The Athletic Hockey Show - NHL Draft Lottery instant reaction (recorded LIVE!)

Episode Date: May 11, 2022

The Athletic Hockey Show Prospect Series hosts Max Bultman and Corey Pronman react to the results of the 2022 NHL Draft Lottery in realtime, answering listener questions along the way and giving their analysis as the draft order is revealed.Please note: this episode was recorded live on Tuesday, May 10, 2022.You can get a 6 month subscription to The Athletic for just $1 a month when you visit http://theathletic.com/hockeyshow Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hi, everybody. This is our NHL Draft Lottery Live Room. I don't know how many of you have used this feature before. It's pretty simple. If you want to talk, which we'll probably, I don't know how much we'll do that. I mean, this one will probably just be more us. Although I don't know if at some point we decided to take questions. But really, it's just a good way for us to kind of talk directly to you guys.

If you do have stuff you want us to talk about, you can just leave a little note in the chat function. I see Matt L is already in there. but you leave little notes in there stuff you want us to talk about if there's prospects you're interested in if there's any lottery rule details you want to go over should we just do that off the top

Corey do you want to run us through the new lottery rules yeah sure I mean just like last year there's only two draws as opposed to three and what's going to be new for this year is that there will

you could only go up 10 spots maximum So for those teams that have finished, I believe it's below 11, they cannot get the first overall pick. And this is the first year where they start the restriction on how many times you can win a lottery, which is you can only win one of the top two spots twice in a five-year span. But those wins don't count in previous years, meaning that Buffalo and Seattle could theoretically, win the first and second pick tonight, even though they won the first and second pick in 2021, and then they could again in a future draft as well. Yeah, so this is the start of the cycle

there. So nothing, everything passed is prologue. Now, now kind of the rule takes effect. I saw a couple last win as the lotto drawing. Historically, it's at the very end of the half hour slot. So, or the drawing itself has happened earlier today. But the unveiling itself will be at the end of this time slot, whether that's, you know, 656 or something close to it. Usually it's at the back half. Usually some preamble. And then they start unveiling on these big cards, if you haven't watched it before, basically Bill Daly that Deputy Commissioner will scroll through these cards.

And what you're hoping is to not see your team's card for as long as possible because that means they moved up. Right. And it kind of kills a drama a little bit. I like the three teams where they had, you know, you know, you didn't know if it was one, two, or three. I thought that was a cool concept. But I understand why teams were aggravated, in particular the team that you cover, Mex, was not thrilled with the three lottery concept. Yeah, I know.

I think it's interesting. The 1920 Red Wings probably are the reason that I believe I saw Frank Serra Valley today. I didn't go fact check this myself. But I think he wrote that Montreal now has the highest odds of any one team. has had to win it organically, not, you know, not like an Ottawa situation from a couple of years back where they had the San Jose pick. And so their cumulative odds were higher. But I think the organic odds that Montreal has, which is, I think it was right around 25%, because you get the 18.5% that the number one slot has and then all the buffer from the teams who now are too far back

to get to the number one spot in the 10 spot jump. So the Red Wings of 2019-20 probably put that on the platter for the Canadians. Right. You're talking about the highest odds in the last couple of years. Obviously, there used to be much higher odds when there was only one lottery draw. Right, yes.

Of the modern lottery I guess it's all modern, but the recent lottery era. I think the Matthews was like, what, 20%, something like that? Yeah, something along those lines. You can go back to the early 2010 and before that, you had good odds and you had the first pick.

And obviously, you could only go down the second pick. So those were good. So yeah, you know, so we'll see what happens tonight. But, you know, I understand why they made those changes. I like the new lotteries. I just preferred the three one. It made it more interesting. But I understand why fans was not thrilled. One thing I thought was interesting today, and Aaron Portsline was the one who kind of revealed this.

I don't know if you saw this, Corey. Were you aware that there was a, albeit less than 1% chance, but teams that are outside of the top three actually can pick number three by way of lottery in a very specific circumstance. Right. You're talking about if a team moves down kind of thing. Right. It's specifically Columbus because they would have to move up. They would have to win the lottery to get to the number one spot.

