The Athletic Hockey Show - NHL Draft first round recap: Schaefer headlines pivotal day for Islanders

Episode Date: June 28, 2025

With the first round of this year’s NHL Draft now in the books, the guys recap all the action and discuss an impressive haul for the Isles, the expected run on centers, Philly prioritizing size up front, the Penguins’ maneuvering, goalies Pyotr Andreyanov and Joshua Ravensbergen, and more.Hosts: Max Bultman and Corey PronmanWith: Scott Wheeler and FloHockey’s Chris PetersExecutive Producer: Chris FlanneryProducer: Chris Flannery Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the Athletic Hockey Show Prospect Series. Hey, everybody, Max Bolman here alongside Scott Wheeler and Corey Prondman. In the first round of the 2025, NHL draft, is in the books. It was a really exciting day for a lot of reasons, but no more than for the New York Islanders. It's a very eventful day. It seemed like it could have been more eventful at one point, Corey. But they come away with three picks in the top 17 after trading away Noah Dobbson early in the day. And it's a hall.

It's Matthew Schaefer. It's Victor Eklund. it's Kayshaw and Aitchison. What do you make of what the Islanders did today? So there's a lot of perspective to the Islanders day because on a draft front, it's a tremendous draft hall for them. They get the best player in the draft in Matthew Schaefer. They don't overthink that one.

They got for me a top 10 talent in this draft in Victor Eklund, who slid due to his size. Although, as I said before, I found it strange how he's a player who size is an issue. But he's hyper competitive and a great talent. But Brady Martin, who is an inch taller, there seems to be no issues on that. And he goes five. Kishana Aitchison, as we've documented before, I'm a huge fan up. I think it could be really hard to play against top four defensemen in the NHL.

I love the draft hall for them. I mean, I can't imagine there's any scenario in which they won't get my top draft grade just based on the amount of talent they're bringing into the organization today. And we'll have some more picks tomorrow. That being said, now you look at this in the context of the, direction of the organization. And I think there's been a few years here where they've kind of seemed directionless, where they've been a decent team. You kind of wonder, like, are they fighting for the eight or the seventh seed here? I know they had a couple of deep playoff runs

a couple of years ago. It kind of seemed a little fluky when they did it to be quite honest. And you wonder, are they rebuilding right now? Because, you know, you look at what Noah Dobbs and ultimately signed for in Montreal. I know we had a downy. and his defense and his hardness is a question. But, you know, in this rising cap environment, I don't think the number he got, you know, you could argue, should have been half a million, a million less, whatever. It doesn't seem like it's like outlandish.

And it seems like they had the room to do this. So it's just, there's an organization that's tearing down right now. Because if so, they had, it's, it's going to take a long time for them to get back to being a contending team. And then obviously the, the Hagen's nonsense, which I wrote about today, I just think if there was any actual attempt just to go get him, unless they actually did think he was like one of the top three or four players in this draft,

and that's where they had him rated honestly on talent. Like the moving heaven and nerve to get him just never made any sense to me. I think it's kind of ridiculous, but at the end of the day, they got great players. And I think if you're an Islander's fan, you are tepidly happy in that, your system looks really promising, and Schaefer's could be a star, but your NHL team next season is objectively much worse. Yeah, always a good thing, Scott, to come out of a draft and have what very well could be your entire left side of a top four for the next decade in a couple of years.

Yeah, and I believe that's three players who were in both Corey and I's top 15, and yet two of the picks that they selected those players with weren't top 15 picks. Now, they were the very next two picks, but I think Corey and I both agree on the value on all three of those players. We all had them similarly rated. I think they could be sort of identity papers as well in terms of what Schaefer represents as a kid, the way that he carries himself, talk of him being a future captain. And then on the flip side of it, just the sheer competitiveness of Victor Eklickland and Kishon, Acheson, two of the, I don't know, three or four or five most competitive players in this draft class. You can start to see it now with Kalim Richie and Coal Iserman a year ago.

And they've been for a long time, not just sort of directionless at the NHL level, but weak within their pool in terms of just the collection of talent, really going back to when Dobson obviously was a prospect. I like the vision, though. I like, if they're committing to a rebuild, I think they need to lean in. Like, I think you have to consider Sorokin and Barzell and Bo Horvad. And I know that's scary for Islanders fans to hear. But I think if you're going to do it, they should probably do it.

