Barn Burner: Boomer & Pinder with Rhett Warrener - 2024 NHL Mock Draft | FN Barn Burner

Episode Date: June 26, 2024

Welcome to the 2024 NHL Mock Draft 🔥Presented by Betway, McLeod Law LLP & Village HondaRyan Pinder, Cam Robinson & Steven Ellis take you through the entire first round of the 2024 NHL Draft.Cam Robinson - https://x.com/Hockey_RobinsonSteven Ellis - https://x.com/SEllisHockey2024 DRAFT CONTENTCraig Conroy Interview - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkAdb...2024 Draft Primer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gW9Q...Tij Iginla Draft Profile - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ogsbx...TIMESTAMPSTOP 10 PICKS- Pick 1 (1:00) SHARKS- Pick 2 (6:30) HAWKS- Pick 3 (13:30) DUCKS- Pick 4 (14:00) JACKETS- Pick 5 (18:00) HABS- Pick 6 (21:00) HOCKEY CLUB- Pick 7 (26:00) SENS- Pick 8 (29:00) SEATTLE- Pick 9 (32:00) FLAMES- Pick 10 (38:00) DEVILS- PICK 28 FLAMES (01:14:00)SHOOTOUT TO OUR SPONSORS!!👍🏼 McLEOD LAW https://www.mcleod-law.com👍🏼 VILLAGE HONDA https://www.villagehonda.com👍🏼 BETWAY https://betway.com/bwp/flamesnation Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome. It is time for the Barnburner Flames Nation mock draft. What a privilege we have to be joined by Cam Robinson, the content director for Lee Prospects.com, as well as the director of film scouting. Also, we have Stephen Ellis from our friends over at daily faceoff.com. He's the associate editor there and all things. Prospects and draft fall on your plate, Stephen Fellas. Thanks so much for being here. Appreciate it.

Yeah, happy to be here. Everyone loves a mock draft. Yeah, it's a good time of year. We flipped a bottle cap in actuality because no one carries coins anymore, apparently, to determine who would go first. The premise of the show is simple. We will alternate picks. Each selection will be made as if you are the general manager of each club. We'll be using the draft order that we know is going to happen.

And we will hope very, very mightily that it is Philadelphia picking at 32, not Anaheim, if you can read between the lines. We are filming this on a Monday where the Stanley Cup Finals game seven is played in Florida tonight. So I suppose that means Cam with the first overall selection. I want you to put on your Mike Greer, blazer, and hat. And let us know who the sharks, boy, an absolute cliffhanger here, we'll select at number one. I feel like I should thank, you know, the people in Vegas, you know, our hometown back here in San Jose, the watch parties.

And I hate that stuff. Walking out straight up. Be used. Congrats to Bill Zito, right? Oh, yeah, of course. I'm sorry. And the Florida Panthers for not coughing up a 3-0 lead. They're taking Mack, right?

Obviously, it's Celebrini, no big surprise here. They get a player who is an absolute stud, you know, a two-way monster, elite offense, elite defense, physical, motivated, driven, a thief in the night on the back check, you know, hard on the forecheck. He is going to be a true top line center. He's going to change the complexion of the Ducks franchise here. He's the type of guy that you can see, the sharks, sorry. he's the type of player that you can see

pushing a team to a cup and like that's all you can really ask for it first overall. So it's a layup for San Jose and not exactly a hometown kid especially because I'm from D.C. here, but it's as close to a hometown kid as San Jose could really help for it. Yeah, walk us through a, it's a weird

trajectory for a Vancouver kid, but his dad's job's taking him someplace. Walk us through that camp. Yeah, so he, you know, obviously I think he's a Northman kid if I'm correct and grew up playing, though, in the San Jose Junior Sharks program there once they moved to the Bay Area. Then he went to Shattuck, St. Mary's, which is the elite program there, where he played with his good buddy, Cole Iserman. They won a national championship, I believe, with the U-15 team.

And back then Iserman was rated as the higher prospect. You know, scored more goals, got more points. And then Max started to climb that ladder. But they might even play together at the brick tournament when they were like nine and ten years old, too. So those boys go way back. Yeah, so he didn't come up the traditional route. And then obviously going to USHL, dominating with the Chicago Steel. And then being the youngest player in college hockey,

the youngest player to ever be nominated and win the Hobie. So he has charted his own course. And it's worked out pretty spectacular to this point. And so now he'll head to California and see if he can keep pushing that. Stephen, just your thoughts on what Celebrity is accomplished. And maybe if anything has changed for you over the last 12th, much or more just crystallized what you already felt yeah you know i love goals and i know when the conversation came up of looking at celebrini versus iserman early on it's like man i just it's more fun

watching coliserman but it became very clear so quickly with the chicago steel last year that this is a guy who could just do it all at both ends and watching him play at the u18s in person for that first time last year just took over and he was plain of an injured shoulder but he despite being the youngest guy that team he still took you know took charge it's one of the youngest he took charge there talking anybody on that team they're just like this kid's special he's going to go somewhere and then you get to see what he did in college this year that you know it's so hard to for to see it you'll see a lot of guys who've got that skill of junior that just won't immediately make an impact once they go to college that wasn't an issue for him even after coming off of the the injury that he had so

he's he's going to be quite the player i'm excited to see what he's doing in the nchl come up over. And finally, like I shouldn't say finally, a very nice centerpiece for the sharks to work around. And it's all of a sudden, it was 16 to 17 years. They made the playoffs, I believe. Then Doug Wilson gone. Been pretty barren, but suddenly, Cam, that's got the looks of a system that's going to have a lot of pieces given the two first rounders this year, the pieces they've added. And they'll still probably liquidate some vets, too. Oh, yeah, for sure. Like there's, and, you know, Steven was saying that we're really looking forward to see what Selvry does in the fall. And it's like, I also think that he will be in the NHL in the fall, but it is not 100%.

And I think that that's actually kind of fun to think about too, right? Like Will Smith is coming out this year at a Boston college, which I actually thought he should have stuck around for another year. And Matt could come out. But, you know, especially like, what if they pull Eiserman at 14? And maybe we'll get to that later on here. And then they can just go both play at B.U together and then come out together. And I gave a lot of fun storylines just from our side of the world anyways. But no, I do think you will be in there.

And they'll be a bad team. Hell, if they did that, maybe they're welcoming two first overall picks in 25, right? Like, Mac and James Higgins could be cruising in the town at the same time because they will be, you got to imagine they're going to insulate them a little bit here with some veteran. You know, they went and got Barkin Goodrow, but it's probably, it's going to, it's going to still be lean times in San Jose next season. All right, pick number two belongs to the Chicago Blackhawks. We're talking about that San Jose franchise trajectory.

Chicago just seems maybe a year or two ahead, but they've picked high. It's the second or third time here. They're way up at the top of the draft. after Cona Badaard last year. Two is an interesting spot here, Stephen, because there's options here, and this is where we get into the story of the draft. You might have names out of a hat from 2 to 10 here

based on people's rankings, because there's so many different types of players that are all slated to be quite good, Stephen. So what does Kyle Davidson do here? Does he chase a partner for Baudard? Does he insulate the team on the blue line? What do you do? See, I think the idea of watching Connor Bred

and Ivan Demadoff together would be so much fun. But Demandolph is not my pick. It is Artem Leibchinoff. And, you know, it's, I feel like this year, like, because obviously there's a lot of questions still, but what's going to happen in the next year's draft? There are some good defensemen on the way. Charlie Trouthey is one that I'm really keeping eye on there. But I feel like you just got to go out there and get a need.

And maybe it doesn't have to be Loves Scho. Maybe you go out there and you bet high and Zane Perak. I would love to see a guy like Zane Perak. Maybe you go and get sighs in Anton Salio. But I think with Leschunov, you see a lot of projectibles there. He's got good size. He can be aggressive. He's kind of just this free mover out there that loves to move the puck.

And I feel like there's just still more to his game that we're going to see. You know, out of anybody at the high end of this draft, this is someone who's had to do a lot of change already in his career. Two years ago, he was playing in Belarus, didn't know a whole lot of English. Goes to the USHL. Looks fantastic. Then he goes and plays in the NCAA where he's the top score in Michigan State University. that's, you know, it's three teams in three years, three different levels of hockey when a lot of European players are playing with the same group of guys kind of from the age of like seven, eight until they turn pro. And I think, you know, the fact that he's being able to adjust to every new scenario just makes me think like, what else does he have to do here?

Like when he's more comfortable, you know, with the lifestyle here, more comfortable learning, being better at English and things like that and then eventually turning pro, I feel like there's just going to be more to him, both as a person. and as a player that could just make him a more interesting pick. So I know not everyone loves him at number two, but I think if, let's say he's your top pairing defenseman down the line, I still think you want to get some more defensive help with that team. And I know Demadoff would be more fun, which is why this feels maybe not as entertaining.

But I just think that you're going to get a piece of that blue line that's going to make you very dangerous for a long time. So it makes sense. Kim, what's the pros and cons of Demadov versus Lev Chinov here? I mean, I think Stephen hit the nail right on the head is that, you know, Chicago has prioritized some smaller skilled players up front in recent years. Obviously, they have Bidar, you know, they had Oliver Moore fall to them last year and they were actively trying to move up to target that player. And so they were thrilled to get him at 19. You know, they've got Reichel.

They've got Frankie Nazar. So they have these kind of like high offensive, high octane smaller type players. And then the blue line, you know, they got Korsinski. They got Vlasic. You know, they have Seth Jones. but realistically, you know, they do need like that pillar of strength on the back end. So, you know, if I was putting my money on it, I would probably guess it's going to be Leveshinoff as well. And like Stephen said, it's not the sexiest pick, but he is at this point in time the most complete defenseman in the draft.

