The Athletic Hockey Show - Corey’s NHL redrafts: revisiting ’22, ’21, ’20, and ’19

Episode Date: October 20, 2023

Max and Corey revisit NHL Drafts from 2022, 2021, 2020, and 2019 to look at which players have risen or fallen since the day they were picked and discuss why Corey’s adjusted their ranking.Subscribe to The Athletic Hockey Show on YouTube: http://youtube.com/@theathletichockeyshow Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the Athletic Hockey Show Prospect Series. Hey, everybody. Max Poulman here alongside Corey Pronman for another episode of the Athletic Hockey Show's Prospect Series. No Chris Peters today. Bad news for the Chris Peters hive among our listeners. But what we do have is an episode solely devoted to Corey's redrafts. It has been Redraft Week for you on The Athletic This Week, Corey. You've gone and done the past four drafts, 2022, 2021, 2021, 2020, 2019, if my count. I don't think is correct. And we're going to go through them today a little bit.

Some fun trends I think we can hit on. Obviously, the meat of this is we're talking about a prospect ranking, right? It's not so much this team should have done this. It's revisiting what the class looks like one, two, three, four years later. So we can dive right in there. I think it makes the most sense to start with this most recent one. And I was a little surprised that you still have Yerai Slavkovsky as the top player in this class. Well, I think it was close a year ago this time, and I think it's still close.

Like, I'm not sure there's been a player that has so clearly risen above him. And if you've wanted to argue David Yearcheck, if you wanted to argue Logan Cooley or Kevin Korsinski or whoever your favorite prospect is over your Islavkovsky, I think it's reasonable. But we had this argument in the summer when we had the debate episode with Chris Peters and Sky Wheeler about Logan Kooley. Locke and Cooley had a fantastic season in college. It was in college. It was not in the NHL.

Uri Slavkovsky was in the NHL. And I think if you would evaluate the two a year ago before then, Eileen Slavkovsky. So I think this season will be a very interesting debate because Yarichick right now is in the NHL. I thought he looked good in his first game up since Sakharwinsky's injury. So we'll see how he does while he has his opportunity to play. And we'll see how Cooley does.

Very promising start. early on to his NHL career. But I don't see, like, I don't know what Slavkovsky did to, you know, to not be in the conversation at least. He's still, I think that's a fair way to put it. You do have it as a tier, I guess, in fairness. You have a tier of Slavkovsky, Urizek and Kuli at the top. Cooley as number three.

I guess I would have thought that he's the guy who's maybe raised his profile, maybe less about Slavkovsky and certainly not Eurochek. Slepping, Eurochek, obviously is rising here. But to me, at least watching, I feel like my question with Cooley had more to do with what is he going to look like as he translates up levels against bigger, faster players. And it's been really good. And given that, I think that the dynamic. Right, in two games. But even in college last year, too, I think you could say the dynamism you're seeing at the center position, I guess for me, would make Cooley number one.

And he might be number one by this time next year. Like if he continues to look this good over the course of the full season, that might be where I land ultimately when we do this exercise again in a year's time. But for right now, I still think it's really close. You could pick, I think it's a pick. Slefsky's physical toolkit is way above, but obviously Huli's skating and skill are really dynamic. Your check also has a very appealing and at times dynamic toolkit.

So I think all those guys have very reasonable arguments. But again, you know, you have to kind of do the what if, like what us, that Povsky had played college hockey last season. You know, it's, I still think it would, I think it would have been really close. I think he could have had the kind of season that Logan Cooley had. Yeah. To your point, this being the most recent draft, there's probably going to be the least kind of movement here.

We're still seeing a lot of that within the top 10, right? Pavel Minchikov jumps up a couple spots to number eight. Simon Nemich drops a few spots to number seven. But the two guys who I think really maybe kind of standout moves here at 10 and 11, Philip Bistead and Owen Pickering. I'm curious, especially with Bestead, who was a later first round pick, what's kind of driving him up? And obviously, the play on the SHL was really strong last season. Yeah, 6-3 center, skates well, good offensive skills, you know, can score goals, can make plays. I didn't love his compete in his draft year, and that's looked a lot better for me as a pro in the SHL.

he gets to the inside, he wins battles. I think he's going to be a big-time player for their national teams going forward at both the U-20 and the senior level. Might even play senior level this season. He got an invite to the senior team at the end of last season. Just has a lot of the traits that you look for in a true top center prospect.