None of those three players are getting any younger. None of them will be around when the players that they took today are making a significant impact at the NHL level, maybe outside of Schaefer. So they've got some hard decisions to make, even post-Dobson. but as far as the three players they took tonight, I think it's a really, really good head start. It was as expected right after Schaefer, a run-on centers, right? We get the answer to the question from San Jose, Misa or Frundel, it's Misa, and then it goes, Frondell, Denoyet, Brady Martin at five, Corey.

And then we finally get some answers to some, Porter Merton does disrupt the run at six, but we get some answers to some of our biggest questions, right? Where's James Hagan's going to fall? The answer was Boston. Where's Roger McQueen going to go? number 10 to Anheim. He ends the night at Disney World. How about that? The run-on centers delivered, as we thought, maybe not in the exact order, but all the same players went right in that

range. Yeah, McQueen is the most fascinating in that I think when we talked about him on the previous episode, we discussed how we think the way a team will approach this is they will put him at the bottom of their group. And when the rest of the players in that top group are gone, that's typically how when teams approach the situation, presuming their doctors have cleared the player. And that's probably what happened with Anaheim. I don't know their list, but I'm going to guess like a lot of us, they had a big group of those forwards in their top group. And then they probably had McQueen as not their favorite option, but he's probably the guy, you know, we go to if we don't want to go and take a significant drop in talent. Higgins to Boston was never really a scenario

I envisioned, quite frankly. I think Scott mentioned it on his mock. So credit to him on that front, I never thought that was going to be a direction they went in. But I think he becomes the clear best player for them, you know, in their system and, you know, his skating, his skill, his hockey sense are great. And, you know, I think he got beat up a lot in this pre-draft process

and, like, probably unfairly. to an extent. Like I think all the teams right around that Boston pick were strongly considering him with their next pick. And, you know, he has some imperfections in his game. You can play a little bit harder sometimes. He can maybe, you know, try to get to the middle of the ice a little bit more consistently, but he's dynamic.

And I think at 7, if you're Boston, you're very happy. And mentioned Brady Martin. We discussed him a lot in the last episode. That was high for me. I struggle with that one and not that I don't think he's a great kid and a great player I just think like the compete and the physicality are special

the skating, the hockey sense the pure physical frame of his nothing there is really high in to justify I'm going at five were you considering the alternative options maybe I'm wrong I just kind of felt like Barry Trott's just chase compete level there

at five, but we'll see how that age is. Think about some of the Islanders teams that Trots had his most success with, though. There's a lot of guys like Brady Martin on those teams to model after he may not be quite as big as Brock Nelson or Anders Lee, but it would be understandable enough to go, these are the exact kind of guys that he made those deep runs with that he pushed those Tampa teams with. I understand, and I understand that's his mentality. It's why I projected Martin at five to them.

it's not surprised by it. I don't think it's crazy. I just disagree. And I think there were notably better options on the board. You look at their pool, too, whether it's Igor Surin a year ago or Zachary, Zachary Laru, like they have that ultra competitive identity steeped into a lot of their young players. It's clearly been a focus for their amateur scouting department even before Barry Trots was at the helm there. But I wonder now is, what I wonder now is, though, is five, ten years from now, what if they're in a situation where they have a bunch of those guys and they're a very competitive team and they're a playoff team?

And yet the one thing they're missing is still the thing that they have always missed as an organization, which is the premium high end, high skill, game breaking talent at the top of their lineup. up. And if Porter Martone or James Higgins or Roger McQueen or whoever who went in that sort of six to 10 range becomes that you might wonder about that Brady Martin pick. And even if Brady Martin is impactful, everything that you think Brady Martin can be at five, even if he hits, I still think there's some risk that he doesn't elevate the ceiling of the predators to where they need to get it in terms of just desperately needing that that next player to follow Philip Forsberg as kind of a premium guy in the league. All right.

Well, let's talk about the one team in that run that did not take a center. And that's the Philadelphia Flyers. They did not take a center at six, I should say. They had one of the more interesting drafts of the Knights, Scott. So they take Porter Martone at six, then they trade back up to number 12 and take Jack Nesbit. There's your center. it's kind of feeling like the flyers kind of got some of that what you typically think of as flyers profile

back into their system after a run. We had talked about how they were getting a little small. Would they do it again? Would they double down on it by taking a Hagen's? The answer is they take an extremely skilled big winger in Martone and a tough middle six type of center in Jack Nesbitt. Yeah, I think about it in two ways. They checked the size box,

and I do think it was important that they go out and do that. their pool and their organization was such that I think this was an important draft for them to address the lack of size within the organization. Obviously, in Nesbit and Martone, you've got two kids who immediately add that. In Nesbit, you also fill a need at center within the prospect pool that you didn't address by taking Porter Martone. I love the Porter Martone pick. I know that fans are desperate there, even after taking Jett Luchenko a year ago for that sort of that potential one C of the future or even a high end two C of the future. future there and they still might not have that in both Jetluchenko and in Jack Nesbit.