Early on in the season, like his activations, like jump in, there wasn't a single play he didn't jump into, like being either that, you know, that high guy looking for the drop pass or like leading the rush. And he kind of quieted that a little bit, you know, tiled it down. a little bit as he went on and like started to improve some of those defensive positioning and that rush defense. So I don't think he's a slam dunk one. You know, he's probably a top pairing defenseman, but again, like I'm not willing to bet my mortgage payment on it. So it's, it's a safe play it too. You're leaving upside on the board, I think, at both Ford and defense. But it is a, it's a safer play. So it would, it makes a lot of sense. And it's probably what's

going to happen. I'll ask you both yes or no. Does he play in the NHL next year, Lev Schoonov, who, as you know, as you know, noted three different levels, three different leagues, two different countries last three years. I don't want him to be there next year. I don't think there's a reason to rush him. That's the thing. It's like this team's going to be bad for years. Don't throw them to the walls next year.

Okay. I agree. I agree. I think. Yeah. Send him back for a year. Interesting pick number three here because the Anaheim ducks has been picking high for a while.

They have a lot of prospects. And I don't think Pat Verbeek's happy with where things are at and maybe isn't in love with some of the guys that he has on payroll here. I'm fascinated by what the little ball of hate does as GM here at pick number three because there's so many options left. You get to be Pat Verbeek today, Cam. Awesome. I was going to have some fun if Stephen took Demit off there too because I do think

Pat Verbeek and company, they marched to the beat of their own drum. You know, everybody in their dog had Adam Fantilli at two last year for the most part. They took Carlson. We heard a lot of us. You said it at the draft floor. I will give you credit, Cam. You looked at me and I think they might take Carlson here. Yeah, well, and you know, I did a, I did a show, a non-air one where they were asking me right before

the draft and Verbeek was like an arm's length away from me. And they're like, what are you hearing about at two? And I was like, oh, I've got to be careful. I got Patty right here. But we did hear some buzz. And, you know, they did. They took Mason McTavish earlier than pretty much everyone projected as well. So they don't, you know, they'll do their own thing.

But so you look at that prospect pipeline, you see like it is McTavish and Carlson and Carter Gochay down the middle on the blue line. You know, they've got Pebble Matibble. you cough they've got olen zelliger tristan leno they have so many defenders coming up too to me this is easy money to slide ivan dammed off on one of those wings on one of those guys his wings and be like here is our caril capris off and he is going to run rough shot and the fact that he showed up you know the going to florida going to that gold star camp getting measured having like proper measurements that we're not getting from scas mchl team where it's like it says he's 511 168 maybe he's 5 9 and a half

I'm like 160. Nope. He's like 6.1.192. That's a, that's a serious size difference. And the fact that he's speaking English and he's like, I'm going to play the year in the K. And then I'm coming to the NHL. It's like, that's like, sign me out. Like, send him to Anaheim and let him run beside Carlson or McAvish for the next decade plus. It's like, that's going to be some fun. So I don't think Anaheim will be afraid to do it. And if he's sitting there at three, they're taking them. And yeah, really quick. If it was Demadov to Chicago to, are you taking the big man? Is that what you, the twist is going to be? I was giving them Tejj.

Oh, geez. Oh, geez. Hey, man. That's not just, that's, that's, that's mock talk here. I know. I'm afraid I ask. This is, this is Flames Nation. People are very, very wound up about Teage, my friends.

I got a lot of words for you on that. Yeah, good. We'll get there. Hopefully not too soon. Maybe wait till not. Stephen, just a quick thought on Demadov. It sounds like he played in the league. He was too good for the whole year.

Russians don't get to go to the international stuff. You can't really knock the player, but there were some circumstances. I think scouts wished were different this year. Is that fair? Absolutely. Not as to the same level as Maffa Mishkoff. Obviously now, Mitchcoff's coming the NHL next year, so it didn't really matter in the end. But Demodoff is my favorite player in this draft.

He's just so much fun to watch. He's so skilled. And, you know, like you said, had he played in the KHL, I'm thinking he's playing a few minutes a night. Or he gets loaned to a bad team and you're questioning, like, with Mitchcoff is like, okay, you know, I would have liked to see what he could do when he's not playing on Sochi. I'd like to see him kind of take advantage of playing on Skahn. We never got to see that really. I think here with Demadoff, I just think the role of him, he's so much fun to watch

and to watch the numbers he put up this year. Yeah, the MHL is not the strongest league in the world, but to do what double, like two points per game all season long while dealing with multiple injuries. Like, I love what he's going to do. He's going to be a star. Well, stay with you, Stephen. We go to Columbus where things are very familiar, but they're also brand new.

as they have their third coach in 14 months, a brand new general manager and Don Waddell, who came over from Carolina. I guess you wanted to make it GM money. He had to leave Carolina to do that. And it's a system that's got a bunch of intriguing young prospects, but just it hasn't for some reason come together at the NHL level yet. What do you do at pick four if you're Don Waddell?

So I know Cam likes this player more than I do, but I still think this would be an awesome pick. And that is Tijiginla. I wanted to go to Columbus. it's man sorry Flames fans I know

but this is a guy that's just watching him play in person for the first time with the under 18s like you know you don't get to see

the same of those stuff that you see online like sorry I should say online you don't get to see what you get to see when you watch him in person because he brings so much energy

and Cam and I were sitting there in that gold medal game Canada versus USA at the U18s and just in awe with how much energy he brought to every single shift like this is a guy that doesn't need to score a lot of goals to be effective.

And I think that's important. 47 goals is awesome. But that's not even the thing that necessarily stands out to me. It's the fact that he's relentless. He wants the puck. He's a ball of energy out there. He's not going to go out there and physically destroy it. He's not going to knock it down and drop the gloves in a fight.

I do see him getting into the odd fight like Jerome. But I think with him, it's just, you know, ignoring the pedigree, ignoring the family bloodlines. This is a player who's grown so much since. his WHO rookie season. And I think that we're just kind of scratching the surface on what he's capable of. So, you know, heck, I would not see Chicago doing it. I wouldn't have even been surprised if he went to number two to be fully honest.

Because I just think you bet on that upside with how much talent he is. So I like him there, number four. Is he a center or a winger? Because it sounded like he played three or four games at the start of the year down the middle and everything after that was on the wing where he dominated. But Colonna doesn't have a lot of centers returning. There's an opportunity to move to the middle. give me your quick take on the winger center for Jerome's son.

I think winger, but he did say that at the combine, he wants to play more center and he's going to push to do that. It was a good opportunity for him to play wing this year and get more opportunities, but he seems to want to play center. But I don't know. I'm just, I'm still thinking wing. I think what he did this year show that he should be a winger. I think he could be to play in the middle of the ice.

He played it coming up before moving to junior. You know, we've had a lot of discourse around Burk, Caton, is he big enough to play center? He played in the middle of the ice this year in Spokane and Teach. I think that in the NHL that we could see that flipped. We're T.J, you know, obviously he's got to prove it at the junior level first. But I think like Stephen said, but the details to his game, like the little stick lifts, the defensive positioning, you know, on the forecheck, I think he could play the middle

of the ice. Not to say that he will long term, but I think he could play the middle of the ice. And I wouldn't be shocked if he went at that four spot. Yeah, he's a player. And like obviously unsurprising coming from that family. But I got to talk with him a little bit in Finland there. And just like humble, gracious, you know, good head on his shoulders. Traveling back, I was traveling back with the Canadians after they won.

And, you know, like just seeing him interact with people too, like just a genuine human being, like with fans and stuff too. And obviously coming from Pops there, who's just like one of the greatest humans ever. It's not a big surprise. But yeah, he's going to be a good player. and he's going to probably be a leader and, you know, someone that you can build a team around up front. Future captain, no question. Yeah, letter scores a lot and wing. That was his dad.

There might be a lot of overlap there. Cam, you got to give me your best Kent Hughes, Jeff Gorton face after Gindler goes at four. Huh? No. It does feel like tabs are lined up for a forward here. They do pick five. And I think they would have thought there's a good probability. that again, like gets them.

That might not be their guy, but what do you do here now at five? Because there are some other dynamic players here. And they do have a lot of D in the system, but you still want the best player available, I imagine. Yeah. And for me, my best player available is clearly sitting there. And I think that Teague would be on that list, but I think he might be third on their forward wish list.

Okay. And so it's, I think it's, Demidoff is one. And I think Caden Lindstrom, who is going here in this mock draft, is number two on their board. So if Demadoff is not there, it's going to be Caden Lindstrom and like talk about a unique player 6, 4, 215, middle of the ice, hits like a truck like this guy, you know, guys bounce off of this kid.

Yeah, it's junior hockey, so he's got a size advantage. But guess what? He's going to have that size advantage in the NHL too because he is that big. He's raw still. Like he hasn't played a ton of elite level hockey. And we're just like seeing his growth go up exponentially. He's already has like plus rated skating. for my regard and it's kind of ugly like it's you know it's super powerful just because he's so

strong but he looks a little bit like me at men's league where the stride it's the knees aren't bent enough it's not lengthened far than off so it's you know you get him hanging out with barb underhill or like a skating coach they're going to lengthen out that stride and we're going to have someone who's like really burning through going wide on guys he i had a i'm not going to drop names because i was told specifically do not tell them i said this but like a high end player in the wchl told me just unasked reached out to me and said he's like he is by far the hardest matchup in the Western League like not even close especially his small area game like he is untouchable with his hands and his strength and his puck possession um his puck protection like

he is just I love him he's he's arguably my favorite player in this class um you know I had byfield one a few years ago and I took a lot of heat for it and I just stuck to my guns on it and you know I've got I've got him Lindstrom two on this board and I'm not sure anybody else on that high up. So I think he has got like number one center upside and not just one, but like unique one of these guys where it's like, how do we match up against this guy? So you slip him into Montreal.

