HF Habs: What are your initial impressions of the Habs 2023 Draft class?

[Habsfan18]

Still not over but I don’t think our remaining pick(s) are going to move the needle all that much. Will update accordingly.

It’s certainly a draft class I don’t think anyone could have predicted. Definitely drafting for need and ignoring BPA in essentially every case. Clearly throwing darts at a board and hoping one of the goalies hit. I have high hopes for Fowler, just has to get in shape.

5th overall - David Reinbacher, D

69th overall - Jacob Fowler, G

101st overall - Florian Xhekaj, LW

110th overall - Bogdan Konyushkov, D

128th overall - Quentin Miller, G

133rd overall - Sam Harris, LW

144th overall - Yevgeni Volokhin, G

165th overall - Filip Eriksson, C

197th overall - Luke Mittelstadt, D

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[sandviper]

“We need elite scoring!”

Here’s a couple D and three goalies!

 

[waitin425]

 

[JurequeparJuraj]

Bad .. terrible actually

 

[Habsfan18]

Florian Xhekaj makes for a fun story, and I’m very happy for the brothers and their family. Sounds like a possible fan favorite style of player. But that’s early..no?

Same with Bogdan, even with the nice stats. Did they have intel another team would swoop in?

Probably the most random draft I can recall.

 

[SannywithoutCompy]

The failure to acquire elite scoring talent will shape this franchise for the next 20 years.

 

[Legend123]

No Mychkov? Sad. The rest I dont care. Happy we got Newhook.

Reinbacher + Newhook could be huge for our core. Here's hoping it works out fine

Ideally:

- Reinbacher: Top Paring D (50 point)​

- Newhook: top 6 C / W (65 to 70 points)​

- One goalie pans out and is our backup​

 

[WentWughes]

I hate it. That must mean it will pan out.

 

[Naslundforever]

“We need elite scoring!”

Here’s a couple D and three goalies!

They need 2/3rd of a team and are getting there.

 

[Habs Halifax]

Reinbacher and Newhook.

B- if Reinbacher turns into a 2nd pairing guy and Newhook is a 3rd liner

A if Reinbacker turns into a top pairing quality and Newhook is a top 6F.

Decent shot at another Dobes with the early 3rd. Rest are just your normal 4th+ darts.

 

[NotProkofievian]

D.

I love Reinbacher, but I hope everyone likes Reinbacher and Newhook because that's what you're getting out of this draft.

 

[Hope Of Glory]

The only picks I feel somewhat confident in judging are:

- David Reinbacher: B, would have prefered Michkov but our D should be settled now. Was 6th on my list and I think he has huge upside. No other D in their draft year has ever had a season like he did in the top swiss league. Most players don't even play at that age in that league.
- Jacob Fowler: B+, would have liked a forward but he's one of my favorite G prospect in the draft. Gs are a need too.
- Florian Xhekaj: D, fun pick but not that good. If he has a developmental curve like his brother did, he could end up on a 4th line. Seems like a low upside picks.

Most of the other picks were too obscure/unknown for me to judge. But after a quick look there seems to be some decent upside hidden in there. We'll see.

So overall I'm giving this draft a B. The first 2 selections hold much more weight than the rest.

EDIT: I'd say the Newhook move is a B too so including that wouldn't change my evaluation.

 

[The Great Weal]

F- for strategy we literally just went based off of needs. I thought Timmins got fired already.

In terms of the actual picks, Reinbacher was #7 on my list but we passed up on the #2 guy on my list for him which didn't make me happy. I had Wood at #6 but that's just me having bold take so the fact that we turned down 15+24+Askarov and could have had my #6 guy, a great goalie prospect, and another 1st hurts a lot too.

Fowler is a great value pick.

I feel like Xhekaj could have just been drafted later.

Don't know anything about the rest but again, we went for needs which pisses me off.

 

[Wats]

This draft is basically what you get if the Habs 2016 draft and 2017 draft had a baby.

 

[Pompeius Magnus]

Peculiar would be the main word for me I guess, they didn't go in any of the directions I expected them to. It's one of those '' I guess we'll see in 5 years'' drafts

 

[hockeyguy2022]

 

[SannywithoutCompy]

Reinbacher and Newhook.

B+ if Reinbacher turns into a 2nd pairing guy and Newhook is a 3rd liner

A if Reinbacker turns into a top pairing quality and Newhook is a top 6F.

Decent shot at another Dobes with the early 3rd. Rest are just your normal 4th+ darts.

No offense, but how on earth would a 2nd pairing dman and a 3rd liner with picks 5, 31, and 37 in the deepest draft since 2015 result in a B+?

 

[Riggins]

Reinbacher has to be a top pairing D and Newhook has to be a good top 6 forward. Maybe we get a half decent goalie out of it if we're lucky. That's all we have to hope for, anything less and we're sunk.

 

[Jee]

Definitely went another direction I envisioned, will see in a couple of years. Truly a special one, for sure.

 

[Ghetto Sangria]

D

Reinbacher will likely be good, but I wanted Michkov

Fowler is an elite pick

Bogdan is a fun pick

I don't know who anyone is

 

[ReHabs]

Can’t grade a draft the morning after. Our 5OA wasn’t a reach, we can’t be mad at that.

As for the overall picture — it’s about confirmed Hughes and Gorton and Bobrov really think they’re the smartest guys in the room, in every room. Galaxy Brain crew.

 

[Apoplectic Habs Fan]

I will give my honest opinion. I have no friggin clue cause im not going to act as i know 99% of the guya drafted. Many here are freaking out because they saw a guy a few times and like them and will trash a guy cause they never saw them.

Same as every yr.

 

[Luigi Habs]

Reinbacher and Newhook.

B+ if Reinbacher turns into a 2nd pairing guy and Newhook is a 3rd liner

A if Reinbacker turns into a top pairing quality and Newhook is a top 6F.

Decent shot at another Dobes with the early 3rd. Rest are just your normal 4th+ darts.

If Reinbacher ends up a 2nd pairing defender it’s a failed draft. When you pick in top 5 anything other than top line/top pairing is a failure.

 

[Habs Halifax]

“We need elite scoring!”

Here’s a couple D and three goalies!

Scoring is going to have to come from Caufield, Suzuki, Dach, Slaf, Roy, Beck, Newhook with a strong D. We need Slaf, Dach, Beck, Roy to reach their ceiling level and if that happens, it's much better than we realize. I know... we passed on Michkov.

Goalie search will continue for a while yet.

More Elite level scoring up front will be a focus in the next few drafts and maybe with trades or free agency down the road.

 

[hockeyguy2022]

this just feels like a repeat of 2003