The Athletic Hockey Show - NHL Draft Recap: Who drafted the best class?

Episode Date: June 27, 2026

How will Gavin McKenna fit on the Maple Leafs? Was Daxon Rudolph the right choice for the Sabres at No. 4? And did the San Jose Sharks begin a countdown to a Stanley Cup? The 2026 NHL Draft picks are in and now we get to decide who won, who lost, who fits, who doesn't, and how it all plays out next season and beyond.Join The Athletic’s Corey Pronman, Scott Wheeler, and Max Bultman, along with FloHockey’s Chris Peters, as they recap all the action from the 2026 NHL Draft.This episode was recorded live at 5:00pm ET on June 27, 2026.Hosts: Max Bultman, Corey Pronman, and Scott WheelerWith: FloHockey’s Chris PetersExecutive Producer: Chris FlanneryProducer: Chris FlanneryWatch full episodes on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@theathletichockeyshowJoin our Discord Server: https://discord.gg/VTm9VjkFSubscribe to The Athletic: https://theathletic.com/hockeyshow Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the Athletic Hockey Show Prospect Series. Hey, everybody, Max Boltman here alongside the athletic Scott Wheeler, Corey Pramman, and Flow Hockey's Chris Peters, for another episode of the Athletic Hockey Show Prospect Series. Guys, 26 NHL draft is finally in the books. We've been talking about it literally for a year since the day after the 2025 draft. And I think there was a lot that happened here that went according to plan here, Corey. All year, I think the conversation was about a few things. Number one, Gavin McKenna, he goes number one of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Number two, how tightly packed a group of top players there were in this class, particularly on the blue line. And I think that was borne out by the way that the top of the draft went. There's a defenseman that goes at number four. Maybe we thought a defender would have gone a little higher than that at certain points of this class. But it's not the defender we thought. It's Daxon Rudolph. That probably tells you a lot about how tight the top group really was.

Yeah, obviously Buffalo thought that Rudolph was the best defenseman in the class. And based on the New York Rangers post-draft commentary, they thought, Albert Smith's was the best defenseman in the draft. I think the Calgary Flames thought they got the best defenseman in the draft in Carson Carl's. And I think the Seattle Crackett thought they got the best defenseman in the draft when they took Chase Reed. The Sad Jose Sharks thought they got the best player in the draft.

In Yvars Stenberg, their general manager, my career, said they had Stenberg won on their list. So I think, you know, everyone almost has different opinions on players. But I think at the very top of the draft, you don't see that much diversity in the top three, top five, top six in terms of opinions. And I think it kind of shows how tightly clumped up that draft was. I mean, if there was points during the, let's say, the 2021 draft where I had Dylan Genther number one and then he wasn't. But in hindsight, that wouldn't have looked like a bad, you know, unreasonable, even

though he went ninth overall in that draft. I think this is going to be a draft where somebody who went six to ten is going to become one of the very best players in this year's draft. And maybe it is someone like a Daxson or Rudolph, even though we never really discussed him at four. He was always a guy that we considered in the group. And thus, maybe we shouldn't have been too surprised that someone else thought he was at the top of the group. I think that's what makes it interesting, though, Scott, is like you have all these teams that, you know, especially when you say afterward, like, New York didn't have to say that they had Smiths as their top defender in the class, right? So they've kind of staked their claim now to it.

Smith's, they're not just comparing them to the guys who went after. It's the guy. And really only one guy went before. but it's a little bit of putting it out there. Yeah, I think there's also a lot of patting yourself on the back that tends to happen in the 24 hours immediately after the draft, but it does feel, to Corey's point, it feels like they're telling the truth this time.