Like I would have probably, I think, I think if he's there, I think Columbus takes him because I think they would match up, like having him in Fantilli down the middle, would just be like a nightmare for everybody else. But if he gets to five, I think Montreal is going to sprint up there.

So Stephen, tell us about the concerns around the injuries. And there was sort of a thought that, if this was an NHL team and it was the playoffs, he would have come back and played, but maybe because it's his draft year and you know, you've got to secure the bag here as a young man who's very driven.

And the eyes are on the prize. Like this is about the NHL. This isn't about Madison Hat, maybe as much as a 20 year old guy that's going nowhere, it might have been. Yeah. So his, his representation at the NHL draft combine basically sent out a letter to all teams saying like, look, he's good to go.

He's ready. And, you know, we saw him at the, We saw what he did when he came back from his injury in the playoffs. And that first game, I think he had like six or seven shots. He kind of tailed off a little bit, but you could tell there it was a guy who hadn't played a lot of hockey this year. And it's too bad because you look at the numbers he was putting up this year. Like he was like a couple hat tricks away from being a goal per game player. And the way he was able to take over games, like Cam said, he's just so unique.

You don't find players like this often. And he's a natural born athlete, too. This is someone that played high level baseball, track and field. So he's very involved in a lot of different sports. And he said that kind of just learned him, taught him how to prepare for things mentally better. And that really helped him when he was injured just to be like the whole time. Like, you know what? Like I believe myself, you know, whether I get fall in the draft, whatever, it doesn't matter to me.

I still believe that I can be a game changing player. And a guy that can go out there and physically dominate. Like you see a player like that compared to someone like Adam Jekko or out of meek, however you can pronounce his last name. And you say he doesn't have the same scoring abilities, but physically there's a lot of the same things. They're both big centermen. But when it comes to Lydstrom,

nobody in the WHL is able to overpower him there and asking guys at the combine who was the hardest player to play against. Lindstrom was the name that appeared just as often as Carter Yakimchuk, who goes out here to kill people. So I think of Lidstrom, he's going to be, let's say he's not a number one center. If he's your number two, that's one hell of the number two center. Like that's a thing.

Like there's so much upside here. And I think you'd be a perfect fit for Montreal. But knowing how Montreal has drafted the last couple of years, they could just go with like Cole Hudson number five or just go completely off the board and find some guy no one's heard of because Montreal just likes to do things differently there. They did pass on Mishkov just a year ago. So we won't put something crazy past them. That's for sure.

Okay. So we've talked about defense a ton leading into this draft class. And now we're five picks deep and we've got four forwards. left the board fellas. So I feel like that's a bit of a twist, but maybe it isn't. Maybe it just means we're about to get on a major D heater and it starts with the Utah hockey

club, Stephen, who do they take at 6? Probably more D left than they thought there'd be. Yeah, so this one's difficult because you'll talk to different people and they'll tell you different defensemen, but the guy that I like I was very on Sam Dickinson, like high on Sam Dickinson as high as number four, but I just

I want to see Zane Porek go out there and do some damage for that team. And it's a team that's got a ton of size already. And I remember doing my ranking of their prospect pool last year and saying, I'm like, okay, this Coyote franchise has way too many guys that are six foot four and taller. So I like the ability of, you know, you're not drafting size here, but a guy who can still hold his own physically. And you see the goals. You see the points.

But he's also someone who understands he needs to be better defensively. and I feel like his play from September compared to what we saw in the Memorial Cup was someone who was a lot more engaged in his own zone, willing to throw the body, willing to get physically engaged there. I don't have those same concerns defensively as I did a few months ago. So bad high on him. I want to see him pass into Logan Cooley from the point and running an amazing power play one day. You nodded and smiled, Cam, with the parrhic.

It does seem to fit Utah very nicely. they've got a lot of size and those those numbers are hard to ignore at this point yeah and like is there another organization that like needs that on the blue line more than them right like you know all the running jokes that they they're only signed defenseman is is you know not even playing hockey these days um you know they have a bunch of rfas but they need someone to drive a power play unit they need they need same correct and like he's very good like he's a little underrated i think um you know people slag him a little bit for his defense offensive effort or, you know, some of his positioning and stuff like that.

But I don't actually think it's that bad. Like I think there's a very clear path to him being NHL average at playing defense. And then he has like this super high offensive ceiling, right? And he's got a little bite too, which I like that in my offensive guys on the blue line. Like he's unafraid to like chuck an elbow into some guy's ear if they piss him off or something too, right? So I don't mind that too. So I like it.

I think he's going to be he's not going to be Quinn Hughes with that kind of mobility or kale McCar or something like that, but he's going to be like a top flight offensive generator at 5 on the power play. You know, he shoots the puck a ton. He's a sniper. He can he can really transform a top power play unit and really get offensive driving. And, you know, Utah, they've got a lot of really talented young forts who they need someone to get them the puck. So he would, he would fit that bill for sure.

What does Ottawa need at seven? It's been a disappointing run for a team. Everyone's been waiting to turn the corner. And this is the year. No, no, no, no. No, no. This is here. Well, hang on.

We were wrong. But this is the year. What do they do at seven here? Yeah, you know, if it was me, I might do something different. But I think because they have, they have a lot of like left shot defensemen is that it's hard for them to step up and be like, okay, we'll take Dickinson or we'll take Z. Bouillon. I mean, they could. And if that's the best player on the board, I think they would still. But I'm going to have a little fun here.

And I'm going to give them back at Seneca. You know, rise, rise, rise. This kid's been, you know, a loaf of bread before it hits the oven. he grew like four inches over the last off season and through the year late riser late riser growing and late riser up draft boards so you know he had to be a player at 510 and and when you're a player at 510 like you have to be smart you have to have like good manipulation skills you have your feints and your fakes all baked in you can't just rely on running over guys are going wide and protecting it with a long reach and now all of a sudden

he's six two and a half he's clear he's going to be six three he has some of the best handles in the class like his mix tape his highlight reel is like off the charts right like yeah it's a little bamby-legged at times he looks a little wobbly because he's still kind of getting used to that frame and he's and he's not super filled out yet but there's like there's a serious upside here and you can make the case that like a kid like berkeley caton basically played at that rate all season long that seneca did down the stretch and in the playoffs but size matters. And I think that for Ottawa to inject some

high level talent into the organization is something that they need. And, you know, maybe not the best player available on my personal board, but it's a fun pick. And I don't think it's out of the question to see Seneca jump into that top seven. He's really risen,

Steven. Like there's some guys with helium here. I think of T. Jiginla being maybe he's a first rounder. And then there's a few other guys you'd never heard of. Like the Parasic kid, I only think was playing Western League a year ago. He might be a first round, or there's a guy that caught fire. But Seneca in the top 10, that is quite something, is it not?

Yeah, you know, nowhere close to that at the start of the season. And I got to say, I've never heard a prospect with a deeper voice than his. I don't know if he just wants to have a career of just being a bass guitar, like not a big player, like just a bass guitar, he'd be good at it. But honestly, just like, I remember watching him play a couple years ago. in the minor hockey ranks here. And this dude wasn't strong, was getting pushed around a lot.

Now he's the one doing all the pushing. And he's got, you know, I think just, when you get these guys who are risers like this, it's just like, how much more does he have to go? And I think that's the big question for me. And I think still a long way to go.

You know, we saw Oscewa's offense. Now, to be fair, London Knights were on a different level in the OCHO playoffs. But with Seneca out of there, you saw how different, Marshall was. They just couldn't find the ways to generate goals and get around the net and make plays happen. So they really could have used him. But I do think that this is a guy that I could see him go as high as this pick. I could see him fall to 15th, whatever. I still think no matter what, he's going to be good value pick because I just think that there's more to his game that I think's going to be unlocked. And I think watching him play with Cal Richie for one more year is going to be pretty entertaining.

Two picks till the Calgary Flames jump in at nine. We're in the mock draft with Cam Robinson and Steve. Stephen Ellis. Stephen, you jump to the podium for Ron Francis in Seattle at pick eight and four of those dynamic six defensemen that could go in the top ten are still left. I've got bad news for that class. There will not be six going on the top ten. It'll be a maximum of five. What do you do if you're the cracket in here? If I'm the cracking, I'm going to Z Boo-im. I just, I feel like if you went any lower, it would be, I just, I couldn't see it happening. I think, you know, this is a guy that we saw him at the world. juniors and I thought that was just a really good opportunity for him to show like the average fan just how good of a player he was and then you go and watch him play in Denver and he goes out there and gets 50 points this year of great freshman season I remember watching him at the top prospects game in you in Michigan last year and thinking like this guy was probably the best player on the ice and he was not a draft eligible at the time obviously being a late birthday meant he was drafted with the rest of his age group but you know he's not a big guy but he's difficult to play

against he's very competitive and already he's a proven winner he played a big part of that world junior team he played a big part of that Denver team that won the national title like that's a lot already and i just think you know he's impactful every single game we don't see a lot of offnakes for him and i think that someone like that is just going to be a box checker for sure so seattle if i'm correct hasn't drafted a defenseman high in the first round this would be the first opportunity to get a star defenseman quick reaction on that can Love it. Love Zee, Booiam. Would have taken him at Calgary at 9, the next pick.

And I think they would love to take him at 9 too. But I think it's spot on with Seattle. I think they go D. I think they go D even if a couple of forwards are there. And Buyam makes a ton of sense just because of that, you know, even if the offense, like the numbers really pop, obviously at Denver. And I do think he has offensive upside at the NHL level, but maybe not like 70 point juice. But he has like in just this terrific fallback game to be like a stud defensively too.