Since they can only move up 10 spots, it would put them into the number two slot. At that point, Montreal secures the first overall pick, and the drawing, that would initially have gone for the second spot, ends up being for the third spot, which I did not know was an option. Ultimately, for most teams, it's going to equate to odds of less than a percent, usually about a fifth of a percent.

But I, nonetheless, learned that for the first time about six hours ago. Yeah, I mean, I'm not 100 percent aware. I mean, it's at the end of day, as long as the teams know the rule, I have not overly concerned about it. And we'll just see a couple of minutes here what the draft order is going to,

look like. We thought we were going to be talking the whole time, but we have somebody who wants to ask a question here. Let's let him do it. Jason W. Come on stage. I'm not seeing on my screen. Yeah, I'm not either. It could be a bug here, but we do have a huge cue in the chat, Jason W. If you want to leave your question in the chat, we'll get to a few from there right now. Starting with Matt L. wants you to talk about Noah Oceland, who just had a great World U-18 tournament on that line with, you know, a couple of his teammates from club play with Your Garden. That was Sweden's best line and they won the tournament. So what did Noah O'Slin do for his stock at the World U-18s?

I mean, he really helped himself a lot. I think he kind of came in as like a second, third round bubble type of prospect, 5-11 center with good speed and skill. But he showed excellent offensive ability at that tournament. He was driving the play, showing two-way ability down the middle to go with the skating and the offensive creativity. I don't think he's a lot to go in the first round. but coming out of the U-18th, I'm hearing considerably more first-round attention on him than I did going into it.

Still talk to some scouts, I think he's probably more of a second rounder, not sure if it's dynamic enough for 5-11 to be a top 6-4 in the NHL or top-9 center. That would be, but his stock is definitely on the rise. Yeah. Isaac W. wants to hear about the Canucks. Obviously, they come into this. In a 15 spot, they can only move up as high as, I believe, number five. and really long odds of doing that.

But in the 15 range, you know, this is a Vancouver team that surge toward the end of the season. They're kind of in a tough spot right now in the middle. They've got some big contracts and some big decisions to make without really being quite a contender just yet. But some huge building block pieces there in the Vancouver range, right around number 15, what's going to be in play for the Canucks potentially?

Well, I think you're going to see a lot of the top defense, the two top defense, the Nemichirochev will be gone. And you expect a lot of those those top centers will be gone, you know, right, Cooley, possibly Casper, possibly Gigi will be gone. So I think you're looking at at that point a couple of wingers. Maybe it's, maybe it's Brad Lambert, maybe it's Erie Coolidge, maybe it's Rutger McGrady. There could be some of those other top defensemen that aren't the an amateur year check that could be there. It could be Pavlamehikov.

You're talking about the Western kid, Kevin Korninski, right around there. it depends how certain things shake out. And it could even be Danila Urov. I think that's right around the range of the draft where teams are going to start having really tough discussions about Danila Urov, who is, I think, a top 10 forward on talent, but does play in Russia. So there are extra risk factors there

are given potential visa issues at the moment. Yeah, absolutely. A couple questions about Seattle's situation here. And I think they're one of the most interesting teams and will be in these first few years as a franchise lottery-wise. Obviously, last year they move up and they get Maddie Baneers, which is a really good. You know, it's a top six center, which is a great way to start a franchise. But obviously, they're probably looking for, you know, one level higher, probably franchise pillar here,

or at least at the same if they can. They should be in position to pick at least at worst top four today. Maybe, I guess if the Columbus scenario plays out, I guess they could drop down as low as five. That is a pretty solid tier, right? They're either going to be getting a potential first-line center, a first-line winger to complement baneers, or a building-block defenseman. Right. Yeah, I mean, they need a lot of things right now. They obviously, just because the expansion draft didn't go their way.

