Who Should the Arizona Coyotes pick at six?

[Cooper09]

The Yotes sit in a very interesting spot at six. Thankfully, this year's draft is very deep, and anyone in the top eight has elite potential. Who do you guys see them getting? Maybe Michkov falls? Or Will Smith falls back to six. Would love to hear your guy's thoughts.

2023 NHL Mock Draft: Post-lottery top 16 edition

Bedard will go to Chicago, but who’ll follow suit?

www.dailyfaceoff.com

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[SI90]

Best player available

 

[PanniniClaus]

Smith or Michkov... either will be fine.

 

[Lou Bloom]

I think they'll go with Reinbacher. If last draft is anything to go off of they clearly value size and their defensive talent in the pipeline is barren compared to their forward group.

 

[rt]

I think they'll go with Reinbacher. If last draft is anything to go off of they clearly value size and their defensive talent in the pipeline is barren compared to their forward group.

Cooley isn’t that big.

The Yotes sit in a very interesting spot at six. Thankfully, this year's draft is very deep, and anyone in the top eight has elite potential. Who do you guys see them getting? Maybe Michkov falls? Or Will Smith falls back to six. Would love to hear your guy's thoughts.

2023 NHL Mock Draft: Post-lottery top 16 edition

Bedard will go to Chicago, but who’ll follow suit?

www.dailyfaceoff.com

If Bedard, Fantilli, Smith, Carlsson and Michkov go top five, I expect Arizona will go with Dvorsky or Leonard at 6th. Comments from the GM seem to hint at this player profile and the McKenzie poll has them ranked 6th and 7th respectively.

Best player available

Exactly. They’re not going to draft for positional need. They're years away from that mattering.

 

[Lou Bloom]

Cooley isn’t that big.

No, but the rest of their draft class was. I also don't think Reinbacher at #6 would be a bad pick by any means, I'd have him just outside my current top 5 and adding him would be a huge boon to the future of the Coyotes defense.

 

[rt]

No, but the rest of their draft class was. I also don't think Reinbacher at #6 would be a bad pick by any means, I'd have him just outside my current top 5 and adding him would be a huge boon to the future of the Coyotes defense.

Smells like a positional reach. The McKenzie poll had him 10th. And I’m guessing there was already a fair bit of “gotta get a blueliner in here somewhere”.

Drance released a lengthy article today interviewing four NHL scouts from various teams, as well. They all seemed to think Vancouver’s puck was about as early as was conceivably appropriate to pick a defenseman without having to own up to reaching for position.

When the NHL scouts are all saying the same things and there’s a consensus on the rankings, I’m inclined not to stick up for a kid too much. Especially if he doesn’t have any of those stand out, eye popping qualities.

Some team might reach for a blueliner early. I’m not sure it will be Arizona. They seem pretty honest about the rebuild still being years away from completion. Their GM was saying as recently as yesterday that he doesn’t care about positional need. That he wants to stack good player on top of good player and can sort out positional stuff later. He says that a lot. I believe him.

 

[rt]

AZ GM with interesting comments yesterday (these are my transcriptions, so apologies for any typos):

I’m convinced BA was talking about Leonard and Dvorsky yesterday:

BA's post-lottery presser:

"..We were just at the u18 worlds, and ya know, you fall in love with some of the players that you gotta chance to get...

...When you're with the Coyotes, and you have all of these picks, especially at six and twelve, we gotta chance to get the majority of the players that we scout...

...Our two head scouts, Darryl and RJ, ya know, when you ride with those guys in the car on scouting trips, you get excited about the way they describe these players...

...and the defining qualities they have, the biggest ones, and I can tell you from watching the u18s, there's a couple of guys in our area that we're gonna pick and you look at them and the defining quality is those guys that we're out there watching, they play like champions. They play so hard and compete so hard and lose themselves within the team. You fall in love with those players. To think that we get a chance at getting a couple of those guys, that's a great thing for this organization...