And no, I think I think I actually, a lot of internal battles. almost putting him as my number one D on my personal list too. So yeah, I really, I have a lot of time for him. Okay, so you are Calgary. You get to be Craig Conroy, your second draft. You had Hansick last year. It has not been a good draft plus one season for Hansick. Injury is a big part of that.

You've got two first rounders. You've got needs all over. They don't have a kid in the system that projects to be a top center nor a top pair of defense. You also don't have kids in the system that necessarily projects the top line winger. You might even have a goalie, though. I don't know, but maybe not. You really, you could go anywhere here, Cam.

And before you make the pick, because we've got everyone's attention right now. A big shout out to our sponsors of the mock draft. It is Betway, McLeod Law, and Village Honda. Cam, you get to go to the podium. That's Craig Conroy, pick number nine. Jerome's not with you. He's with Teague getting photos done with Columbus.

What do you do here? I got to channel my inner Craig here, who's just a beauty, by the way. I am I'm torn a little bit because like you said they need a lot of stuff right they need they need that high end center they need a lot they need a lot of talent but I think it's too tempting with Sam Dickinson sitting on the board there because like if you go Berkeley cat in here you're like yeah we're taking a big swing on upside and then you're hoping with that Vancouver pick at the end of the round that you can get yourself a nice defenseman but I think I think in this case you go we want a pillar because a kid like Sam Dickinson is like his base is probably still a second pair guy. Like he's he's that good, right?

At six foot three, 200 pounds, like has the potential to be just like an excellent like play starter and play killer coming back the other way. Now, I've been like a fairly vocal critic of his brain this season because like some of the decisions he makes with the puck. It's like, you know,

spit takes. They're so bad. Some of his defensive positioning. Like even in the Mem Cup final there where he had a great game offensively, He's still swimming on the ice in the defensive zone looking like he's at the pool in the summer. So, you know, there's a lot of work left to be done to kind of clean that up. But I've come in my own assessments, I've come a long way on these kind of like big, toolsy, good skating defensemen.

They don't need to be geniuses to be top four guys or even top pairing guys. And it's just continually to be proved that you don't need to be a genius to do it. So I think that he has the tools are strong enough, the sizes there, the skating's there, that he is like basically a locked in top four guy with that potential to be a top pairing player as well. And at nine, that's the ticket, I think. That's what Calgary really kind of needs to sink their teeth into. I've heard comps of Petrangelo, Hanofin, like could probably play all units, but maybe isn't PowerPlay one quarterback. Is that fair in either of your minds, both your minds? Yeah, I think so. I think that he could in, you know, on a certain team be a PP1 guy, but, you know, you would hope that he's your PowerPlay 2 guy or maybe if you're running a 3 plus 2.

but yeah he's you know i liked pietrangelo's brain a little bit more but tools wise and and and and like stature and all that i think it's a decent comp for sure step step for me this year i wanted to see him just take that next step offensively this year and he did you know 70 points almost 20 goals he did that i remember watching him play at in the gtchel the charno marl and you mentioned cam the brain it doesn't feel like it really improves since then that's kind of the problem there. So I think this is one of the guys where skills going to trump out, you know, brainpower. Man, I was almost thinking, like, it'd be good if you went to New Jersey and he could just spend an afternoon with Jack Hughes to kind of learn how to think the game a bit

better. Maybe it would be a completely different story. But I still think that the talent there is huge. And it's just, let's see it every single night. I'll just add, though, that Luke, Luke Hughes has spent like his whole life with Jack and he's still trying to figure out how to play. I'm not sure a weekend with Jack's going to sort it out. That is true. That is true. I did spend a day at their house and you could tell the difference between them just a little bit. Yeah, fair.

Body and brain, I'm sure. Okay. So there's two other D on the board here. Let's just talk about them really quickly. The monster, the 6'7 guy that probably was going to play north of 230 pounds on Tonceliav that was in the KHL is there. Also, you've got the local kid, Carter Yakkamp. Chuck, who is a whole lot of chaos. 33 goals, right shot, big, we'll scrap.

Just both, you I want you to compare and contrast those bigger options against Sam Dickinson, who's not small and maybe what that sort of battle or dialogue is like when you're debating these three defensemen. Yeah, for me, it's like Dickinson and Yakumchuk, like isn't like a crazy comparison. Defensively, Dickinson's already more refined for sure. Yakum Chuck is like he's basically like Mitch Martin on the blue line with how. he dangles guys like honestly like he walks guys like he's a little man on the point and then he has the big shot too but like he yeah lots lots of work left to be done in the defensive zone and guarding

his own blue line but got a mean streak which i like and then saliav like he's just like the potential is that he's going to be like a suffocating defensive presence out there but not much of a play starter not much offensively i don't think in that's you know even saying that like his role in the khl wasn't to do that um but i just don't i don't see the tools that handles like you'll miss outlet passes by 20 feet sometimes like it's yeah maybe it comes along but i i don't see like early season people are like this is the next victor headman it's like no it's not yeah a good two weeks that no but not the full season yeah stephen just those three defensemen yeah that was a wild start to the season wasn't that the thought takes i guess when we're all

bored in august and september the stuff we were saying um comes to dickinson i think you know he's the most well-rounded of the three there um that's i do like him more of the others uh i think with yakum chuck i i don't know why he never played forward and i was shocked when he said at the draft combine that he actually never played forward growing up it was always defense but you need he named the players you like to watch taylor hall and jordan everleigh it's like dude you're a defenseman but you see the offensive skill i kind of wish he did play forward um still some questions about the skating and the own zone play i still feel like you know for all the high low real moves you'll see this that allowed him to score 30 goals he'll also try and dangle someone in his

zone zone in front of the net, lose it and like, what are you doing there? The Salaia, yeah, it's kind of the same thing where he's not, I know some comparison stylistically to Zendano Chara, obviously Zendano Chara knew how to put bucks in the net. I don't see Salaev doing that. I guess the one thing is we have seen a lot of these HL defensemen that just explode offensively, randomly out of nowhere. Maybe he's the next. I don't think so, though.

He's just, his thing will be smothering players and making sure you don't get to the net. So, three kinds of players. We'll get there. New Jersey at 10 is Stephen Ellis. The Devils didn't move this pick for Jacob Markstrom. They may indeed move for something else. I feel like the big game hunting this summer. But Stephen in this imaginary universe where you're the GM of the Devils, you have pick number 10.

What are you doing? I'm going Consta Heleneas. I mean, he's not my favorite. I like Berkeley Cat and Moore, but I think, like the thing is I can see Heleneas being that third-line center that can also play a little higher in the lineup. And if you've got Hughes and you've got Nicos, and you've got Niko. his year and you've got like Calanius there like that's that's not a bad

combination there I think I almost feel at some points he got underrated this year you see the numbers he put up this year great numbers in league as something we don't typically see from a player like that but then you also look at some of the guys he compared with and statistically you know the last

big named guy draft prospect to go out there and dominate the finish league to kind of the same level was Capo caco and we never we haven't seen Capo caco become that type of player in the NHL. I think the one thing with Linus, I do like his two-way game. I do like that he has played some wing. The World Championship,

man, I was really hoping to see something there, but they never really gave him a chance. And it didn't help that he wasn't very good at the U-18. So I know that he, the end of the season wasn't good, but I still think he's got the raw talent to still be a very effective player. So I just think from a fit that would work. Berkeley can, I think I love Berkeley can. I'm disappointed. He hasn't been picked in this mock draft yet, but I think, even

no, we have the power to make that happen. I just think that this just seems like it would kind of make sense. Yeah, for the devil's it does. And people seem to rave about whoever gets him is going to be thrilled. It's not the offensive wizardry. It's just how complete of a player he is. Is that fair, Cam? Yeah, he won't overwhelm with his size or his speed or his strength.

But he just maximizes like every situation. You know, disappointing U-A teams. He obviously didn't want to be there. It was kind of a kind of a, just a wet fart to end the season, which is too bad because he had a, potential to like continue that rise up and really show out right and then and then the u 18s were and then you didn't do much of the world championships in and out of the lineup so um i think that that's probably why he will be available outside of the top 10 um and also the pure upside but yeah he's a

very intelligent player who's going to play you know whatever a couple different roles he'll be versatile and yeah so i think i think it makes sense for the devils they have some centered depth and they can move them around the lineup it's a different story if he dominates that u18s i think yeah i think so too uh we go to 11 Buffalo. It feels like everything we said about Ottawa. We could say it again with Buffalo, but for longer, they're missing something. No one's exactly sure what it is. What do you do at 11 here?

You know, it's tough because I was hoping Berkeley Caton was going to be gone. So I didn't have to path on them here because it's like Buffalo has so many players like Berkeley Caton, you know, like they've got Zach Benson, Matt Savoy, Yuri Kulik. Like they have all these like kind of undersized super skilled ring, Noah Ouslin.

