a guy his age.”

How Sam Dickinson became one of the top prospects in the 2024 NHL Draft

From his competitiveness to his canon of a shot, those close to Dickinson explain why he could be drafted top five by an NHL club in June.

theathletic.com

 

[rt]

Just found this video and I think it’s really good. Nice 9min summary. I think it’s too focused on his shot and not enough on his shutdown capabilities but overall a good bite sized idea of the player.

 

[lanky]

I've been saying for a while that the pick will be one of Lindstrom, Silayev or Yakemchuk. Well Dickinson's skating makes Yakemchuk look like a scrub. I think Bill values skating pretty highly. He could be in the mix.

Dickinson - Lamoureux
Simashev - Durzi
Moser - Kesselring
Duda

 

[avco]

FC Hockey Staff predictions for First Round.

Pre-lottery mock for the 2024 NHL Draft

The regular season has come to a close and the Stanley Cup Playoffs are in full swing, so it's time for another mock of the 2024 NHL Draft.

nhlentrydraft.com

 

[Dog]

Im hoping they end up winning the lottery draft. That be a good start getting Macklin! If not if somehow Dickinson still available believe he be the pick.

 

[rt]

GMBA on Utah radio on what he looks for in players as he builds his team:

We want our players to play that playoff style. Taking the puck hard to the net and playing the right way. Physical, big, hockey-sense team that has a touch of speed coming at you. The way in St Louis we tried to build it, is the way we've tried to build it here. With the big defense. It's important that there are certain areas of the game you are big in. We love the big defensemen that can cover ground and be a physical player. We want our top two line players that have some skill to have some grit. To have skill but can finish. The Guenthers of the world, and the Cooleys. They got the skill and they got the speed but they play the right way, they take the puck to the net and they attack.

Utah GM: NHL Team Has 'Chance To Be Good' For 10 Years

Utah GM Bill Armstrong joined Hans & Scotty G. to discuss the process of team building and his reaction to the fan event at the Delta Center.

kslsports.com

 

[hbk]

GMBA on Utah radio on what he looks for in players as he builds his team:

Utah GM: NHL Team Has 'Chance To Be Good' For 10 Years

Utah GM Bill Armstrong joined Hans & Scotty G. to discuss the process of team building and his reaction to the fan event at the Delta Center.

kslsports.com

Silyaev

 

[rt]

Silyaev

Or Levshunov or Yakemchuk or Dickinson.

But probably not Buium or Parekh.