I'm not saying, I'm not sure the offense is going to be elite to be a true top of the line-up center. But I see him fitting in really well behind Will Smith on a potential sharp. dark's death chart. Yeah, and I think it is something that they're, you know, that draft is going to be obviously a hugely consequential one for San Jose. They make the big, big trade back there. And if they can get the value that it seems like they're going to get out of beast that, that goes a long way to making that a successful draft for them. A couple of guys that kind of fell that I wanted to ask you about,

Denton Matechuk, who I've liked it every time I've seen him, really, he drops pretty substantially in this one for you. Right. And he had a really strong training camp. And there was a lot of a positive thing said about him through his camp process. I tried not to tweak this too much based on training camps. I've been fooled many a times over the years by training camps, and I like to let the full season play really dictate where guys fall on these type of preseason or really early in the season exercises. And Mate Chuck, I thought in his last full WHL season was good, but I didn't think he was

exceptional. I didn't think he was a dominant WHL defenseman. I still think his skating and his skill are standout traits, and he could be that this upcoming year. I think they are hoping he will be the, especially after a strong training camp, that he'll go down on the dump, he'll be a top player, he'll be a top player for Canada's

under 20 team. And I think that's realistic, but he has to get it done still. And I thought watching him last year in the Western League, he looked like just a pretty nice 5-11 defenseman and not a what I thought he could be in a draft year, which was potentially a unique 511 defenseman.

I think he's got to prove that a little bit more over the course of a full year. Yeah, I do like what you say about, you know, not overreacting too much to the early camp. And I imagine that's why Matthew Pwatra's in the 40s here, right? Because based on what we see, he's quick to the NHL, he's made a little bit of an impact, but it's still so early. Oh, yeah, because I think I talked about some episode last week. Like, I've seen Victor Mete do this. Like, I've seen these guys who you think aren't going to make it and then they make it. then two years later, they're a healthy scratch or they're in the American League.

And like I said, everything about Poitris's start has been not just promising, extremely promising. If you're a Bruins fan, you're ecstatic with this camp. You're ecstatic with how his first game or so has went, but he's still a 5-11 mediocre skating forward who's going to have to really prove it game after game, I think, for me to elevate him to being a true top-tier prospect, even if it seems like that's where the trajectory is extremely early into his pro career. Yeah. And I wonder, I don't know if you've gotten much feedback in NHL circles or not from these lists yet. It's obviously they're just coming out this week. Any quibbles with Matthew Savoy at 19? Yeah, no, I don't think so. I think that's kind of the consensus among NHL people.

He didn't have, you know, the year you hoped he would last season. And obviously he got injured in training camps. He didn't get to prove in Sabres camp that that he's taking. taken a step, still a very nice player, but kind of the same analysis as Matechuk, where great skater, great skill, competes well, but for a tiny guy, it's not special traits. You usually associate with a top 10 pick of that frame, and that's something he will need to prove going forward as he does have those special elements in his game that he can show consistently. And then one more guy here that I really think the fan base is going to be keyed in on. I guess I haven't scrolled the comments too in depth here.

But Layton Hudson's a guy who ever since his draft, the arrow's been up, right? I mean, I don't think you're surprised with this based on when he did at the national program. We knew he could, you know, be a dynamic player, but he does it in college. He looked outstanding at the World Junior camps. And I think going into this, a lot of fans are hopeful that he now projects as a top 4D. You've got him here in the mid-20s. I think it's at 25 on this list. What went into the calculus on how to place Lane Hudson?

because I do think that the upside is really evident there. Right, and to your point, we thought he would be a very good college player right away, watching him with the national program. I don't think even some of his biggest fans thought he was going to be this good real quickly. Where you're talking about a guy who was, frankly, a Hobie Baker discussion as a freshman, not the favorite, but a guy who was inserted into the conversation. That was unexpected and how good he was. And then he goes, not only has a good original camp a few months ago, but he has a strong men's world championship as an under 20 player.

So, you know, outstanding hockey sense and skill, a very shifty, elusive player. Hudson, as he was in his draft year, and as his brother Cole will be in this upcoming draft, is a very tough player to debate and remains so in NHL circles. He was a guy who some people thought should have been a first round pick going into his draft. He goes right at the end of the second round. And talking to some NHL scouts a year after that great performance at Boston University, there are some who feel he should have been a first round pick, maybe even a strong first round pick. But there are plenty of NHL people I talk to who still have their doubts,

who still wonder how a tiny defenseman who is not an elite skater and it doesn't have a ton of physicality in his game, is going to translate into the NHL. And some might even say he will play in the NHL, but is he the kind of guy who can elevate in the postseason? Is he the kind of guy who could be a premium player, or is he going to be the kind of player who you're going to need to shelter? I think those questions are remaining in some capacity.