But I do not fault them, if you will, for the decision to take Martone. I think Martone was right in the conversation as the very best prospect in the draft there. And I mean, I had them in front of six on my list. So no issues there. I don't love the decision to then chase the center in Nesbit at 12. I like Jack Nesbit. I like the size and what he adds to the organization from that standpoint. He's got some skill.

He's got some hardness, as you mentioned, drop the gloves a bunch of times this year, more room to get even stronger. He's going to be a big man. He's going to be a lot to handle. He can protect the puck. He's shown flashes of real skill. But the feet worry me. And I don't know whether at 12, for the second year in a row at 12,

whether targeting a middle six center is the play for an organization that needs to to really take a swing at some point on someone who isn't Porter Martona or Matt Veit Mischkov, who we all agree are phenomenal talents. What's interesting, Corey, is 22, which is where the Flyers traded up from, is more like in the range that I think we had Jack Nesbitt, at least when we were discussing him, but I know you felt coming in to this draft that Nesbitt was a guy who could go higher than maybe we had been mocking him for months, really, and have a potential to go. Clearly, Philly felt the same that he had potential to go on the top 15.

They had to go up and get him. Yeah, I had him projected at 15 in my final mock draft. I thought that's where the league had him. That's where I had him. I agree to taking Porter Martone there. I thought the gap from him to the next best center, be it James Hagen's or Jake O'Brien. I thought it wasn't a giant gap, but I thought there was a gap. I thought he was the clear best player available at that spot.

I do get the reservations, even to get your potential first-line center of the future. I don't know if either Hagen's or O'Brien are first-line centers. They might be. They might not be. I think Hagen's has the best shot, but I don't think it's a, you know, I do think Mark Toll has a chance to be a really valuable first-line winger who can be hard to play against. And so I understand that. Nesbit, I had him rated in that range. I don't know if I would have traded up to go get him.

I don't like value him to that extent. But I understand Philly's perspective that they know they needed a center. And they valued this player. Daniel Breyer was quote afterwards saying they think he'd be a second line center. I agree with that projection. I think he's very skilled. He's very physical. He's, you know, nearly six foot five.

The skating's kind of poor. but I get the appeal there. And again, I think they probably overpaid to get up to that spot. But I have no issues taking him at that spot. I think he's a good player. And, you know, centers and D go quickly. I think you look at the top 15 or 16 spots in this draft. Out of the side of three players, Martone, Carter Bear, and Ben Kindle,

pretty much everybody was a center or defenseman. All right. Let's take a quick break right there. Chris Peters is going to join us after the break. We got a few more things to talk about. All right, we're back and we are joined now by Flow Hockey's Chris Peters. Thank you for joining us, Chris. Chris was hard at work ground in the Midnight Oil, so we do really appreciate it.

We're going to start here. We left off in the first half talking about the Philadelphia Flyers and trading up for Jack Nesbitt. And the reason they were able to do that is because the penguins traded out of that pick at number 12. So they come into this, and a week ago, they had just number 11. then the Rangers decided to give up the 12th pick. Penguins have the back-to-back picks. We're all very interested. What are they going to do there?

The answer, Scott, turns out to be they're going to pick at 11, and they're going to pick Ben Kendall. They're going to trade out of 12, then they're going to move back to have 22 and 31. Then they're going to move up from 31, so that they have 22 and 24. And at those picks, they take Bill Zonan and Will Horikoff. You still with me? What did you think of their night? Can you say that again?