They won, they couldn't get the kind of assets that Vegas is able to get in their expansion draft. Their foreign system is rather thin right now. Ryan Winterton had a very nice year in Hamilton. Riker Evans, looks like a decent prospect in Regina. But they don't really have a lot to go with other than veneers currently. So whether it is the big winger in Slavkovsky, whether you are getting a legitimate top of the line up center and right or Cooley or a potential top pair defensemen, they just need a lot right now. And it looks like it's going to be a traditional expansion team path for them to building a contender. Yeah.

One of the questions here, Michael M. Will this be a pod to listen to later? I think so. I can't say for sure. But I'm pretty sure they all get archived. Based on the struggles I've had getting this link out, I'm a little worried about what's going to happen to this once we go off the air, but we will figure that out eventually. I was able to figure it out eventually,

but we're having a little bit of bugs trying to get people on the stage right now. So definitely all your questions should be in the chat. Yeah. Mike D wants to know about franchise players in this group, and it's a tough question to answer because, as we've seen in drafts, really since the start of all drafts, You don't really know who's going to be a franchise player. Boston didn't probably know they were getting a franchise player in David Posternock and they got him in the 20s a few years back. And, you know, I'm sure in 2017, you know, there was a lot of love for that whole top five, but you go back and redo it. And, you know, you're going to have the guys going fourth and fifth going first and second and in a redraft of that year. So third, fourth and fifth really going first, second and third. So all caveats applied that, you know, these guys are going to decide. for themselves who's a franchise player and who's not.

What kind of, how would you kind of describe the very top of this class? How many franchise pillars, I guess, would you say, are in this group? Well, I think you've got two guys there in Shane Wright and Logan Cooley, who I think can be first line centers in the National Hockey League. I'm not sure if that qualifies as a quote unquote franchise player. But I, you can, I don't know if they're going to be top 10 centers in the league. I think Wright's probably more in the teens and Kooli's probably more in the 20s during their peak years. But I think those are really important assets that are not easy to find by any means.

And I think Slavkovsky is going to be a true top of the lineup forward who can score 30, 35 goals, you know, be an impact in possession. And I think you got two potential top pair defensemen there. And David Yerchik, Simon Nemich. So I don't, you know, I get maybe not, it doesn't sound like I'm saying they're going to be elite players top 5, 10 overall in their position in the league. But, you know, I thought the same thing going to 2017. We didn't have that player. And then, you know, Caleb McCar comes out and he's, you know, arguably the best player in the league right now. You go back, you know, even further years, you go back to like the 2011 draft and the Nugent Hopkins draft.

And you see guys like Shifley and Dougie Hamilton emerged out. I think that was the Kucharov draft as well. So as of now, I don't think, and then the 2012 draft would be the one where we didn't see that player. And that player ended up probably not coming out. But so as of now, I don't see that player, but it doesn't mean that it can't happen. Yeah. Of the teams, I mean, I don't know if it's too simplistic to say it's, you know, the team's at the very top. Is it Montreal, Arizona, Seattle?

Who's got the most at stake for you in this draft lot? You look at a team like almost New Jersey, who's won this lottery a couple times in recent years. A little bit of urgency there, I would think, to kind of get off the ground there now that they do have Jack Hughes, Nico Heeshire, Alex Holtz is on the way, Dawson Mercer broke in this year, Luke Hughes is on the way. I don't know if a team like that has more at stake, or if it is a team like Arizona or Seattle that just has so much to do. How do you kind of look at that? Who's got the most at stake here? Well, this was kind of Arizona's plan this season, wasn't it? Yeah. I mean, they've been pretty outspoken that their plan was to lose games and get high draft

picks and rebuild that way. So, you know, I don't think this year the gap between one to five is as pronounced as it would be in a typical year. So if they pick two versus picking a three or four, I don't think it's that big a deal for them. But, you know, this is a team that they traded away a lot of good players in the off season. And if they don't get, you know, Shane Wright or Logan Cooley or Slefkowski, for me, it's a, it's a tough way to start this, this new iteration of their rebuild.