I kind of in the middle, I think there is some translatability questions still that keep me from saying he's among, you know, the premier defense prospects outside the NHL. But I think there is definitely something different about this player. This is not just your standard small, pretty skilled defenseman. He's got some pretty elite traits in his game that makes me think it will translate, that he will be a good NHL player.

But I probably need to see more still at the highest levels, be at college, senior level, maybe even the world juniors, to be confident that he should be, you know, he's called a top 10, top 15 pick caliber prospect. All right, let's get into 2021 now, Corey. And really, the names in the top four here for you are the names that went in the top four. But a little bit different order.

Maddie Baneers at number one. Luke Hughes at number two in a tier of kind of their own in the bubble elite NHL and NHL All-Star tier for you. How did you kind of parse that against Owen Power and Mason McTavish? And especially, you know, Hughes so new into the NHL as opposed to power, a little more track record. Right. If it doesn't translate, Egg will be on my face a year from now, given that Owen power, it looks like a star and just got paid like a star. But, you know, with Hughes, and I just think the traits are just off the chart with how good a skater is at that size. And I think he's

can get plenty of power by opportunity. And I think he's got that offensive ability to produce. in the NHL right away. I think it will translate right away in a significant way, but obviously if it doesn't, that ranking will look extremely aggressive. But I think those four guys, I think you really could argue those four guys in any order. Maybe McTavish can't get up to one reasonably at this stage,

but I think you can put those four guys in almost any order, and I wouldn't quibble too much. Yeah, and McTavish, a little bit of a validation. He was kind of the late-rising name in that class. It felt like after the U-18 world, his star really ticked up. So a little bit of validation there for him to be in that group. Another guy who ticked up after that U-18 Worlds,

and clearly not high enough. Wyatt Johnson ends up going, I believe, 23rd in this class. You have him in a tier of his own at number five in this one on the redraft. And what's important to remember with McTavish, but especially with Wyatt Johnson, was that was the COVID draft. That was the year of the stops and the starts and the OHL doesn't play, and the WHL plays like their bubble season.

and the Q pauses, the leagues in Europe take mid-year pauses. It was a really chaotic year to scout players. And Mason McTavish plays his year in the Swiss second-tier pro league, and then he goes to the U-18s. And Wyatt Johnson doesn't play at all. That U-18 world where he doesn't get power play time, despite being an offensive guy, a power play guy coming up through the years, including at the U-17 Challenge,

including with Windsor as an underage player. he doesn't get that offensive opportunity with Team Canada and his only hockey he plays all season. And that was just such an interesting draft to look back on given that context. And seeing why Johnson ultimately ended up becoming, which it looks like an extremely important young player right now for the Dallas Stars future, a guy with elite, in my opinion, offensive hockey sense and creativity, and somebody who would expect will put up a lot of points in the NHL. We've heard so much in the past couple years about the Dallas draft that landed them, Mero Heskin and Jason Robertson and Jake Ottinger.

In this 2021 class, they already have two guys in your top 10 here because not only is Johnson at 5, Logan Stankovin is clocking it at 9 for you. And really, he's one of two second round guys who worked their way into the top 10 here for you. Matthew Nyes is at number 8. Stankovins at number 9. They surpassed kind of Dylan Genther, Cole Sillinger in your rankings. in a different tier even from those guys here, a half a tier for you.

I thought that placement was really interesting to see those second rounders work up into the top 10. Sure, and obviously they haven't played a ton of pro hockey. I mean, I've played a little bit towards the end of the season. So there's always that calculation you have to make about what you've seen from Cylinder as a pro, for example, even though there was a tough year last year, he's still only a teenager in pro hockey. So you've got to think about more projection looking at the traits, the body, the skating, the skill. thinking about what he'll be in three, five years. But comparing that to guys like Logan Stankover and Matt Nyes.