No, it's, I thought they outsmarted them. a little bit. I thought they got too cute with the whole process. And that's often what seems to happen when teams have, whether it's back-to-back picks or multiple picks inside the first round, I think there's always a bit of a danger of that. Then you throw in that, that sort of Kyle Dubus eagerness or at least openness to constantly moving around, to constantly moving back. He did it in Toronto for years. I don't think any team moved back in the draft more often than the Leafs did under Kyle. But this year, I thought they got a little carried away with it and then a little carried

away with the players that they actually chose in the slots that they did. I think you could have moved back from 11 and still got Ben Kindle. So A, they must absolutely love Ben Kindle that they weren't even willing to take the chance on moving back and trying to get him at 20 or 21 or 22, where they ultimately moved back and got Bill Zonan. There are people in Bill Zonan's camp who were surprised that he went at 22. They told me coming in that they were just hoping that he was going to be a round one pick in this draft. And I think they were expecting closer to 32 than 22 if he was around one pick.

Will Khorkov was kind of always going. We've talked about Will on the podcast, but Will was kind of always going to go in the late first. I think that was the range that most projected him to go. I know he has some doubters around the league as well, but even that feels a little high to me based off of what Will's season looked like, even if you thought that his best hockey was in the second half at Michigan and into U18 worlds and that that's the real Will Horcalf. There has still been a lot of other Will Horcoff hockey over the last couple of years

that didn't indicate to me that he was a first round pick. I like Bill Zonan. I've got a lot of time for Ben Kindle, but I felt I was high on Ben Kindle going into draft night, and I had Kindle 21st, and they took him 11. So, yeah, it just felt like I think they got a little carried away. They clearly have, you can never fault Wes Clark and Kyle for the type and the identity of the player that they have.

I think Zonin and Kindle in particular really fit the type of player that they've targeted for years together. But I felt that they could have maybe got all three of those players lower than they did. and that they left some value on the table. And you can't really afford to leave value on the table when you're an organization that has so little in terms of the prospect pool. If I could kind of try to rationalize this here, right?

So we talked about some of the players that we thought the penguins might even want to trade up for, right? We talked about it. But by the time Porter-Mortone's off the board there, you have to kind of create a new strategy if you're that. We talked on the last pod, like that this regime inherited a system that was paying the price for a long stretch of chasing greatness with the Pittsburgh Penguins.

They needed an infusion. And what they got here is three first round picks. And you can quibble, you know, the spots, whatever. But at the end of the day, like Ben Kindle led WHL draft eligibles in scoring this year, Corey. And I know that scoring is not the only thing that matters here. But maybe we shouldn't have been quite so surprised to hear his name called where it was. His production level, frankly, was pretty close to Carter Bear who went two picks later. Yeah, the difference being there is that bears what two inches taller.

And I would just say it's a little bit more of a natural score. It probably has a little bit more tenacity in his game overall, too. I think those profiles are a little different. I think Kindle's argument is the only argument, and I've been sending a lot of messages around the league on this, and the responses that have been coming back were we would have taken him around 20. we would, the high end is taking around 15 and I've talked to people who have should have struggled to take him, you know, in the first round or even high in the second round.

Like, I think that was the range of opinions. I think if you believe the skill is like high, high end and the hockey sense is high, high, and you think he's not physical, but he'll work, he works hard, he works hard. Like, you can, you can wrap your head around the argument that he could be a top six forward in the NHL, like, I don't think the player comp is similar because, like, I think this player's more of a score and Ben's more of a playmaker, but like, you think of like where Matt

Coronado went in his draft year, like top 15, like you can kind of draw the line there a little bit. I don't know if I would draw that line, just, but, and I currently don't have it rated that way. I struggle with this one. That was one where I just, I just didn't see when a 5-10 guy goes in the first round high, you usually think, well, there's some special characteristics there.

When you watch Victor Ecklin, you saw it special characteristics. I don't know if I ever watched Kindle that I ever got the special small guy vibes from him. And maybe we're wrong. Maybe Pittsburgh's right. Time will tell. We can probably fairly infer by trading back from 12, though. It's not like they were in love with what the board was. So clearly they don't maybe share the opinions that there was this clear, obvious next tier.

that's the way they made their picks. I'm very interested, though, Chris, in them trading back up to get Will Horikoff, which, you know, that one is the exact range we thought Will Horikoff was going to go. Yeah, yeah. I mean, that was, the yo-yoing there was pretty interesting overall. And, you know, the players that they end up getting, for me were 27, 28, and 30. And so, you know, and Horcoff was 30. And so I thought that was the range.