...we are gonna grab two great players in the first round and give ourselves a chance to win a championship down the road, and those are the defining qualities that I've seen outta the players that are there..."

on PHNX too …

“…some of the players we watched overseas…I had a chance to go to the U18s… you get excited, these are guys that you wanna play with, they’re blocking shots with their faces and they’re diving and they’re playing hard. They’re championship type of players. We’re gonna have a chance to pick them at six and twelve…”

…it’s not the sexy pick at 6 and 12 but it’s what will make our franchise great…

[USER

 

[Lou Bloom]

Smells like a positional reach. The McKenzie poll had him 10th. And I’m guessing there was already a fair bit of “gotta get a blueliner in here somewhere”.

Drance released a lengthy article today interviewing four NHL scouts from various teams, as well. They all seemed to think Vancouver’s puck was about as early as was conceivably appropriate to pick a defenseman without having to own up to reaching for position.

When the NHL scouts are all saying the same things and there’s a consensus on the rankings, I’m inclined not to stick up for a kid too much. Especially if he doesn’t have any of those stand out, eye popping qualities.

Some team might reach for a blueliner early. I’m not sure it will be Arizona. They seem pretty honest about the rebuild still being years away from completion. Their GM was saying as recently as yesterday that he doesn’t care about positional need. That he wants to stack good player on top of good player and can sort out positional stuff later. He says that a lot. I believe him.

I'd very much disagree with that evaluation. After the Big 4 of Bedard, Fantili, Michkov and Carlsson I don't see any of the forwards being discernably better than some of the top defenseman in this class, I'd have all three of Reinbacher, Simashev and Gulyayev in the top 10 or at the very least in consideration for a top 10 pick. I remember in 2020 when Sanderson was being ranked as a mid 1st round pick only a month or two before the draft and the thought of him being picked ahead of players like Holtz, Rossi and Perfetti would have been seen as a massive reach. We also saw in 2019 with Seider, a lot of times defenseman get underrated for most of the draft process and then pick up steam as the draft process moves along and gets drafted higher up than initially expected.

 

[Ace]

If the top 5 is what is expected…there are a number of very good forwards rated similarly. Enough that you can get one at 12. Only one Reinbacher. He won’t make it to 12. You can get the top D in the draft…right handed at that…and a forward in the same class as the one you’d take at 6 anyway.

Unless Michkov falls. Then take him

 

[rt]

I'd very much disagree with that evaluation. After the Big 4 of Bedard, Fantili, Michkov and Carlsson I don't see any of the forwards being discernably better than some of the top defenseman in this class, I'd have all three of Reinbacher, Simashev and Gulyayev in the top 10 or at the very least in consideration for a top 10 pick. I remember in 2020 when Sanderson was being ranked as a mid 1st round pick only a month or two before the draft and the thought of him being picked ahead of players like Holtz, Rossi and Perfetti would have been seen as a massive reach. We also saw in 2019 with Seider, a lot of times defenseman get underrated for most of the draft process and then pick up steam as the draft process moves along and gets drafted higher up than initially expected.

I recommend reading the latest Bob McKenzie article and the latest Thomas Drance article if you’re interested in counterpoints from NHL scouts.

It’s not conceptual. It’s personal. There aren’t arguments that defensemen generally shouldn’t go early. Just these defensemen, specifically.

 

[Antonche]

I’m convinced BA was talking about Leonard and Dvorsky yesterday:

Why not Stenberg or ASP?

 

[BillDineen]

As a Flyers fan, I hope they go D

 

[Lou Bloom]

I recommend reading the latest Bob McKenzie article and the latest Thomas Drance article if you’re interested in counterpoints from NHL scouts.

It’s not conceptual. It’s personal. There aren’t arguments that defensemen generally shouldn’t go early. Just these defensemen, specifically.

I don't think it's necessarily conceptual but I do think there's a bit of subconscious bias that leads to defenseman generally being underranked relative to where their drafted. Maybe that's because forwards are generally easier to project as talents and less likely to make you look really bad in hindsight.

Even if that wasn't the case I still would disagree with their personal opinions about the defensive crop this year. At the very least I don't see much of a difference in talent between pick #5 towards the middle of the 1st round to be able to call picking Reinbacher at #6 a reach.

 

[rt]

Why not Stenberg or ASP?

