Prospect Info: The Adolescent 2019 Draft Thread

[Llamamoto]

Looking at the standings right now. Oilers tied for 23rd in the league.

Lets say the draft plays out like the standings right now.

Avs(Sens): Hughes/Kakko
Devils: Hughes/Kakko
Kings: Dach (Similar to Kopitar).
Wings: Cozens (Looking to build around speed and shot, Larkin, AA, Mantha, Zadina).
Panthers: Byram (Need defence, maybe Soderstrom for RHD??).
Ducks: Podkolzin: (Need speed, skilled Forward).
Blackhawks: Zegras (US forward).
Oilers:

Who would you take there? My pick would be Alex Turcotte or Peyton Krebs.

 

[ConnorMcMullet]

Looking at the standings right now. Oilers tied for 23rd in the league.

Lets say the draft plays out like the standings right now.

Avs(Sens): Hughes/Kakko
Devils: Hughes/Kakko
Kings: Dach (Similar to Kopitar).
Wings: Cozens (Looking to build around speed and shot, Larkin, AA, Mantha, Zadina).
Panthers: Byram (Need defence, maybe Soderstrom for RHD??).
Ducks: Podkolzin: (Need speed, skilled Forward).
Blackhawks: Zegras (US forward).
Oilers:

Who would you take there? My pick would be Alex Turcotte or Peyton Krebs.

There's no way Turcotte falls that much.

 

[Stud Muffin]

There's no way Turcotte falls that much.

I’m not sure I’d even have Turcotte in my top 10 to be honest with you.

 

[ConnorMcMullet]

I’m not sure I’d even have Turcotte in my top 10 to be honest with you.

Wow, I'm pretty surprised. What part of his game are you not a fan of? He's got blazing speed, great hands and vision, and is considered the best defensive forward in the draft.

If he wasn't injured to start the year, I think he'd be a lock for top 5.

 

[Oilers in NS]

I'm not a big fan of Lavoie

He's putting up pretty poor numbers for a guy with a late birthday and his skill set.

Seen him play a few times. Great set of hands

 

[Oilers in NS]

I have seen few games from Kaapo Kakko while visiting Finland and he is a gem.

He can dominate with adults allready as he has so amazing strenght at lowerbody. Likes to play near boards and has high iq.
Now he has played center also and even does it well.

Still some junior plays etc. But damn he is promising!

Though Oilers to get top. 2 pick... season must be horrible...

I prefer Kakko over Hughes

 

[Oilers in NS]

I don't know about that. I think Peyton Krebs would be an Oilers type pick. Left winger (huge need), Alberta kid, plays in the WHL, good pedigree. Captain and basically the one-man-army for his team. It's like Benson 2.0 without the injuries

I'm not too familiar with Krebs yet but just looking at highlights it looks like he has a wicked wrister. Seems to be a smart player with good hands and a good passer too. I'm on board.

Him or Newhook would be good picks for the Oilers.

I find too many Oiler scouts and fans have had a love affair with Edmonton Oil Kings players and it has killed us. I mentioned some Q players and I got shot down. Some great goal scorers in the Q

 

[Stud Muffin]

Wow, I'm pretty surprised. What part of his game are you not a fan of? He's got blazing speed, great hands and vision, and is considered the best defensive forward in the draft.

If he wasn't injured to start the year, I think he'd be a lock for top 5.

It’s not that I don’t like him it’s more of me liking other players more.

 

[A91]

I feel Hughes is going to be a winger in the Kane/Marner mold. Shifty, skilled, dynamic forward.

 

[A91]

I know a D is tempting but we need another forward who can drive the play in the worst way.

 

[McDNicks17]

I feel Hughes is going to be a winger in the Kane/Marner mold. Shifty, skilled, dynamic forward.

I think Hughes can stick at center.

Centers can survive at his size in the NHL nowadays and I think some of his playmaking would be wasted on the wing.

 

[Canovin]

Kakko over Hughes as well. Kid looks like Rantanen the more highlights I watch.

 

[McDNicks17]

ISS Hockey Releases ISS Top 31 for February, Rankings of the Top Prospects for the 2019 NHL Draft - ISS Hockey

Some interesting rankings in there.

Byram at 4.
Krebs at 17.
Suzuki at 23.
McMichael at 29.
Kaliyev at 31.

 

[PKSpecialist]

ISS Hockey Releases ISS Top 31 for February, Rankings of the Top Prospects for the 2019 NHL Draft - ISS Hockey

Some interesting rankings in there.

Byram at 4.
Krebs at 17.
Suzuki at 23.
McMichael at 29.
Kaliyev at 31.

Suzuki is almost on my do not draft list for the Oilers.... he has the hockey IQ, but I just don’t like this prospect(relative to anticipated draft slot). He’s trending the wrong direction for me and I think this is the first ranking that has him slotted approximately where I do.

 

[McDNicks17]

Suzuki is almost on my do not draft list for the Oilers.... he has the hockey IQ, but I just don’t like this prospect(relative to anticipated draft slot). He’s trending the wrong direction for me and I think this is the first ranking that has him slotted approximately where I do.

I don't think I'd have him quite that low, but I was definitely expecting more from him this year.


It seems like a weird draft year.

I can't think of too many guys who kind of came out of nowhere and are skyrocketing up lists with a steep development curve. There's Tomasino and, to a lesser extent, McMichael in the OHL, but it seems like all the top guys are guys who were thought to be top guys going into the year.