And you look at the kind of the premium that was. put on size and the premium that was put on in that range that was absolutely, you know, going to be there. And so I think that it's, yeah, I mean, I still feel like as I look at the class as a whole, Max, I, I'm left wondering how, how you sell that to your fan base when you, when they know that you don't have the premium players. And Horcoff is a guy that I think will be a role player. I think he's going to play in the NHL for a long time. I think it's an appropriate range, but to have traded back up after trade, you know, I just, I don't really understand it. And I'm looking forward to seeing how it all plays out. But I, I've been scratching my head at some of

these, these kind of picks here. And I, you know, I think that not having Eklon, not having, you know, even one of the top defensemen available, you know, maybe they didn't like them. that much. I mean, they did spend a lot of time with those guys at the combine and otherwise. And so, I mean, they would have the best book on it, I would suppose. But at the same time, it's just like I'm, I'm almost speechless about it just because I just don't see what vision this is trying to sell. On to the next one there. Another surprise pick, Corey, was the first goalie was not Josh Ravensberg. It was not Jack Ivan Kovic. It wasn't even Semyon Frolov. It's Peter Andriano to the Columbus Blue Jackets at 20.

What are you hearing about this pick? It's interesting, love. We'll start off that way in that whatever something happens that you don't expect. I think the first question isn't to criticize. I think my first instinct is always to try and see it from their perspective. What did they see to justify this decision? And I think with Andrianov, you can see that he's highly, highly athletic. He's very intelligent.

He put up huge numbers this year in the MHL in the regular season and the playoffs. He was one of the very better goalies in the Russian Junior League this year. So I can see you looking at this, and maybe they think this is a you say Soros type projection or a Dustin Wolf type projection. And this is this, yeah, he's not huge. He's 60. Some might say he's closer to 6-1. Some may not. I just saw him live last week.

He definitely didn't look big. I can tell you that. So, but maybe they just think he's special. I think, though, for me, there's a few things. One is that when I watched him, I just didn't see the special small goalie. I thought he was really good. I remember watching guys like Saros though when they were younger. And I never got that vibe from him personally.

And then the other angle is like, it's just, it's a big, bet when probably your top of Iwheres have not seen this player live and competitive action. It's a league where it's, you know, remote from the rest of the hockey world right now because of how people can't really travel into Russia reliably. It's not a huge sample size of games, quite frankly. He's played over the last two seasons. I know he's been good at the national team. There's a lot of questions I have and it could work out.

and like maybe they're laughing and they're saying this is our next Chinnikov although I don't know to the degree of which they're laughing over that I want to or whether it's just looks like a par value pick right now I have some reservations with this one I don't know if he was like even if you loved him like absolutely loved this player and what he saw I don't even see how I can rationalize it at 20 I can rationalize it at 30, 40, at 20, though. Like, you're basically saying, I think this guy's going to be a starting goal in the

NHL. That's what I think of Ravensburg. And I think, even with my most optimistic perspective of this player, I think you're probably looking like on a tandem goalie early. So I really, I struggle with that more than the Kindle one. I think Kindle's going to play in the NHL. I think there's a scenario where this guy doesn't even play in the NHL. That certainly is not what fans in Columbus are going to want to hear. How about fans in San Jose, though, Scott?

Because they, obviously, there was the debate about what they do it too. And the answer to that was Michael Mesa. But then they are the ones to ultimately take Joshua Ravensburg in at 30. And that's after trading for Yaroslav Ascarov earlier this year. Yeah, I do understand the decision to go with Ravensberg in there, despite the acquisition of Yaroslav Ascarov, if only because Ravensburg, all goalies take a while. And so the timelines aren't quite as aligned as people might just assume by

by virtue of having two young goalies. Ascarov is no longer going to be a super young goalie when Ravensbergen is playing in the league. I do think that Ravensbergen is going to play two full more seasons in the WHL and then multiple years in the HL. He's got a lot of physical maturity. So on top of the goalie piece of the public, for Ravensburg and which just naturally takes more time. I think he specifically is a very raw goalie.

He came onto the scene almost out of nowhere last year and then didn't even get to spend time in the gym last summer, which was his first real summer of training seriously for hockey or should have been because of a hip issue that was bothering him throughout the summer. So you run into him around the rink and it's pretty shocking how lean he is, kind of gives off the old Ryan Miller vibes when Ryan Miller was playing in the league. like he's just a very slight goalie, and a lot of goalies just stay that way. But he's got work to do in terms of just the gym and playing more games,

and it's going to be a while for Ravensburg. And so I wouldn't worry too much about the timelines being too closely aligned with Ascarov and Ravensburg. And as we've seen again and again in the NHL over the last little while, Ravensburg and Ascroft could well end up in a tandem someday. And every team needs multiple goalies. and they'll figure that their play will dictate the way that that goes. We're seeing it with your Detroit Red Wings, Max, with Trey Augustine and Sebastian

Coe said they're going to have to figure that out in terms of who rises to the top. And sometimes only one of them, even if they're both high-end prospects, sometimes only one of them does rise to the top and actually become what you thought they were going to become as a goalie. So didn't hate the Ravens Bergen pick. They do need to add to a defenseman who isn't Sam Dickinson at some point here in San Jose. and I thought that was maybe an opportunity to do it. But I still, I think that was the appropriate range for Ravensburg.