And I think Logan Stankovin, despite his diminutive frame, for me, every time I've watched him for years now, stands out. He is an impactful small player with outstanding skating and offensive skills and competitiveness. And he's a guy who I think would have made the Dallas Stars roster if they didn't have the death chart and the CAF situation they had right now. His camp was that good. And so I don't have much reservations putting him there. Like, I understand, especially if you compare it to, like, to Dylan Gainther, who was a top 10 pick, Western League player, you can quibble, like, but I don't know, I've watched both of those players play in the Western League.

I have watched them be on Team Canada together. And I would say Stan Kovin has been just as good if time's not better. So I, and I understand there's a massive size difference there, but I think Stan Kovin skates better, I think he competes better. so I don't think it's unreasonable to at least suggest they're close. Maybe you prefer one or the other. And maybe comparing Matt Nyes to like Sillinger, I see the big body average skating comparison there.

I think Nyes is bigger. And I think his compete is as high doesn't. He doesn't have the killer in him the Sillinger has, but I think his compete is really good. He's excellent in the high percentage areas. And I just think his game's really going to translate, Even though I know the first game or two of Toronto, I don't think he's like stood out, but I think he's going to be just fine in the NHL.

Yeah. When we were in the 2022 segment, you kind of talked about, you know, not getting fooled by training camp. I wanted to see a little bit longer of a run before you elevated some of these guys from the second round and beyond up really, really high. And I think JJ Moser is a great example of, you know, he is now a guy who has a full year and a half under his belt here. He was in the NHL for half the season after he was drafted.

that he plays the full year last year, puts up 30 points on the blue line for Arizona. And he has now clearly cleared that bar for you as checking in. I think he's at number 16 for you. Right. And he was drafted as a reentry eligible when Arizona took him out of the Swiss League, comes into the American League and is excellent right away, gets to the NHL. And there are some people who look at his performance and wonder, is this a guy who was just playing a lot because Arizona doesn't have a great team?

And I get that argument to an extent, but you still have to produce when you get those opportunities. And if you don't, those minutes will be taken away from you. So I don't, you know, JJ Moser's average size, don't think his skating's amazing. So I don't, despite his great numbers early on the NHL career, I don't look at this guy who's going to be a true top pair guy when Arizona is trying to win. You'll compare his toolkit to say, Dimitri Simechiev. Demetri Simechov looks the part more of a premier defenseman in the NHL. But I think J.J. Moser is super smart. He competes well. And he looks like a guy who could be a really nice second pair guy when Arizona is trying to win. And getting that guy in the late second round is a massive win. Absolutely. Another guy, this guy was kind of the story of that draft at the time of it, of the wow, did you see this coming? Tyler Boucher at the time goes to Ottawa. I believe he was the 10th pick. He clocks in for you at number 31 here. So it is a little bit of the, anticipated spot in the redraft.

But what have you thought of Boucher's arc since he was drafted? Well, I thought Boucher was a good player when they drafted him, and I've still maintained ever since they drafted him that he is of good to, if not at times, looks like a very good player. His health has been a major issue. I think if he was consistently healthy, he could be a little bit higher on this ranking. But, like, he's a good skater. He has skill, extremely physical and competitive, can score goals. I don't think he's a natural offensive guy, but I think there is secondary NHL offense in his game.

I think with Bush, they chased a player type when they took him. They wanted to get the super physical winger who would add a particular element to their lineup, which I understood. And I said at the time, and I maintained now, if you would have taken that player at 20, no issues. Even at like 17 or whatever, like a little high, but it would have been okay. I just thought where they went to go get him at 10, it was a little aggressive. At 10th overall, that's the kind of area in the draft where you need to get a top 6 forward. Like he needs to be a legit high in the lineup guy for you because there's only so few of those guys in a draft.

And they usually all go in the top 10 to 15 picks. But then once you get past that group, you kind of pick your flavor a little bit. And of course, Ottawa's argument would have been they didn't have the 17th pick. They didn't have the 20th pick. They had the 10th pick and they liked the guy, right? Yep. And I understand that argument. You got to take the guy as you like, but I just felt it was a little aggressive for the player.

But while still admitting then and now, he is a good hockey player. Yeah, absolutely. All right. All right. Let's take a quick break right. We'll be right back. We're going to do 2020 here now. And we just finished the segment talking about Ottawa and the Tyler Boucher pick.