One of the questions that came in is from Matt L. and he wants to know if Eurocheck's skating bothers you at all. And, you know, to me, when I watch Eurocheck, I'll kind of start here to give you a minute to catch your breath. I know I make you do a lot of the heavy lifting on these. I see what Matt is alluded to when he asked this question. Like, it's not a, the most fluid stride. I'll also say I don't really have a problem with his speed necessarily. It's just kind of goofy looking. Is that fair to say? Yeah, that's correct. He somehow, we finally got someone on stage who wanted to talk. We'll get to that at a meet in a second, who I think is,

does not know he's on. So we need to get him off. Oh, sorry. I'm muted. I'm good. Oh, Omeet. Are you there? Hello? Yeah. Hi. Hi. Hi. Did you have a question? I was just wondering what your idea is kind of silly maybe, but I was wondering if Montreal does draft first, if they pulled out the red carpet for a right and give them a crown, who probably walked on stage.

Yeah, I remember actually the last draft in Montreal was the year they drafted a local player in Louis LeBlanc. He wasn't locally playing in the USAH all the time, but I remember actually that atmosphere was, was really great, great. And I think it was, I don't go to many drafts where there's like chanting when their team drafts a player.

So I'm not sure if it'll be a crown, but obviously Montreal is a diehard fan base that I'm sure whoever they pick they'll be really excited for. To answer Max's previous question on Eurocheck, the skating is not amazing, but he's also six foot three. So I don't think like you're looking at this big guy

who's big and slow. I think he's big and quick enough. up for the size to get around the NHL. You know, early in the season, that was a thing I started hearing some nitpicking on among NHL sources is like, okay, is this guy really that good. You know, Nemich is a better skater, so on and so forth. But I think it's just the fact that he's that big and he's really hard to play against. He has, you know, high-end physicality.

So I don't really think you're worried too much about the skating in terms of translating to higher levels. Yeah, I think that's a good way to put it, too, because it's not going to be a major inhibition so much as it would be if he was a smaller guy who kind of needed super speed to separate. Somebody was asking earlier, if you see a drop after 8 that they see, where do you kind of draw the tier lines for you? I know you just published your latest rankings earlier today.

Where would be kind of your tier lines for this class? Right. And there were tiers in there. So if it wants to read that, they can. But yeah, I see you write in Slavkovsky as a tier. I see Kuli Yerechuk and Nemitz as a tier. Then I have a grouping of five players. Kudar Gautier with the program,

Yol Kimmel and Jonathan Lekharamaki, in Finland and Sweden, respectively, Matthew Savoy in Winnipeg. And then you have Danila Urov in the KHL. And that's where I think he fits on talent, where you kind of feel like he fits otherwise in terms of risk factor, something you'd have to incorporate into that pick.

You mentioned Gautier. and he's a guy who on our podcast, the athletic hockey show, we do the Friday edition, the Prospect Series. You pointed to Gote, going into the World of U-18s is the guy who maybe had the most potential to help themselves in terms of just kind of at the very top of the draft. Obviously, you talked about guys like Usland, and obviously there was Yuri Kulich who really elevated themselves. But Gotei is a guy who really stuck into your top 10 following that term.

I know it wasn't just that tournament that put him there. But what has you done over the last stretch, including at that tournament? to put himself into that kind of territory. Yeah, I mean, he's kind of really been building momentum over the entire course of the season, just continue to become an important player for that USA Under 18 team. And by the end of the year, he was kind of locked into Logan Coley's wing there and was really leaned on in all important situations. I think he played 20, 22 minutes there in that gold medal game.

And I think he's just a guy who has all the assets. He's 6-2. He's a really strong skater. He has offensive skill. He has an elite shot. He competes well. I wasn't really sold on the playmaking the brain when I saw him in the first half of the season, but I thought at Germany, his playmaking was excellent.

He was making a lot of tough passes, a lot of passes into the high percentage areas to create chances. And there's a lot of pro assets in this player. And, you know, coming out of that tournament, talking to people around the league, I think there's a lot of top 10 sentiment for this player. Well, he'd go at six where I have him. I can't say for sure, maybe more eight to 10, eight to 12 for him. but I think he's an excellent prospect who's going to have a bright pro future. Yeah, absolutely.