Chris, what did you think of the sharks settling on Mesa after, at least what was built coming in as a debate? Well, I don't know that it's necessarily settling. I mean, I think that the question had been for a while was just style of play in the end. And it was, do you think that Frundel's well-rounded game or better-rounded game, if you think that's even better-rounded? can allow you to maybe leave a little bit of the offensive spark that Mesa probably has over him on the table. And in the end, the answer was no.

The answer was let's take the more, you know, potentially dynamic player. You know, it wasn't a shock to see Frundell then go third to Chicago. I think, you know, we thought those would probably be the top three throughout. I don't think that you're leaving as much offense on the table in picking Frundel. But, you know, in the end, I think that they've now added a little. little bit of a little more intrigue to what the structure of their top six is going to look like in the long term. Mesa says he wants to make the team out of camp. That's all he's really focused on. That's what he wants to do. I think that that's certainly reasonable in terms of what he did this year and the way that they handled both Celebrini and Smith last year.

I think Will Smith's late season push kind of helped really at the beginning it didn't look good, but it really did help sell that that was their correct decision for him and it allowed him to kind of develop into his role. And so we'll see if something similar happens with Mesa. I just think that there was probably, you know, a long debate about, you know, do we want to have a heavier, you know, kind of maybe a guy that we think has a little bit more, more jam in Frundel. And I think really, as Mike, you know, Mike Greer told Misa on the stage, you know, they liked his 200-foot game. They liked the, the compete that he has. They like those things and they do show up for him. And so I don't think it was settling. And then, you know, I think with that second first round pick, too, just as Scott was

saying, you know, the question is they could have improved their defense. I think that there were some really good, you know, like Blake Fiddler was probably the best defenseman on the board still at that point, depending on how you feel about it. But I think if you're saying, okay, well, if I'm not, you know, maybe he's a top four, but I think that Ravensburg has number one potential, If you're able to get that that late in the first round and say, hey, this guy at least has a shot to be a number one goalie. I think that that's going to end up providing more value in the end. So I think if you're a San Jose Sharks fan, you have to be thrilled with how everything panned out. It just was a very, very interesting draft with a lot of intrigue.

They played it close to the best and ultimately made the decision that was best for them in Mesa. And then really, you know, another surprise kind of in Ravensburg and going as well. they may well take Blake Fiddler with the first pick tomorrow morning too like that's not out of the question good point yeah they're in they're in they're in control of the board again yep i agree with scott's earlier points about the timeline and that you know he's going to get to the league probably way after when yaroslav askerob will we start meaningfully playing games for the sharks but i do know there were quite a few people in the league that projected ravensburg it's a starting goal in the nchel who had him rated uh closer to where i did

like in the top 20. Obviously, that's not where he went, but I would guess that the sharks didn't just have him close to rated as where he went in the draft. I would guess they had him a much higher grade on him and were passionate about adding a goalie at 30 and thinking that there's legit starting goalie potential there with Ravensbergen. And just one last thing I want to add,

because I feel it needs to be said that I feel like I got some crap from the people on this panel here when we were doing our consensus ranking for having the gall to advocate for James Hagen's at the four spot. And I just would really just pity the people that would have to have been on this panel if they were advocating to take him at seven. I mean, it just, I feel like they would have just been, you know, just torn limb from limb. They would have.

I just, you know, at least I took the bullets for them, though, so it's fine. And as as Peter said at the time, we will still be right. Thank you, Scott. All right. Well, let's call that a night for round one of the 2025 NHL draft. For Scott Wheeler, Flow Hockey's Chris Peters, and our own personal human shield, Corey Prondman. Thanks for listening to this episode of the athletic hockey show Prospect Series.

You can, of course, catch more of Chris at his podcast called up. And make sure you come back to us tomorrow. We're going to have a much deeper recap on the draft. Then we'll talk to you soon.