And did they maybe reach a little bit there? This will be the relief for senators' fans. who listened to that one and maybe getting a little riled up because you've got their two guys from this class, Tim Stutzler and Jake Sanderson, as the two best players in this class, which is great and it's even better considering they didn't have the first or the second pick. They were picking at number three and five and they come out with two years later, three years later, the guys who look like the two top players in the class. At premium positions, too, a legitimate star first line center, a guy who looks like he has

a really good chance to be a legitimate number one star defenseman. Like that, like those are the kind of guys you can build a contender around, frankly. Yeah, and I think Stutzelah continues to climb. You see the kind of leaps that Jack Hughes has taken as he got into the league a little bit more. And he becomes that 99 point player last season. He looks like he might very well be a 100 point player this year. And you wonder, like, what is in store for Tim Stutzler, who has a little bit more size to him than Hughes did, does? And it was already a 90 point player.

Would it shock you if Timmy Stutzler is in the Hart Trophy conversation with him? next year or two? It would not. No, I think he has those kind of traits. I think his game is just so good in so many elements. He leads skater, elite skill. He competes his butt off. I mean, you can score goals. He's just an outstanding hockey player who it's interesting looking back on this draft and you could have, you know, gone back. There were a lot of arguments between him and Quentin Byfield at two. There were minority opinions in the league that had him at one over Alexei left for a year. But now only a couple of short years. later. It's not that he's the best player in the draft. It's that he's the best player in the draft,

in my opinion, by a country mile. Like the next best player who is Jake Sanderson, who I love, and Anton Lindell, who I love, they're not even close to him as a hockey player, in my opinion. It's a tier and a half to use your scale that you use it on. You go elite, All-Star, and then you get to the next as Jake Sanderson is Bubble NHL All-Star at top of the lineup. So that does drive home that point to that game. You talked about the comparisons against Byfield. And I would like to talk about Lefrenier and Byfield in a second here, but they get jumped by a few different players.

And the next two players right after Stutzin-Sanderson are actually Anton Lindell and Alexander Nikitian. It kind of repeats that premium position vibe. Yes, we haven't seen Nikitian yet in the NHL, but what he's doing in the KHL has to give a ton of confidence as to where it's going to project. Yeah, like I said, not in the NHL yet, but when you're a 21-year-old defenseman in the KHL, who's six-four, who's skis. well, who is extremely physical,

who leads all defensemen and scoring. I feel like I can sit here and rather easily say that I think he will be a very good NHL player. Will he be this good? We'll see when he gets there. It still has to translate

and he has to prove it on NHL ice. But given everything he's accomplished and all the great attributes he has in his game, I feel pretty at ease putting him very high among this age group. So this is going to be a Captain hindsight question here because Dekeesion was not on really my radar in his draft year. I look back now and I see a six-foot-three, six-foot-four defenseman who played 29 KHL games.

And I wonder, like, what was it that led him to fall into the third round to be available there? There were two things. One was an offense question. He definitely has developed way more offense. People saw the size, the skating, the physicality when he was draft eligible. And he also was a player who there were medical. questions on. And being a player in Russia, and ever in that year, there was no combine that year because of COVID. So there was no way to examine the players. So that was an issue as well.

So there was a medical question. There was an offense question, and thus he ended up going in the third round. All right. Yeah. Plus being a Russian. Right. For sure. Always a factor, especially these last couple seasons. Let's get now to Lafranier and Bifield. They come in at number eight and nine. And I think for as much as the hype was with Lefrenier and the natural kind of rebound from that as that has maybe materialized, you still have both of these guys as top ten players in this class. Yeah, they're really important players for their NHL teams right now. Quentin Byfield's playing a huge role on the Los Angeles Kings that have legitimate contending aspirations this season. Leffronier has been kind of like in this quandary in New York where they play them a lot,

but they have some really, really good forwards on that team and a really good. good power play and it's been hard for him to get those premium opportunities, but he's still a guy who's extremely talented and produced as well. His skating has held him back from being a true premier talent in the NHL, but I still think he's an excellent player. But he's an excellent player and that I think he could be, you know, a 50 point guy, a 60 point guy at the top of his game, not maybe that 90 or 80 point guy you were hoping when you took him 1-1. Yeah, absolutely. And so that's where he falls behind kind of the Raymond's, the Quinn's, even Doss. Mercer who kind of has that additional really, really hard element to him.