 

[Zaddy]

Maybe I'm crazy but I think there's a strong possibility that Cam York from the USNTDP is in fact the best defenseman in the draft.

I would seriously entertain taking him with a top10 pick.

Incredibly smooth skater, great puck-mover, high-end offensive skills, thinks the game well, solid defensively despite not being the biggest guy. There's so much to like about him.

You can never have too many high-end defensemen.

He recently broke a USNTDP record with a 7 point night:



And here's another two nice goals:

 

[CycloneSweep]

Maybe I'm crazy but I think there's a strong possibility that Cam York from the USNTDP is in fact the best defenseman in the draft.

I would seriously entertain taking him with a top10 pick.

Incredibly smooth skater, great puck-mover, high-end offensive skills, thinks the game well, solid defensively despite not being the biggest guy. There's so much to like about him.

You can never have too many high-end defensemen.

He recently broke a USNTDP record with a 7 point night:



And here's another two nice goals:

How is the rest of his year. Huge single games don't often mean much. Gagner had an 8 point night and Scrivens had one of the biggest shutouts ever.

 

[Zaddy]

How is the rest of his year. Huge single games don't often mean much. Gagner had an 8 point night and Scrivens had one of the biggest shutouts ever.

Wasn't basing my judgement of that video at all, just found it now while I searched his name. There's a shift-by-shift on him from last year here:



And another one on prospectshifts.com from this year which I watched and where he looked really smooth. I probably shouldn't link it since it's for members but here it is:



He's also the highest scoring d-man on a pretty stacked USNTDP squad and he leads the team in +/- with +18 in the USHL and is over PPG in that league as a draft-eligible defenseman, which is pretty rare to say the least.

Also played with the USNTPD U18 team for a while last year as an underager and even played the U18 world championships with them and had 6 points, outscoring all of the top '00 d prospects from that team (K'Andre Miller, Bode Wilde, Mattias Samuelsson and Ty Emberson)

 

[CornKicker]

Cam york moves the puck like Makar does. I think he will go top 10.

 

[780il]

If we do get a dman this draft and don't take Byram I'll be furious.

Byram is crazy good. Like Miro Heiskanen or Morgan Rielly or Roman Josi type of good. He's kind of a blend of all those guys.

 

[780il]

If we do get a dman this draft and don't take Byram I'll be furious.

Byram is crazy good. Like Miro Heiskanen calibre of good. Very similiar play style as well.

The more and more I get to see Byram play, the more I love him.

He's just so good in every single way. He's easily gonna be the best and most complete dman in the draft. Rn we are basically hinging everything on Bouchard becoming the top pair d we need. It would be much to our benefit to add Byram and make Bouchard the backup plan.

Byram is #3 on my list rn behind Hughes and Kakko.

 

[Zaddy]

If we do get a dman this draft and don't take Byram I'll be furious.

Byram is crazy good. Like Miro Heiskanen or Morgan Rielly or Roman Josi type of good. He's kind of a blend of all those guys.

The more and more I get to see Byram play, the more I love him.

He's just so good in every single way. He's easily gonna be the best and most complete dman in the draft. Rn we are basically hinging everything on Bouchard becoming the top pair d we need. It would be much to our benefit to add Byram and make Bouchard the backup plan.

Byram is #3 on my list rn behind Hughes and Kakko.

Heh, I wish there was more footage on him and especially of his recent hot streak. I watched a shift-by-shift on him from mid December and wasn't too impressed relative to expectations after all the talk on him. He's obviously a really solid prospect and good all-around d-man but to me I don't really see much of a difference between him and a guy like Tobias Björnfot from Sweden who is seen as a late 1st, early 2nd round type guy.

I'm far from an expert on Byram but in the game I watched I didn't really see any elite trait in him or any part of his game that really stood out as an area where he'll excel at the NHL level. I also had some issues with his gap control and particularly backwards skating. Got beat off the rush a number of times that way. His defensive positioning looks like it could use some work too.

To me he looked like a guy who is very solid in all areas of the game, but doesn't really excel in any one area. The only thing I liked was how agile he is on his skates and that he has some pretty good hands and puck skills and can shift angles and find ways to get the puck on net that way. That would be the one thing that stood out to me. But I don't really see why he's clearly ranked above other guys like York, Söderström and Broberg.

Like looking at those three guys in particular, York has his puck-moving skills, Söderström has exceptional hockey sense (like he might be the smartest guy in the entire draft, at the very least among the d-men) and Broberg has his insane skating. What does Byram have? Not trying to put him down, just genuinely curious what others who really like him think he's great at.

 

[Aerrol]

@Zaddy Wow, thanks for sharing. York does look really interesting. I love that shot on the first goal there. Good skating too.

 

[Aerrol]

It was his best game yet. Watch the highlights starting at 43 seconds. His goal was a bit fluky, but his 2 assists are incredible. The assist on the 4th goal isn't given justice in this video. He starts the play behind his own net, dumps it in, retrieves it and sets up the goal.

Howson has been here at least twice, and Green/MacT at least once (I cant make every game). I can confirm that they are there to both scout Tomasino and check in on Maksimov. SOO was a team worth scouting aswell, as they have 4 guys who could go in later rounds (all 4 happened to be on the ice for Tomasino's goal)

I really like the stick lift by Tomasino on that assist from behind the net. Smart little play that you don't see many prospects go for. Very NHL-like move.

 

[McDNicks17]

This draft actually looks low key really strong for defensemen in the mid-late 1st round.