Like they just have all of them. They have all of these players. And it's like you can't have all of the same player. And then you look at their blue line. It's like all left shot defensemen. So it's like I can give them Saliav here because that doesn't make any sense. Right. So it's, you know, so I'm, I'm torn right now. But I'm going to, I had a little fun with Ottawa. Let's have a little fun with Buffalo here too. I'm giving them Cole Eiserman. Oh, wow. Because they need something. So why can't that something be a sniper, right? Especially if they buy out Jeff Skinner, like that's he's Jeff Skinner, too, 0. No, he's not actually, but, but he is, he is this enigmatic elite trigger man where he,

I did a film room on him earlier this month and like, I've been, I've been a pretty big critic of his throughout the season just because he's so frustrating. But goodness, he can score in a myriad of ways and he has this like burgeoning power forward game or like when he turns it on and he gets a little mad, like he'll drive guys through the boards, the end boards. He will catch someone in open ice in the neutral zone and like have them gasping for air right just suck the wind right out of their lungs so if he can someone can just light a fire under this kid um you could have like a really unique power forward goal scoring winger like could pop you 35 40 goals on the regular i could say buffalo might use could they could use something like that right so i'm

giving him cole isman and it's higher than i would have him on my board personally and i do but i do think this is like the area that we start to see teams start to look at that and just being like do we swing on big upside? I think so. Yes or no, Stephen, he's the he's the purest score to come out of the draft. No question about it. He's one of my favorite players in this draft and it's because I love guys who score goals and you look at the number of goals he put up this year like 57 or 58. It's like that felt that still felt disappointing because the guy who was able to put up put up the number he did last year. It was like 69 goals or whatever. It's like he could have hit 70. Like this guy knows how to shoot the puck. He knows how to kill people out there.

And if anyone can get him to commit to being a better defensive forward, J. Pandelfo next year. Man, Philadelphia's got to be doing backflips. They could either look at a huge nasty defenseman, a high-end skill defenseman or the electric centerman catten out of Spokane. What do you do at 12, Stephen? And I've already seen Flyers fans just starting hashtags, trying to well manifest it into reality that Caton could go to the 12. Is that what you do? So I was thinking, hey, this would be kind of interesting if you get Mitch Koff a Russian buddy out there in Selya, but no, it's going to be Berkeley. It should be Burklee, I just, I love Berkeley Katt. And it was, I think it was Tony Ferrari

who said it's like he's not the biggest guy out there, but it's not like we're talking about a 5'5-foot, 8, you know, 150 pound forward here. We're still talking about a guy who, it seems like whenever he wants to commit to being better at something, he gets better at it. And the one thing that really stood out at the draft combine was he said he spent hours every single day last summer just shooting pucks as much as possible to just get a better shot because he felt disappointed in his own goal help. Then you see him at the Link of Gretzky scores eight goals. You see him in the regular season this year, 54 goals, just so much upside there.

And if he's the one who's passing him Mitchcoff, you know, you're going to need, the flyers need a lot of help, no question about it. But the one thing that teams really lacking is a really good long-term centerman to play with Mitchcoff. There's the question though, could Caton play wing? I still think, you know, you get throw him there with Mitch Coff and you're still

going to be really good no matter what. So I'm happy at that. Are the concerns founded is Cam that he might not be a center or is that just people looking at the height and weight? Personally, I think he's a winger. I do. And that's not a knock on his game, really. Like he's fearless.

Like he drives the paint, you know, but at his size, 5-11's not a killer to play the middle of the ice, but being so slight. And he doesn't look like the kid, the type of frame that's going to really beef up when he hits his early 20s. Like he looks like he's got, you know, kind of those bird bones on him. Lilias Pedersen.

Like, so, you know, but he's not 6-1 or 6-2. So I do think he's a winger, which would give me the pause to draft. him as a center iceman, which is why he probably ends up slipping closer to this zone or in this realm. But, you know, electric skills. And I've dropped this stat a couple of times. It's like going back for the for this century here, the players who have scored more

than 50 goals and more than 115 points in the CHL in their draft eligible seasons, Sidney Crosby, Patty Kane, Connor Bardard, and now Berkeley Caton. So statistically, he's hanging with some pretty fun players. He's good. He's very, very good. So if Philly nabs him and they, you know, I don't know if he's the perfect match for Mishkoff and even strength, but on the Powerblade, they'd have some fun together, that's for sure. Minnesota.

He's a future Hall of Gamer. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, it's just may as well get his, how to get that face thing done for the hall right away here. Let's go right. You get to pick for Bill Gair and Minnesota at number 13, Cam. They've done very well in the draft of late, and they've only got a couple more years left of the Souter Parise punishment.

they should be very well positioned to be competitive coming out of that, given how tight they've had to be with salary, how much room's opening up, and the prospect system. Who do you add to it at 13? Yeah, I mean, they made one kind of blunder there last year going Charlie Strammel and Billy Garon, you know, I asked him the question in the scrum right afterwards, and he just straight upset it.

He's like, you know, I jumped the list. Like, I was like, oh, usually they don't say that when they do it. But GMs make the first pick and he fully said they left him on the board. So like Gabe broke, eh, Oliver Bonn, both those guys would look a whole lot better. and Charlie Strammel. So I do think that they are still looking for that power center, which is what Garron really wants, which Michael Brandzik, knee guard is sitting right there for them.

But I also think that they probably aren't expecting Anton Salaev to still be on the board. I might get in trouble from some guys in Minnesota because I don't actually know how they feel about him. But I'm going to give him Salaev here just because it isn't too often. You get a six foot seven defenseman who can skate like this guy can. He can really fly out there. And that alone. is going to afford him 15 years in the

NHL. Like he's going to play big minutes and, you know, yeah, I don't think he's going to put up many points, but like he's someone that can grow into being just like a true suffocator on the blue line, right? Like so I used to joke that he's, Tyler Myers or Asmister's the line. Well, no, those guys had offense and they didn't have defense. This guy has defense and he doesn't have offense, right? So no, I will give him saliva here just because he's just such a unique player

the upside there to be a top pairing guy versus like grabbing a guy. who's maybe a middle six-seller. I've been asking scouts the question, is he Alexiac or Larson or is he a Chara? Because that's kind of more of the comps. It's going to be a guy that's defense first, right? But there's a huge, you could park a few cruise ships between those players, right? Exactly, right? Because Chara, even Chara was putting up 50 plus point seasons. It took them a while to get there. Like, I don't think he really popped until he was like late 20s, early 30s. But he's his own kind of monster, that guy. I tell you, he's, he's fun to watch. And sometimes it's fun because you're like, what the hell was that?

But then other times you're like, what the hell was that? You know, like he's just like he's so long and you can step up and you can lower the boom, defends the line really well. And you know, playing in the K's, no easy feet for a draft eligible kid, right? Like, right? It doesn't happen too often. Steve and your thoughts on the largest prospect that I think we'll see in the first round. He's tall.

He is. Yeah, that's breaking in. So, you know, the sphere is very big in Vegas and Soliof could stand beside it. But I think with him, it's, I still think I could, he told me when I talked to him last week that he really wants to focus on becoming a more offensive player and be able to do more stuff with the puck. I wonder, you know, if we're talking about him still, like, potentially putting up 30 points. And I don't think, I think there's some offensive thing that can maybe get him there. Obviously, he's not showing it yet, but he's still young. He really focused on being, you know, defensively a rock this year.

That's what he said. and he really wants to work this summer. I'm becoming better for the puck, shooting the puck more, being better at putting power behind that shot and using his strength. So if he's able to do that, maybe he becomes a 30-point defenseman. But at this pick, no question about it.

I'm taking it. Okay. At 15, excuse me, 14, we get San Jose's second pick. I believe of the first team to get their second selection of the draft here with the Carlson trade pick coming from Pittsburgh. This is to you, Stephen. Who do the sharks get to add to Matt? Franklin Celebrini in this first ground.

Well, they've got some good centermen in the system. They've got some good forwards overall. So it's time to take a defenseman, and it is Stan Solberg out of Norway. He is violent. He is mean. And then he gets off the ice, and he might have the funniest stories to say. He was the one that mentioned at the draft combine that the reason he got put to defense was because one of the players on his team decided to pee in the team shower.

and he got sat for that game and Solberg went and started playing defense instead and the rest is history but yeah you know he's got the size you know didn't score a lot this year in Norway but I think he showed the world championship that he's no slouch with the puck and I think he's getting better at also just kind of using the traffic at front

to kind of time his shot there to be a bit better because I remember watching some clips early and he was just shooting directly at players and it wasn't going in and I think that he's you look at the picture there like he just looks like he's mad at something right That's kind of thing up there. He likes to go out there and punish players. So I feel like he's had a really good second half this year.

And I think that World Championship really helps him where he showed like, man, he could match up against anybody out there. He did it against Badaard. And we know how creative Badaard is. And he kept going out there and stopping him. He does take some dumb penalties from time to time. He does make some mistakes in that element. But I think that, you know, if you need a guy who can just go out there and create havoc

and move the puck away from your own goalie, Solberg is a good pick. And you leave Carter Yakumchuk on the board. Can we go to you with Detroit at 15? What are the wings looking for? What are they missing? And are they salivating running up to the podium here or not? They're happy to run up to the podium,

but they're not salivating over Carter Yakumchuk. They've got those players in their system already, I think. I think they'd be somewhat redundant. ASP last year, Axel Sandin, Pellica, right? Yeah. And they got most Heider and the, tighter and they've got, oh, this big suite, I'm spaced on his name at Simone Edvenson. You know, they've got, they've got some players coming up their way.

So, you know, I talked about Pat Verbeak and company. They don't really care what everybody else thinks. Steve Eisman, that guy's never cared about anything. Yeah, that's anything that anyone else think. Anyways, exactly, right? Yeah, the next Lou, Lou 2.0 here in Stevie Y. And he's going up there and he wants to inject some high-end forward talent into this pipeline. and there's one player sitting there with a whole lot of it and he's got a whole lot of noise

attached to his name, Trevor Connolly at number 15. And I mocked this up somewhere else as well, putting Connolly at 15. And it took about an hour before I got a couple of texts from people and league sources being like not crazy. This kid is, you know, I had the quote from way back in September when I was at the USHL fall classic, you know, one executive told me top 10 skill, bottom 10 character. which is, ouch,

but you can't question this kid's skill. And, you know, I spent a little bit of time with them in Helsinki there at the U-18s. Very nice, very polite to me.