But you just see that maybe they're all in the same tier, but you see maybe the little bit extra juice so far from those top few guys. Right. Especially guys like Raymond and Quinn, where the offense, you know, has translated a little bit more quickly. And both of them aren't amazing skaters either, like Lefrennir, but you just seen when you've seen guys like Quinn and Raymond in the NHL that they've been able to kind of show the puck game and the offensive creativity a little bit more consistently.

and I've had more opportunity too, quite frankly. Yeah, and Raymond off to a really good start so far this year for Detroit. We talked about one of the surprises from the 2021 draft in Boucher, but no comparison to what the surprise was in the 2020 draft when the Blue Jackets took Igor Chinikov. This was the guy that had some of the on-air analysts checking their notes to make sure they had something on this guy. And while I can't say, you know, three years later that that turned out to be far in a way

like the best pick Columbus could have made. It looks very much like a reasonable par value pick here based on your redraft because you've got Chinikov right there at 31. Yeah, you go into it's a little bit higher than that on draft day. And such unique circumstances, the COVID drafts being 2020-21, led to very unique circumstances at the draft, where this draft took place in October, so that KHL season had already started for a few weeks.

And Chinikov, who at the time was a second year eligible, but he is somewhat technically entering his third draft eligible season, came out of the gates flying in the KHL with Avengarde, produced at a really significant rate for a teenager, looked really strong, and Columbus ends up taking him in the first round after this guy had already gone through a draft. And I had heard some buzz on his name before COVID even happened.

Central Highman has a B-rated player, second, third-round range player. And then he had that really hot start. You thought, oh, hey, he might be a second round pick. And then you hear his name go in the first round. And that pick is aged fine. Like, Chandikov has had some good NHL flashes. His skating is good enough.

I don't want to call it a high-end skating, but it's good enough. He's skilled. He can shoot the puck really well. I just don't know if he is a really distinctive goal-scoring winger, as opposed to just, you know, more of your more routine middle-six type of player. but that player still is a reasonable first round pick. Yeah. All right.

Let's go to 2019 now. And the farther back we get kind of conversely, there's less movement at the more recent drafts. And when we get to 2019, it's almost less shocking because we've seen this play out over three or four seasons in some cases in the NHL. Obviously, no shock. Jack Hughes, number one here. And we kind of know from your U23 rankings in the summer that you have Dylan Cous and Trevor Zegris in that next group. I'm still a little surprised about more at Sider behind Cole Cawfield and not with in that Cousin Zegris tier, wherever you might have ordered it. What is it that kind of drives home Cawfield for you as being above Cider?

I know it's at the same tier. Yeah, and they're so close. And you can have some quibbles, you know, and obviously Siders off, this is kind of a tough thing about doing this exercise in mid-October's in mid-September, because Siders off to a very strong start to the season right now. And there's maybe some recency bias and make you, and these arguments. or happened in the summer two, so it's not recently biased versus cider. But you're like, oh, maybe he should have been higher. Maybe he is two, three, or four.

And maybe you asked me to do exercise again in six months from now. I'll change my mind again, as I've changed my mind probably every six to 12 months in terms of what order these players should be in. But I just think, you know, as I've always felt with Cole Coffield, I just think there's a special element to this player, that I just think his skill and his goal scoring ability are among, you know, the best I've seen over the last 10 or so years. and with that being said, he's still tiny and a non-eatelite skater

and there are reasons he did not go top five and there are some people in the NHL who even see what he does and have some skepticism about whether it will lead into postseason success. But I just think Sider is a great player.

He has all the traits you want. But if I had to pick him to two of them, I just lean Cawfield because I just think what he can do and the way he does it is very unique and it's hard to think of even on one other player in the NHL who looks like him. I can do some of the things he can do with the puck.

One of the things that jumped right out to me with this one was this was the year that Ottawa did not have their first round pick. They lost it in the Matthew Shane trade and they kind of decided to keep it the year before. They take Brady Gitchuk looks obviously like the right decision. And even more so because while they lost out on the fourth pick, which became Bowen-Byrum in this draft, they get Shane Pinto with their first pick of the second round, and he is now a top 10 player in this class for you. Right, which makes it even more interesting, given that as we record this, he's currently unsigned.