Josh, I says, do we have any idea how long this is going to take? Seems like they can easily get it done in 10 minutes, but it's a TV product, they'll be dragged out. Yes, is the answer to that. It will be dragged out. I don't know if you guys are all watching live or on streams, but right now the Ernst & Young rep on my TV at least is walking these cards out to the podium to Bill Daly, and they're going to start unveiling them in a moment here. So that, and then usually historically, I don't know if it'll be the exact same this year,

but they take a break at three, right? Corey, right before they go to the top three? Well, yeah, it was, I might be two this time, because they're only going to have to reveal two picks. But yeah, so we'll see how it goes. Yeah, I'm just seeing them now walk out as well. Oh, so do you want me to spoil it for you, or should I delete myself by about 10 seconds?

No, it's fun. You could spoil it. It's not that important. Hopefully our listeners don't mind. We have about 400 people in here, which is amazing. I think this is the best turnout. Certainly we have had so far, so appreciate you guys for that. We've had people, let's see if I can get another person on the stage here.

Yes, we got Jason W on now, who's been waiting patiently. No worries. I just wanted to ask, why is Maverick Lamroo so polarizing? I saw Bobby Mack had him at 28 and then Craig had him at 68. And I haven't read your piece yet today, so I don't know if you put him on there, but I don't think he was on your last one. So just wanted to figure out what was up there. Sure. So Maverick Lamarrow, a defenseman in Drummondville in the queue.

He wasn't on my list, but he's not that far off. Tall defenseman, quite mobile for his size, physical. Just don't buy the offense. I just don't know if he can move the puck at the top four levels. That's my main concern. But some scouts do like him, think he'll be a first round pick. So that's kind of where I would stand on that player. All right, we got the reveals are happening right now.

First two are off, and they are the order that you would expect. Buffalo, which is the Vegas pick, and then Vancouver, the 14th pick. They're about to turn it over right now. That is Winnipeg. That is also in order. So none of the bottom three teams kind of in this seating. I'm sure Jesse Granger, our Vegas writer, did absolutely zero research, so I'm kind of relieved on that front. Yeah, so they would have kept that pick, right?

it hadn't if it hadn't uh if it haven't moved up they'd have moved they'd have kept it right because it was right it would have been because i think it's protected in a certain range so they would have they would have they would have kept it yes the islanders also right in order they're in at number 13 so no move-ups yet this next one if it's still in order would be the columbus pick and this is the one they own not the chicago this is their own not the chicago pick that they got in the seth jones trade and it is columbus so the bottom five all right in order that'll be interesting for Columbus this draft, especially if they're,

unless Chicago wins theirs and keeps their pick, another really good opportunity for them after adding Cylinger and Johnson last year. I mean, I'm really interested to see how Cilinger does it, the world's too. Yes, absolutely. And he had a really strong,

I would say, first half of the year. Maybe didn't maintain it quite as much through the middle, but I saw him finish a couple of games too. I think this world championships will be really fun. You've got a lot of draft entry. Eurechechnem,

Savkovsky, Marco Casper. to go with the young guys. You got Luke Hughes going. You got Cole Cillinger go, and I think it's going to be a fun tournament. San Jose and Anaheim right in order. So we are through the 10 through 16. Anybody now who moves up is at least in contention,

I believe Anaheim and San Jose would have been two for the number one. This next one coming in at number nine is Buffalo. So they do not move up. So Buffalo is locked in at numbers nine and number 16. another good opportunity for them too. I mean, they've added a ton of talent in recent years, and Kevin Adams has done a pretty good job, I think, in his limited time. They have great returns on a couple of trades last year.

Jack Quinn looked really good in the American League this year, too. JJ Petrka, looks like a great second round pick. There's Detroit. They're going to stay at number eight, and I can tell you from my Twitter mentions, I think Red Wrens fans are going to be pretty content to just stay put. They've dropped a lot in these recent lot of these recent lotteries. So stay-in-puts kind of a win for them.

And number seven, this one is going to be the Ottawa Senators. So they're staying put as well. Those two teams are on really, we did an article about it recently, really kind of parallel tracks, I think, in their rebuild, Ottawa and Detroit. Right. This is a lottery of high drama so far. No giant move-ups, which is kind of what the changes were designed to create. There is Chicago, and that's going to be the Columbus pick, right?