Obviously, knows who I am and probably isn't looking to ruffle any feathers at this stage of the game. But I think he can work with this player and I think the noise will die down.

Obviously, there'll be some heat on draft day that weekend. And then it all kind of fade away. But, you know, he's got the height. He needs a lot of filling out, which will only kind of improve his game.

He's got good feet. he's got excellent hands he loves to carry the puck he's creative he can score he can dish it sometimes his passing was too creative for the us hl level but what really kind of put it over the top for me was his play at the u8 teams where he wasn't the guy tri-city he was number one for everything airlifting onto that u.s team third line playing with cj mooney and you know cycle game getting pucks keeping them low getting to the net front battling playing smart defensively and he did it and he did it well and he took that role yeah he took the dumb penalty at the end of the gold medal game that cost them the medal. But I mean, overall, I think it was a very successful tournament for him. And he has

what's left on the board here. He has the highest pure upside of forward. Detroit needs a little bit of that. And we're taking them at 15. Are there certain markets that can't handle this kind of PR? And there are other markets that can live with more or is it long enough ago and sort of hearsay enough that you can skate on this, Stephen? I guess the incident, the one of the incidents of note was that he posted something on a personal social media account. out where he had turned some sort of objects into a swastika. That's not good. How do teams approach this?

Because as, as Cam said, it's top 10 talent. Yeah. And I don't think you go any higher than this. I think this is kind of a good fit. And we know, like, you know, Connolly has been involved with USA hockey in a lot of events. And they're, them being based in Plymouth. It's been able, you do see a lot of Red Wings people there. And I think it'd be a good fit because you see the skill, the talent.

whether it be the U-18 where again he was awesome as that third-line player L.J. Mooney, I remember who their sentiment was. It didn't matter. Humphreys, I think. Yeah, that feels a good. Also, just a side note, L.J. Mooney,

he's related to Logan Cooley. But what did we learn, Cam, was his LJ stood for? Liljohn. Little John. Yeah, we love Ler John. Anyways, but yeah, like, there's definitely going to be some markets that are going to be a little more hesitant to do it. I do think it's something

that again, it seems like some teams are more confident in the, in the way he's kind of acting in the last year or so to kind of say like, hey, you know, like this wasn't me, like this, this one incident with the swastika. The issue is there were other incidents that it wasn't just an isolated thing. But I think a lot of teams are looking and saying like, okay, like what he did when he was 12, 13, we're not too worried about it at 17, 18. We'll see. I think they'll get from a talent perspective, like this is a guy who could be a top line player in there. NHL. Okay. Let's go to 16 St. Louis. That is Stephen Ellis that gets to jump in and decide who the next person wearing the blue note is. This is very difficult, but. And it's just me or as Carter

Yakumchuk, the slide is on. Like, this is the biggest dropper so far, right? You know, I don't love the blues prospect pool, so why not just take a chance on Carter Yakumchuk? Hope you can fix his skating and his defense and just kind of go from there. We'll see, you know, I think with, you you see the goals, you see the Pally Minutes, to see the points. Like, that's a very unique thing. And the good news is, even though his defense isn't great, between him and Caden Lindstrom, was the guy that no matter who I talked to in the WHO HL,

was always getting mentioned as one of the hardest players to play against. And that has to mean something. People don't want to go one-on-one with them. The skating can be fixed. The defense, like, the issue is with how many good defensemen there are, if you can't actually play defense, you are going to slide. But I think with this one here, it's there's enough upside to be interesting. Is St. Louis the team that should be betting on the upside?

Maybe they go pick a more safe guy. I don't know. I just think that it would be pretty cool to see him passing to Dallabor, Dvorisky in a few years. Washington at 17 cam as we pick up our pace here on the mock draft here on Flames Nation for Barnburn. Washington is the first playoff team that gets to select here. And many suggested they weren't a playoff team. They got swept.

Whatever it is, they get. to add to some cupboards that aren't exactly bursting at the seams. They're not bursting, and they need everything, and they need high-end skill. But there is a player who maybe doesn't project a high-end skill that is right for the picking, and it's Michael Bransy G-Guard. I'm a big fan of him, even though he was a little underwhelming at the World Juniors when we were over there, still good. I just wanted him to dominate on that Norwegian team to be their best player head and shoulders.

but, you know, his club play, playing in the hockey, El Svenskine, he's good. Like, he is big, he's hard to play against. He has good details to his game. He has good enough skills to project that it's like he could play in the top six. On a cup contending team, he's like your ideal third line center. But realistically, he's probably going to play second line center on most teams where he gets drafted. So I think Washington's like, you're picking at 17. This kid is highly likely to be an NHL or a quality one for a long time.

and very, very close to being in HL ready. You know, we talk about obviously Celebrini number one, but Lev Shinoff, Hellenius, Bransick-Neillard. Those are kind of the guys that are the closest to being able to step in. So he probably plays his season in the S-HL, signs, comes over, gets his feet wet in the HL at the end of the next season, and then he's pushing for a club spot, you know, 19, 20 years old, full-timer at 21, I think, for sure.

So a really strong player who I wouldn't be surprised if he goes much earlier than this in real life. Stephen, we get to Chicago. They get their second pick of the first. round. They had a pick swap with the islanders just trying to shuffle up a bit. They get into the late teens in exchange for a pick in the 20s. Why not? What do the hawks look for here? They added Lev Shunov with your guidance at pick number two. Well, you know, they traded to move up two spots for a reason. So they must like somebody. And I do wonder if that guy is someone who plays locally in Michael Hague out of the Chicago Steel, a centerman who, you know, there's a lot of. lot to like there. I got to watch him play in the Toronto Junior Canadians a couple of years ago and he probably was going to go first overall in the OHL draft had he not made it clear he was

going to do the USHL and the NCAA route. He did miss most of last year so he had to play a lot of catch up. But I felt like we saw that no question about it that he really kind of lived up to expectations. I thought that had he been invited to the U18 World Championship team for Canada, he would have been a big part of that. I just think that he's a good two-way player that he's had to overcome some tragedy in his life with some family members and it just never seemed to kind of slow him down. He's always been just so focused, so smart and talking to people that he's played with at other levels, whether B. Celebrini or the B. Henry Muse back in the GTHL, they just have nothing but good things to say about him. And to put up those numbers, he's a bit feisty. He's not afraid to hit guys. I think he'd be a good foot there.

Especially, you know, there's some question marks on some of the Blackhawks. You know, they got a lot of centers are they going to move some of those guys to the wing that could open up an opportunity for him okay interesting a hawk stay local they've got a defenseman and a forward the sharks went forward then defense they're the first two teams to have multiple selections in round one and congratulations cam to whoever you pick next they're the next vegas golden night first rounder to be traded because i think aside from bris son everyone else has been moved where do you go with vegas at 19 yeah this one uh it's true he'll and he'll and he'll here for a short time, not a good time, right?

So we're going to Russia, though. We're going Igor Chernishav here. You know, burgeoning power forward with skill, you know, split his season in the MHL and the KHL. Didn't get a ton of minutes, obviously, but when, you know, when playing in the K, they asked him to play a north-south up and down game, get in on the forecheck, make sure you get pucks deep,

be defensively responsible. He did it. You go play in the MHL, skills pop. So I think he's a player that could really, fit a lot of different roles and a bit of a bit of a Swiss Army knife in that regard and has the high level skill and kind of the flash that we like to see in the top 20 pick. Maybe it would have gone sooner if he

didn't have the Russian birth certificate too. Okay. Interesting. Pick number 20, the Islanders moved back with Chicago. I believe somehow this is tied to a Brandon Hagel trade way back in the day. This is number 20 overall. Lula Marillo now holds it, the third GM to hold this pick. Where do you go at 20, Stephen? I'm going to go with Sasha Buevaire out of Muskegan.

He's from Tra-Rivier, a player who, if you don't know anything about Tra-R-R-R-Vier, it's a very French part of Quebec. And he had to do a lot of learning of the English, I should say. But, you know, he's a player that talking to scouts and just talking to teammates, they've got nothing but positive things to say about it. You see the goals, you see the work ethic, you see the points, the penalty minutes there. Like, he's an aggressive player. And it's funny because, like, I remember talking to him.

and I'm six foot seeing him. I think it was six foot two. And then it just didn't feel like he was overly huge, like he wasn't going to be able to beat me in an arm wrestle necessarily. But you go watch him on the ice and he's out there pushing guys around and doing kind of everything about that. He's, you know, he's working on getting his power game to be a bit better. But I think he's just, it's a guy that probably could have been a star on the QMJHL,

but he picked a route here where he really wanted to, to, he saw how good the USH. I think he took good advantage of that and watching him create stuff, especially early in the season, where it was Matt Vigridden watching what he could do. But just all the smarter plays were coming out of Sasha Boisvair, who's got a really good brain, I should say. But I know that wasn't very eloquent. But I do like it. Let's just put it that way. I like him there. I think that he could, if he went higher, I wouldn't be too surprised. Islanders take Bovare at Centerman at number 20. Cam, you've got the L.A. Kings at 21. They can't move this player for Purely

Debois, nor can they include him in a trade to send him away. It's been a turbulent calendar year for Rob Blake. It's either the best or worst trade of his career. I'll tell you in five years. What do you make of where the Kings are at and what do they try to do here? Yeah, I think this pick is, again, not who I would be picking, but I think that he goes and he goes around this spot and he's a very safe player and it's Jet Lucchenco. You know, he's hard-nosed, right shot center, who has good feet, good details to his game, put up over a point of game this season. He's a player that like every time you talk to people on the team side

is that they're like he's going early. He might go in the teams. So, you know, playing in Guelph this year, like he's, he kind of reminds you of Yanny Gort. So he's got the speed and the effort, the physicality. He'll probably be like a fan favorite, just a very safe pick here at 21 or whatever it is. Yeah, he's one that's going to leave a little.