And it just shows how it's so, like, I understand salary cap, negotiators, et cetera. It's so strange to me that we sit here, this guy's unsigned, because he's such an important player to this team. And this is a team that's trying to make the play. playoffs this year. And I like this team. They're a good team, especially with Pinto and Josh Norris in the lineup. I think Ottawa can be a really good team this season. And Pinto, you know, not the foot speed lowered him a little bit to the second round in his draft year, but, you know, he's got

offense. He competes well. He gets to the hard areas. You know, he's got a goal scoring touch. Like, a really nice centerman. You just got to get this guy signed. Yeah. Absolutely. And I think they have the luxury a little bit that they're surviving without him. And obviously, I think that Josh Norris injury troubles kind of maybe up the urgency a little bit. But the end of the day, you look at Ottawa and the way they're set up to have Stutzler, Norris, Pinto. They've come out of this in a really great spot in the center position. Well, you mentioned that fourth pick they lost too. You really look back at this draft.

You know, you never know how draft classes are going to age over time, how the depth's going to look, where the talent drop-ups are going to be. even though I think you look at a lot of these drafts and the talent drop-offs tend to happen roughly around the same spot. I think we noted before we started recording that three of these four draft classes, it just happened to work out coincidentally that I thought the top tier all spanned 15 players in three of the four draft classes, 2020 being the exception. But if you look at this draft class in particular, there was exceptional talent to be had

in this draft. Now, they didn't all go in the top five picks, but there were, I think I had seven, you know, legitimate franchise talents. Now, at least now I have not the time, but now I have that rated in this draft, that there were seven, you know, legitimate franchise talents to be had in the 2019 draft. And if you had an opportunity to get one of them and you didn't, it does hurt a little bit. Yeah, it takes back, we have the conversation about kind of deep draft. all the time. And I remember at one point you had asked me, you know, do I think the 2019 draft was deep? And I immediately was like, oh, absolutely, because you're thinking of, well, Cole Cawfield went at 14 and Matt Boldy made it, you know, as far as he did. But you look back at this now and we are

talking about, you know, Shane Pinto, who's a really good player, but he's the ninth player in this class here. Now, Philip Broberg, I think we're still waiting to see really, really deliver on his, on his ability. He's at 11. Arthur Calli of went in the second round. He's at 13 and not like a huge, piece by any means. He's a really good player, but not a franchise kind of piece. We're talking about him at 13 in this redraft. It's interesting. You go into the 20s and there are guys who are frankly not even NHL regulars yet. Right. Elmer Soder Blum's in there. Peyton Krebs, I think is kind of established himself as that. But yeah, you're right. Nolan Foote, Jordan Spence. He goes, he's gone from fourth line up down a little bit. Like, you know, it's a lot of those type

of players. Yeah. And I think it's, where it takes me is I think you kind of mentioned, it with where the kind of drop-off is. But I think when fan bases especially go into a draft and they're thinking, okay, we got the 17th pick, that should be like this kind of player. And I think we could just go through and look at that. 17 and 2019 was Phil Tomasino in on the redraft. In 2020, it's Yarroslav Askerov. So maybe that is the actual kind of deep, deep draft here.

2021's Cole Sillinger, Yoh Kim Kamele at 17 and that one. That's still pretty solid. And then you drop it off to just. 19 or 20 or 21, it's a different kind of player. At 20, you're talking about Chas Lucius, Dylan Holloway, Peyton Krebs, and Rucker McGority. I mean, if I gave you one and four of those over under, one and a half of those are going to be top six players, what you take over under?

It's close, right? It's close to a push, frankly. Yeah. So if you're picking, you know, it can be a huge difference picking 15, 16, 17, 17 to 20 in what you can expect out of a draft class, I guess is the point I'm making. Yeah, I think they tend to have a lot of similarities year over year. I always tend to say most draft classes are the same, and when I hear pre-draft buzz that this draft is deep or whatever,

it's always that this draft is deep. Nobody ever says this draft sucks. But whenever I always tend to presume the draft is going to be the same as all other drafts unless I have overwhelming evidence of the contrary. And even though 2019 ended up being an extremely, deep top of the draft, you can argue the body of the draft actually was quite overwhelming. Yeah.

And it shows because you get to the place in your tiers where it's just projected to play at HL games, which is not the most – it's certainly not a bad thing, but it's not the most ringing endorsement either. You're getting there in the early 30s every single year. More or less. Yes. All right. That's going to do it for us today.

Great stuff, Corey. Make sure you get on to The Athletic to read all those articles from Corey. And thanks for listening to this episode of the episode of the episode. athletic hockey show prospect series. Follow us on YouTube at YouTube.com slash at the athletic hockey show. We're going to be live streamed in at least three episodes a week, plus a bunch of other content.

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