So they don't win it. So that goes to Columbus. Right. You can see Yarmukak-Lining on the screen. He likes it. He's going to get another really good player out of that. Really good trade. When you think of it, because that's Sillinger, that's who is the Bochrist?

And then, and now this pick. So that's the return for Seth Jones. And number five, it is Philly. That means New Jersey has moved up. New Jersey, once again, has won a lottery spot. We don't know whether it's one or two just yet. That's a pretty big deal for the Devils. Oh, yeah.

I mean, this is obviously a team that underperform relative to, even though in a very tough division. So getting, and their top prospect, Luke Hughes is a year out right now. I'm not saying whether they get Shane Wright, Uri Sokowski, Logan Cooley, whoever is going to step in right away and help them win games. But, I mean, if you're a devil's fan, obviously, this is a huge moment for you. Just because it's moving up from a kind of a spot where you're kind of on the bubble of the top tier into a place where you know you're going to get an excellent, excellent player. Seattle's in there at number four. My brain immediately goes defensemen. Like immediately my brain thinks Ron Francis, who drafted such a great blue line in Carolina,

is going to be in a spot to get another cornerstone defense. And we'll see. I mean, maybe Nemitz or Yerichick goes in the top three in, you know, Kuli or Slavkovsky are there for him. But right off the hop, my brain goes that Seattle's going to get their number one defenseman here. Right. You know, I'm not sure if Nemitri Yerich are for sure number one defensemen, But they've got a good chance. And I mean, they're guys you can see playing 20, 20, 22 minutes a night,

playing power play, playing penalty kill. And, you know, when you're trying to build a franchise, getting a guy who could be a first line center and a top pair of defenseman in your first two years, first line center being Matthew Baneers, you know, those are very important pieces when starting a franchise. Yeah, absolutely. Do we want to try to get some of our beatwriters in here to talk about some of these, well, we don't have an Arizona beatwriter, but if we want to get mine, Montreal or New Jersey in here to talk.

Yeah, sure. Sure. I'll put the link into, I'll send the link to them. Yeah, sounds good. What are you guys' reactions? I mean, in the chat, I see some, okay, some bitterness over New Jersey getting another one. Philly is number five. Yes, that's right.

Let's see. Any questions, you guys? We've got one person waiting in the chat. Blake's been waiting for a while. All right, Blake, let's get you up here. Hey guys, can you hear me? Yes. So I was just wondering your guys' opinion on the depth of the draft this year in the first round.

Like in previous years, we've had guys like Caulfield, Boldy, New Hook, Krebs kind of all fall to the middle, latter part of the first round. Is this draft comparable? Or what's your guys' thoughts? It's a good question. The Russian. Yeah, thanks Max. Yeah, I think the Russian variable is going to make it be very very. interesting in that regard because I could see guys like

Yorov and Mityakov going later than they would on pure talent for those reasons. You have the Ivan Mera Sancho question too. We talked about that actually today in my article at the athletic where it seems like he's making good progress. His lymphomas in remission right now

and I've been talking to people around the league who think he can go in the first round too. So I think those will be interesting questions that could extend the depth of the first round there a little bit. Overall though I think it's rather standard. Here's a good one. In the chat from Bill Ash, with the devils having already gotten their two kind of first overall pick centers in Hughes and Heeshire, does it add to the possibility that they could go for Slovkovsky?

Or if they pick one or two, are you still thinking right or coolly for them? It's a really good question. I think everyone in the NHL you talk to just always covet centers and defensemen just because they're so hard to find. and they have two really good ones. And now, right, you can envision Wright Cooley playing, or even Hesier or Hughes, one of them playing the wing. The Penguins had some really good teams there for a while with three really good senders. So it's not impossible to build your team that way. But they definitely don't need to consider position.