talent on the board for them, a little upside, but you're getting yourself a player. Yeah, and with a team that's got Byfield and a bunch of other talented forwards, the middle six center? Is that fair? You see a third-line center? Yeah, that's right. Nashville 21, Stephen. Who gets to get welcome to Music City? See, I think they should be picking a defenseman here, and I want to go out and say, Adam Eurecheck here, someone who's season ended early at the world juniors and I think that this would be an opportunity next year to kind of just see how far away how far how much did that time away from the game hurt him because he actually last I checked he hasn't started skating yet you see he didn't put up a ton of points this year but

he was playing some difficult matchups up there and to be playing as a pro at the age he was I still think means something there so we'll see what happens I think there's a lot of upside he's not one for one just like his brother, but he was able to just be at from every level that I've got to see in play at just seem to be a step ahead of most players from his country. And I think that, you know, he probably would have gotten a lot more comfortable after the world juniors playing against men and we'd be talking about someone who maybe have gone higher. So I think this is a bit of a steal just because of his injury. Tough year for him, Cam, with the injuries, because what was the high preseason, top 10, top five potentially? Like, what are the top D there? What were the

thoughts before the season. Some people, some people like them at that high. I've always like really been concerned with his feet. So he was never that high on my board, but absolutely in some public eyes that he was considered a top 10 talent. So, you know, at this part of the draft, I think, I think it's fine to swing on and see what you can make at him.

Pick 23 goes to Toronto as Brad Tre Living makes his second selection. He was barely feet on the ground in Toronto last year when they nabbed East and Cowan, which looks like a very, very good pick, albeit very early. what do they do here at 23? I mean, they haven't taken a D in the first round since, like, Rast was Sandine, and we know what's going on with that blue line.

They need some help at some point. But there are some boards that I like. I'm torn up here a little bit. But I, you know what? I'm going to give them one of my favorite players, though, just because I can. And it's E.J. Emery. You know, he's a right shot defenseman. He is an athlete.

Like, the kid literally jumped out of the box at the combine, and now they have to make it longer, because he broke the record by so much. Like he is, he is so, you know, just explosive in that regard. And the way that he can surf across the neutral zone and just squash rushes before they get a chance to even begin, I love it.

Like I had someone tell me at the UA teams there that the, like teams actively game plan to Cole Hudson's side. Like stay away from EJ. Like we don't attack that side. So to me, it's like a guy like Chris Tanna, like his value, right, has just grown exponentially over the years.

And this is like the kind of upside you could maybe hope for with E.J. Amory. Is that not putting up points, not, you're not looking even tag him down for 30. I think he's got enough skill to move the puck. And we see that. And in the offensive zone, he can move the puck around a little bit as well, but it's all about the rush defense, in zone defense, blocking shots, killing penalties. Just one of these guys that I think has, you know, top four upside for sure and maybe even a little bit more just as that kind of that unique piece as a true, like modern day defensive defense. 24 goes to Colorado. The avalanche have got big issues. Two years removed from a Stanley

Cup, but what do you do with the Chuskin? There's a lot of expensive players there. There's also a lot of great players there. And maybe they get the return of Gabriel Landisog. Stephen, what do they do here? I don't know that Alainta Scog will be around when this player makes it to the NHL if they do. Yeah. Yeah, who knows? I'm going to

go with, I'm thinking Liam Green Tree here. I like the guy that this year had to do so much for the Windsor Spitfires. And I could see him going higher because you see how many points he put up this year without a ton of goal support. And that size, like that's a good mix.

My one concern was it felt like he tried to do way too much too often. And that kind of hurt him in a lot of cases. But I think that if he goes out there and he can add a bit more pace to his game, like he's going to be a top sex player in the NHL. I just think that he's got the skill in the size that he's going to be difficult to play against. And it would be really good for, you know, if the Chushkin's not part of the long-term plans, here, here's a guy who can not play the exact same role,

but he'll go out there and be difficult to play against. 25 is Ottawa. I believe this pick was swapped for both Tyler Batuzi and Alex to Brinket. If I'm correct, it ends up in the pause of the new general manager in Ottawa. Their second pick of round number one, they took Beckett Seneca at number seven. What do the Sends do here, Cam? They're bringing somebody home. That's what they're doing.

They're bringing Cole Bowden home, who's one of my favorite players as well. just the type of player that gets he excited because he's a physical monster. Like he, we were playing a little sewer ball outside on one of the practice days there in Finland. And like this kid one leg was both of mine. Like he is just a truck already. You know, some people might think that that kind of limits what he's going to do developmentally

because he is already 6-2, 200 pounds, just shredded. But just an incredible work rate never quits on a play. You can overwhelm just with his energy and his physicality alone. And, you know, good enough skill to score 30 goals or nearly that or an appointed game in his draft year too. And he's a Connecticut. So I think that that would be a really fan favorite pick. And he's a future fan favorite of one of these guys that can play

in all different sorts of situations for you. It would be a physical menace. And one of these guys, we see it every year, right? In the playoffs, size counts. Kent Hughes pulled some magic with Sean Monaghan. He takes a first from the flames, which he'll get next summer, be it the Florida pick of the Calgary pick. Then he re-up Monaghan after another injury-plugged season

and got them on a low UFA deal, then send them to Winnipeg for another first. So borrowing Sean Monaghan and getting two firsts out of it is what they've done. They pick at 26 with Winnipeg's selection. Where do they go, Stephen? And we had Caden Liddisham going to Montreal, correct? Caden Lidlidt from Montreal at 5.

They've got the centerman from Medicine Hat. Well, let's bring his buddy up with Andrew Bash. I know it's a bit of a... Calgary boy! But did you know he actually speaks a lot of French? Really? I didn't know that to the Combine. He's very...

Like, he actually did a bunch of his interviews in French, but you see the goals, you see the points. And, you know, Lindstrom called him one of the hardest working players out there that he got to play with this year. And I think, you know, it helped that the, like, when people were going out there to watch Lynch to play and see what he was able to do, they say, like, oh, this guy could score, this guy could put up points. And, you know, he can play with anybody out there.

I think that he's got, you know, he's a really good playmaker, you know, not far off a 60 assists. I think if I could just round his game out, I think this would be a really good pick for the Canadians. Okay. And by the way, his dad owns a pub that's just a few blocks away. We've been thankful and privileged to be able to help pay for that child's upper hand. Okay. We'll move pick number 27.

Shout out the Garrison. Carolina, 27. Oh, it's the first pick for the guy with 27 copyrights and patents and NASA and a fellow at some institution I never heard of. Eric Tulski started writing about hockey and is now the general manager of Carolina Hurricanes. What's he doing here? I believe it is Cam with the selection. Lady,

your husband's putting my kids through college. I think that it's, I'm torn here because Carolina, like those guys are, they're doing some smart work over there all the time. Unsurprising with Tulskiy and now. So it's like, I kind of want to give them like Paris Act just because it's like on paper.

It's like here's a big old upside. But I'm going to give him dominate. Bidinka, okay. I'm giving him Bidinka six foot three right shot defender who played the majority of a season in the SHL. You don't see that too much on the blue line either. Similar thing that we were talking about with Trin Shov, they asked him to play a role. And that role was defensively responsible and he did it.

Then he drops down to the J20, skills pop. I think there's a lot of upside. And this kid's like a real sleeper to sneak into that first round and be like an impactful top four guy. And so Carolina, they're all about mining for. value that upside and this kid's got upside too. So, so I do. I, I, uh, I like that for them and I'm giving them badinka. Five selections left in round number one in our mock draft. Big thank you to Village Honda, McLeod Law and Betway for helping us bring together, both Cam Robinson, Stephen Ellis,

and, uh, all the knowledge of what the heck these GMs might do. Conroy picks at 28. It's the Vancouver selection. It's the highest pick outside of the final four. And a shame it is for the flames, they would have got another pick, compensatory pick, a conditional pick, excuse me, for beating Edmonton. That didn't happen if I need to refresh anyone's memory. The flames did go Sam Dickinson, the defenseman at number nine. Where do they go at 28, Stephen? This is so, so difficult. I'm thinking this is... Walk us through with thoughts, yeah. This is Calgary. We can expand a little bit. What are you weighing? Who are you back and forth between? So, I like...

I'm going to go with Dean Leterno. I really do you. I just, there's one comment, because I'll tell a quick story. So I was, the night I was planning to propose to my now fiance, I went to go watch St. Andrew's College, play some hockey,

just to kind of kill some time before my plan. And I was just so in love of watching Letournal going out there and just walking up to Will Zellers and Aden Park and basically just one hand knocking them down like it's nothing. and just going out there and creating some great place to the point where I actually almost missed my entire plan and almost screwed up everything about how I was going to propose to my fiancee that name. You were so in love with Leturno, you forgot to propose to your girlfriend.

That's a co. Yeah, so Latternal, you're invited to my wedding. No, so it's kind of a thing where you see a guy like him and you see a 6'7, 209, 210 pound forward, and you say, Cage Thompson, and the similarities are there. I was a big Tage Thompson fan in his draft year. And I think with the thing that Leterno does, and one kind of mentioned to me that same night was, there is just times where Laternal can just take over the puck

and just do things that only Dean Luterno can do. Now, playing in the prep hockey conference is not exactly, you know, the highest level of hockey. But I think the one thing you see is players of that size and that skill and who can move like him, there's just a lot to like there. I do wonder what type of role he plays in the NHTS. But if he comes close to Tage Thompson, heck, that's awesome. I think, you know, he's not going to go out there and kill people.