Scouting reports don’t match. ASP faded and isn’t a blood and guts guy. And he’s talking 6th overall. Stenberg isn’t in that zone. Maybe 12th though.

 

[vildurson]

I have not been convinced on how Arizona drafts lately(last few drafts at least) so I assume there is good chance that they would go defenceman here. Reinbacher has pretty good odds to get picked here at first since they do have big need for D.

 

[rt]

I have not been convinced on how Arizona drafts lately(last few drafts at least) so I assume there is good chance that they would go defenceman here. Reinbacher has pretty good odds to get picked here at first since they do have big need for D.

Their current staff has only run two drafts. Top 60 picks are Guenther, Doan, Fedotov, Moser, Cooley, Geekie, Lamoureux, Duda and Lutz.

 

[majormajor]

I recommend reading the latest Bob McKenzie article and the latest Thomas Drance article if you’re interested in counterpoints from NHL scouts.

It’s not conceptual. It’s personal. There aren’t arguments that defensemen generally shouldn’t go early. Just these defensemen, specifically.

I'm with Lou on this one, Reinbacher really is that good. Looks to me like he'll be a top pair guy. That's worth taking at #6, if not higher. I have Simashev and Willander close to top ten too.

No idea who AZ in particular would want though. One thought is that if you liked Connor Geekie enough to trade up for him, that you ought to really like Matthew Wood. Same heavy feet / big skill combo, just a lot more scoring talent. Maybe they go Leonard at #6 and Wood at #12.

 

[rt]

I'm with Lou on this one, Reinbacher really is that good. Looks to me like he'll be a top pair guy. That's worth taking at #6, if not higher. I have Simashev and Willander close to top ten too.

No idea who AZ in particular would want though. One thought is that if you liked Connor Geekie enough to trade up for him, that you ought to really like Matthew Wood. Same heavy feet / big skill combo, just a lot more scoring talent. Maybe they go Leonard at #6 and Wood at #12.

NHL scouts poll: Who should the Canucks be hoping for with the 11th pick?

To get a sense of the industry view of the 2023 draft class, we reached out to veteran amateur talent evaluators from across the league.

theathletic.com

 

[majormajor]

NHL scouts poll: Who should the Canucks be hoping for with the 11th pick?

To get a sense of the industry view of the 2023 draft class, we reached out to veteran amateur talent evaluators from across the league.

theathletic.com

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Let's just say I have a different view of Reinbacher. I think he's a lot closer than 3-4 years away, more like 1-2. And though I don't think he's a high scorer or a #1D, a good #2 is worth taking in the top 10, and I think he has that. The skating, passing, defending combo is all really good.

 

[Howe Elbows 9]

If the Coyotes get Smith, Dvorsky or Leonard with the sixth overall pick, they could still get some players who played well in the U18 worlds at 12th overall: Stenberg, Matthew Wood, Oliver Moore or David Edstrom, just to mention a few names.

 

[vildurson]

Let's just say I have a different view of Reinbacher. I think he's a lot closer than 3-4 years away, more like 1-2. And though I don't think he's a high scorer or a #1D, a good #2 is worth taking in the top 10, and I think he has that. The skating, passing, defending combo is all really good.

I have a belief that Reinbacher is around 2 years away and he should be rock solid second pairing d and second pp dude(maybe). Projecting him as #2 feels awfully optimistic to me since I don't see that kind of point production upside in him. Even for this projection, top 10 pick in Reinbacher is not horrible. Top 6 is reach but I could see why Arizona would pick him there due to the heavy need on D.

Also Reinbacher being righty and good size maximises his value.

 

[superdeluxe]

Smith at 6, Reinbacher at 12

 

[Blueston]

Smith at 6, Reinbacher at 12

Neither will be there at that pick

 

[Castle8130]

Reinbacher is still gaining steam. It takes a lot more time for these European defensemen to really rise in the rankings. It is still kind of early and scouts are stubborn when moving players too far up months before the draft. Reinbacher went from 20 to 10, and I could easily see him passing players like Leonard, Dvorsky, and Wood.

I think the IIHF world Championship could push him into the Smith and Dvorsky conversations at #6