They can just look at their list and be like, who's the best player available here? And if I think it's Slavkovsky, then you can stick him next to Jack Hughes for the next 15 years and be very happy. Absolutely. Arizona in the three spots. So Montreal is either picking first or second overall at home. And we're about to find out which one it is. I love when they do this. They put both GMs up on screen side by side. And I always try to think about what is the right thing to do here. Are you supposed to act like you're not absolutely thrilled in this moment just for the sake of decorum? What would you do? I mean, it's kind of a weird and awkward thing they do having these GMs. At least at least if they're on Zoom's, I hated when they put them all in one room and kind of just, make them all like sit there waiting for the result it's kind of awkward television to be quite honest but i get but i get why they do it and it is montreal let the conspiracy theorists come out of the bag montreal picking first overall at home it was the likeliest outcome um but they are they waited a long time for this draft too so i don't have a problem with that they what was

it three years they waited to host this thing yeah that's accurate yep so you know Family Cup run mixed in there. So you could argue that the weight wasn't too, terribly bad for them. But yes, it's been a long time, right, since their first overall pick,

1980, what is? 42 years. Yeah, I mean, I can't remember to be quite honest. And obviously, you know,

they have a new management group. This is the ideal thing you can have for a new management group is getting a first pick and your choice of whatever's out there. So obviously, a great day if you're a Montreal, all fan, especially given that you have a center there at the top of the draft who looks really interesting after the Kockini M.E. and the Gau Chenyuk picks don't work out over the last couple of years where you pick a center high. You know, it looks like there's a center here

and likely Shane Wright who can be a really important part of your franchise for a long time. Well, in our having Nick Suzuki, like really what it gives you is you have the potential to have two top centers who were really complete players. And I think if you polled, certainly the coaches of the NHL teams. That's how you win, right? You have these really complete two-way centermen. They can give you offense. They're going to be responsible. That's a beautiful thing. If you're a coach of an NHL team, and I have to imagine the GMs are of a similar mind. Maybe they gravitate a little bit more to those dynamic upside elements. But I think the coaches in particular are going to love the possibility of two, 200-foot centermint at the top of the lineup.

How do you think the fans around the NHL feel with New Jersey winning get another lottery. Well, we can look at our chat and see Michael K just said Montreal first overall is not a conspiracy, but New Jersey getting a top two is. So I think that tells you, I think that's probably a fairly majority opinion among, or maybe not majority, but plurality opinion among things people are mad about here. New Jersey getting top two and, what is it, three out of six years now, 17 was the first? Yeah, right, yeah, because they had a, and but don't remember they won the Adam Lardt and the it was the guess you remember the Hughes and the Jack Hughes one but if you go back in time to the I think it was the Nugent Hopkins draft they actually quote unquote won that lottery

jumping up I think whatever was the maximum number of spot to go get Adam Larson even though they weren't the bottom feeder that year so they've had quite a lot of lottery luck in over the last decade they have and we'll see if it translates anything I mean that was not a good team this year that was a team that I expected was going to take a big step now I saw him mainly at the end of the year when Jack Hughes was out and he had an outstanding season. It was injury played, but when he was healthy, he was great. But that was not a good team at the end of the year, so they need to help. We got ARPET in here with us. Arpin, Montreal's picking first overall. How big a deal is this for Ken Hughes? Pretty big, you know, I mean, this is kind of the beauty of the situation for the new

management in Montreal, Ken Hughes and Jeff Gordon, is that this is a situation that's not of their making, you know, I mean, as opposed to, I guess Arizona, who is sort of, well, not sort of, quite blatantly angling to get the first pick tonight since last season. This group kind of inherited a situation that was not of their making, and they sort of embraced it once they did, you know, and so it worked out. It's a big deal. As you know, Corey, I mean, the Canadian system is pretty deep in terms of moderately good to good prospects or even very good, but, you know, there's no real high-end talent in the prospect pool. So adding someone, one, you know, if it's Shane Wright, you know, he might have his limitations compared to other

first overall picks, but he's still a very good player. It instantly rockets up to the top of the Canadian's organizational depth track by, by leaps and bounds, and they need, they need some talent like that in the system to kind of compliment the young players that are already on the team now. I know, I'm going to be a whole, you know, go ahead, Greg. Yeah, so we were talking before about how, you know, obviously, Nick Suzuki's an excellent player. We were talking about just Montreal's search for a sender over the last decade plus.

for so long, like a true premium center, and they're in position to get one with the first overall pick. You know, what do you think that that means for this organization going forward? Well, yeah, you're right. It's been a long time that they've been looking for this. And the two previous times they picked in the top five, they thought they had that guy. Neither of those people are in their organization right now, obviously, I'm referring to Alex Calcheniac at number three in 20.