You see here, not a ton of penalty minutes, but he's strong. He's hard to take the puck off. And that's kind of the thing about the size. You don't want a guy to be big and just elbowing everybody or cross-checking people. You want people that are hard to play against. And we see that from him. Is he going to be able to go and dominate with the hands that he has in the NHL? No, I don't think so.

You know, we saw that in some USHL competition where that he didn't exist. exactly shine by any means. But going to watch and play college next year will be a really interesting thing because I think you'll go out there and be difficult to play a game right from the get-go. I don't want him to be another Charlie Stramel. I don't think he's going to be that. I like him a lot.

And yeah, so we'll see. 127 points in 56 games at the AAA U18 level, 25 and 14 in that prep conference you talked about. And then he finished with two at the USHL Boston College next year. Feels like a project, Cam. Is that fair? Oh, yeah, for sure, but like, I like that.

I like that swing. I wouldn't be surprised if he goes in, like, the teens. Like, dude's got a seven-foot wingspan and, like, handles the puck like a little winger. Like, it's, it is, it is impressive what it could become. I like that he's going to BC next year, too, that he's not going to the USHL where he'll just dominate in the same way that he kind of did it. Yeah, be challenged and have to, like, learn how to create in translatable ways. Last four picks, Dallas Stars.

They also couldn't reel in a conditional pick for the Calgary Flames. What do they do at 29 cam? They're going out west, and they like drafting out west from time to time here. Logan Stankovin is a good example of that. They're going to ride a Richie. One of the youngest players in the crop, you know,

didn't have much to work with in Prince Albert this year, but he still produced a point of game and he really popped offensively internationally, right? Like he had a great start to the year at the Halenka, like really jump started the season for him. And then I think he had a really strong finished two of the U-18s with Canada. So the feed aren't dynamic,

but he knows how to operate in tight spaces. He knows how to create plays. He's got great vision. And I think the stars are kind of the player development system that they can work with him and bring about the best in his game. Dad was Byron, who Flames fans will remember. He goes to Dallas at 29. The Rangers at 30, Stephen,

they will have one more pick than I thought they would have, when San Jose wanted to trade for Barclay Goodro, but they just waved him over there instead. What do they do with their first rounder here? I'm not with Charlie Eulik, you know, a good combination of size and speed. I think he will be a solid pickup for them. I don't know how much upside there's going to be for a guy who doesn't really shoot the puck. It doesn't have a lot of those offensive traits. But, you know, he's almost 200 pounds.

I think he's closer to 6'4 than he is the bottom of 6'3 at this point. And he can play with a mean streak. So something like that, I think, would be pretty popular in the Rangers system. Philadelphia or Anaheim. We will find out who has picks 31 and 32. Cam, I suppose, will shake being Pat Verbeek or Danny Breyer and just tell me who you'd like to see selected at 31. Best left on your board, your last pick of our mock draft.

Well, I've got to get into character. I need to know. I'm Pat Verbeek, all right? I'm going to picking for the ducks. And I'm giving them to Eric Perez back. Yes, okay. I'll take it. Right.

And I'm sticking with the fans. They want to see that too. yes they do say we're giving them we're giving them paris cac uh you know the kid produced right like as a rookie and prince george like stepping onto a team a juggernaut team but he was like well allow me to just walk in as a first line winger and score 50 goals or nearly um i think he did score 50 uh he's he's really opportunistic the feat aren't maybe elite um but like every time i saw him live i was like like one day he had like five primary points another one where he had the puck like three times and he scored on two of them like it's just like he doesn't need much to

create. And so for the ducks, they're like, oh, we'll take them and off first, and then we'll grab ourselves another potentially high-end winger here with our next first round pick. And one of them's going to work. We know what he's going to. Why didn't he get to major until this year? Or does it matter? Because scouts, there you only have one sort of year against competition they like to measure against Steven. Is it worry or not? Is it a feed issue? Is it late growth? Is it a guy that's late to the sport? What do we know? I don't know who he's too much about his story up to this point. Do you know, Cam, as to why he was playing AAA? Well, he's playing edge.

right. He was playing at the prep school there. And I think like he did have a couple of games in the dub. But, you know, he's not a full late birthday. But I just think that like Prince George is such a strong team that he just didn't have the opportunity to really make that team. They thought that he would be better served playing another year of prep school. And, and, you know, he was like a fourth or a fifth round pick or something in the Western League draft. But he wasn't supposed to be this player. So those guys usually, you know, if you're not, if you're not a first or second round, you're probably not stepping in until you're 17 anyway. So that's kind of what he did. and then he just popped. Okay. Thank you for that. Last pick of the draft goes to Stephen, who is the general manager named Danny Breyer. God bless you, Panthers. Stephen,

take it away our final pick of the mock draft. I will say I've seen him a lot at USA Hockey Arena, and I've noticed him writing on his notebook a bunch of times when Teddy Stiga touches the puck, and I like Teddy Stiga a lot. I have number 17 in my ranking. Wow. Probably higher the most,

but I just love Teddy Stiga. Every team could use a guy like Teddy Stiga. I think the one thing we saw at that U18 tournament in particular was every shift, every first time he hit the ice, he wanted to hit somebody. He wanted to set the tone. And you talked to James Hagen's, the top prospects of 2025 and always pointed it said like this guy does so much for us. Last year, he was a pretty small player, got injured a couple times, just did not look physically up for the challenge. He spent last summer trying to improve that. And he did.

And, you know, he's been touted as a leader by the coaching staff for USA hockey. He's learned to play with that edge. He's not afraid of any physical battle. He can score goals. He can set guys up. And, you know, they bounced around a couple of different linemates there of James Hagenz, including Cole Eisenman. And they played together last year.

But it felt like Higgins was most dangerous when Teddy Stee goes out there. And he brings that energy. He brings that offense. I like him a lot. Amazing. So there it is. number 32, Teddy Stiga, the defender, off to Philadelphia, because of course, of the huge Panthers Cup went, please, please, please, please, please. I'm recording this on Monday.

Fellas, thank you so much for this. Appreciate it very much. If there's one guy left on your board, you just want to love up, maybe some ceiling to chase or a guy that you just have way higher than everyone else. Is there one name you want to throw at us here? I know we heard Hudson's name, but he didn't get picked. That's one defenseman that some people are high on, but there's lots of guys out there at this point. Stephen, you want to go first? I'm going Aaron Kivier, are you? He got hurt at the beginning of the season. I really kind of limited him and then he wasn't great at the U-18s, but we just seen so much promise throughout the years. I swear we heard about him for the first time when he was 11 years old on HF boards. Like that's a name that's been around for a while

because he was playing against older competition. He never really kind of got that big growth spurt. I think a lot of people were hoping for, but he did look physically stronger, and we watched him at the U-18. So we'll see kind of what happens there. A lot of questions for a guy who didn't even play 20 games total this year. But I think what he does with the Pock, the way he moves, there's a lot of upside. Cam, what do you got? I'll stick in Finland and go Emil Hemming, you know, 6-200-pound shooter,

shoot-or-shooter shoot, right? Like the kids in the feet aren't bad, the boots aren't bad. It's the hockey sense and maybe it's not elite, but like the kid knows how to fire the puck for sure and, you know, played 40-odd games. in the league of the season. Play to the world juniors. They're like, be the 13th, 12th, 13th forward and just do simple stuff. Okay.

You know, one of the better players of the UA teams. When he plays in the J20, he's like way over a point of game, almost a goal a game. So, yeah, he's a player that I think that probably has first round Jews for sure. Awesome. Fellas, I want you to plug the work you've got here as we head towards the draft. Both you've done such great stuff. And it's a lot of it's focused on the draft. Cam, I was flipping through the 1900 page.

draft preview you guys will put together you maniacs where do people find it and tell us how in the world you could come up with 1900 pages on this draft class we are nothing if not thorough hey 1900 pages for the draft guide this year we did something fun though we did the light version so that's only 615 pages well god bless you want to print it off right save your pennies and go to staples there and print it off but no it's uh i can't obviously speak highly enough of the draft guide it's our it's our flagship product it is everything you could do that you could do that's you could need and want to know about the draft. We have our little badges telling you if the kids a sniper,

tools, you got that dog in them, shades of where we compare them to players, all the analytics through our manually tracked data from Mitch Brown and Lassie Atlanta. Tons and tons and tons of work graphically, Hans, our graphic guy does just incredible work. And right now, 50% off deal on an EP premium subscription annually, right? That gets you the guide that'll get you the fantasy guide in the fall. It gets you all our written content at ringside, all the advanced stats, filters on elite prospects.

You can't beat that deal right now when it's running. So head over to lead prospects. You'll see the buttons all over the place to click it, sign up, stick around for the year, and we'll keep your on after that. Stephen, you've been the prospect and draft guru at daily faceoff for a while, but you guys have obviously for agency coming up as well. I imagine you're just rammed till Friday here with talking about who might go where. Yeah, drop's going to be fun.

I fly into Vegas Tuesday morning. I'll be there for the entirety of the draft. We're doing a lot of shows, Daily Face Off Live, of course. Morning Cup of Hockey is going to be a lot of shows, as you know, that are going to be there. So it's going to be a lot of fun looking forward to that. I've been doing kind of daily profiles on players every day for a month leading up to the draft. And, you know, it's going to be very exciting when it's over, only to remember there's an overnight flight leading into free agency and it's going to be a pain in the butt, but that's a good time of here.

Yeah, so if you don't melt, we wish you all the best with free agency. Fellas, thank you so much. Appreciate it a ton. I respect the hell out of the work you've both done and Ken. encourage people enough to go check out your work at daily faceoff.com for stephen and delete prospects.com and the rinkside stuff as well for cam robinson. Fellows, a pleasure. Thank you so much. I hope we see you in Vegas. See you there. Absolutely.