I might get my years wrong here. 2013, 2012. 2012. Yeah, and then obviously yes, Barry Cockney, I mean, 2018. So this has been a long search. They're not easy to acquire via trade route, although some teams have done it. But the Canadians have not been able to do that. So yes. And Nick Suzuki has shown himself, and I think the current management team, is

convinced that he will be a legitimate top line center, how high end he will be is up for debate. but what he's shown so far suggests that he will be, you know, a very good top-sex center in the NHL. Shane Wright, who knows what he will be? I mean, obviously, he's had a difficult season. He had a whole season canceled last year. But, you know, based on the pedigree prior to that, every indication was that he was going to

be that guy. Now, what happened, I'd be really curious to dig into how badly COVID affected his development. But, you know, the pedigree was there to be that guy. So let's see if maybe he can rekindle that now. Right. You know, time will tell. There's no, there's no straight line there. And we've seen non-consensus first overall picks in previous and over the last decade.

Excellent players. Aaron Eckblatt was not a consensus first overall pick. And he's one of the top defense men in the NHL. It seems absurd in hindsight, but Patrick King was not a consensus first overall in 2007. There was a debate there between him and Kyle Torres and James Van Riemsdike. And obviously, he looked at it. look back at that draft and there's no doubt who's the best player in that draft. So, you know, time will tell Shane Wright.

What do you, Corey, what do you think of the comparison to Heeshire? I find that interesting. Do you think there's anything to that? Well, and Heeshire is a really good player. I mean, they had similar production in their draft year. I think with Shane Wright, the difference would be, for me, if you look at in their draft seasons, yes, they're similar. The difference with Shane Wright would be the things you alluded to is that there's been

times over his career where he's been exceptional, 39 goals in the O. I was 15-year-old. Nine goals and nearly two points of game in the U-18 world for Ken as an underage player. There are things he has done over his career that looks exceptional. Even if it wasn't this season, he sure did not have that going into his draft season. Right, right. That's interesting.

And, you know, I think that's, you know, Mark Antoine made a point. I think you're going to see it soon. But, I mean, I think it's, it's tempting to only look at a player's, ceiling when it's I think it's there is some value in looking at a player's floor you know and so there's there's something to be said for that I mean I think every indication list I'm not going to pretend to already be a Shane right expert although I have done some some research on him but it seems to me that um the floor here is pretty interesting you know I mean yeah I mean questionable but the floor looks pretty good I mean you're Montreal is getting a real player there you know whether

it's obviously it might even be right it could be Slavkovsky it could be Logan Coulouet but presuming it is Shane, right? You're getting a real player. It's hard to imagine him not being a top six center in the NHL. And I think he's got a very good chance to be a first-line center. And I think there is even an outside chance. He could be a star number one center in the NHL. We'll see what the future has in store for him. But I mean, this guy is an awesome player. And the one thing he would have that a he should maybe wouldn't is the shot. And I know at various times, is it elite or is it just really good. But this is a guy who has potential to be a premier goal goal score, right? Yeah, you don't score 39 goals in 15-year-old in the OHL by accident. Recording in progress.

Oh, sorry, I'm just jumping on the Canadian Zoom. That's going to start any moment. No. I can talk to you guys for a bit until it starts. No, it's actually a good point for us to let you go and wrap this up here. We really appreciate jumping on with us. I know it's a busy night. Good luck with all the rest that comes with it.

And thank you to everybody for jumping in here. Really awesome turnout. We really appreciate you guys spending the lottery with us. and good luck to all your teams as the real work starts.