Like, there is a case for Evar Stenberg to be number one on the San Jose Sharks list. We talked about my player poll or scouts poll on the broadcast last night. There's a case. Teams made a case to me for all five of the defensemen as the number one defenseman in the draft class. So there was sort of belief, different camps of belief on all of these players. Rudolph, I think, was still a bit of a surprise to be the first defenseman taken of that

group of five, but his play in the playoffs with the Prince Albert Raiders, the production, the offense, the size, it's all very real. And so I don't think we could sit here today and sort of do, if we're doing winners and losers, I don't think we're calling the Buffalo Sabers losers for making that pick. Like, that was a very defensible pick there. You could all even make a case. I mean, Keaton Verhoff of the group of five. that we talked about all year. Keaton Verhoff went fifth of those five. It wouldn't shock me,

Chris, if the San Jose Sharks would have had him two, three, maybe even one for themselves. Who knows? Yeah, I mean, obviously, it was a great outcome for them to land Verhoff in that range. There wasn't a guarantee that any one of the right shot defense was going to be available at that point. But in the end, they had that opportunity. So we talked about it throughout that there is a jumble. And, you know, And talking to scouts, it was not always about, you know, getting the order right first. It was getting the groups that you wanted together. And that defense, that group of defensemen was for a lot of teams, a singular group. And then it was just getting the order right after that.

So it's not a surprise that everybody had differing opinions. But now you look at how it played out. Everybody can feel happy about it because of the way that it played out because now they did get their guy. But the question is, where does it go from here? And I think when we talk about Daxon Rudolph in particular, I think when you're looking at these defense, and we're talking about risk profile and other things like that. And for me, Daxon Rudolph, why he was one of the lower ones on my personal ranking was a bit of a higher risk profile because I wasn't as big a believer in some of the defending that I saw from the others, including Chase Reed, who, you know, was the guy that we all had pretty high. So that's going to be the conversation that I think, you know, all these guys, we said it last night.

These guys are going to be tied to each other for the rest of their careers. We're going to be comparing and contrasting them for the rest of time. Rudolph might have the best offensive profile of the group. I think Reed's is close. You know, so that's the thing is like we're talking about that's the kind of hair splitting we're talking about here. Ironically enough, Keaton Verhoff started the year as the consensus number one D prospect. Chase Reed finished the year, at least in my scouts poll. Yeah.

As the consensus number one D prospect, they're both the last two in that. group of five to get picked. And I think that we never got to see who was, who the top D were for the Toronto Maple Leafs. But I believe the top D after Gavin McKenna for the Toronto Maple Leafs were Keaton Verhoff and Chase Reed, who were the last two in that group selected. We talk about order matters a lot with these things, right? I mean, it may be, hey, you look back and you think, oh, the whole league must have had it in this order. It's not always the case like that at all, Corey. What's the league been saying in your conversations with people since the draft about how the top of this shook out? I think Rudolph has definitely been a

surprised to a lot of people. And I think the league was always big supporters of Daxon Rudolph and they loved a lot of things about his game. I think when you talked about Rudolph, the conversation always turned into like, well, what's special about him that's different than the rest of the players? He's not necessarily the biggest. He's not necessarily the fastest. He's not necessarily the most physical. Maybe he has the most offense, but I mean, you know, his production was close to Carl's. His production is close to read. And, As an underage, Vera Hoff scored more than him in the Western League. So I think that's where the struggle was.

He's a great player. Was he really the best, though? I think that is a very reasonable conversation to have, despite how great a regular season and great playoff he had. And he's obviously six two and a half mobile right shot with legit skill in hockey sense. He's obviously a great player. I just, and I'd be curious what you guys think, too. like what do you think the Buffalo Sabres rationale was to get them all the way to the top ahead of those guys?

Like I have a hard time picked. You always try to see things from other people's perspectives. You don't even if you disagree. Like, okay, well, what do you think was their argument? And I'm having a really hard time with it because I think all these other guys had equally good, if not better, arguments to be the top defenseman. I think if you're making the case for Daxon, it's about the offense and the silkeness of the hands and the playmaking. And you touched on it last night, he made some of the higher end skill plays of that. at D group this year, I think that would be, that would be the case.

Look at the way that they've built their team to get here. I mean, they've always really valued puck moving. And the blue line that they've had was built on a bunch of really good puck moving defensemen. It wasn't necessarily the Verhof types that have gotten them here, even on Power, who's their 6-6 guy, more of a puck mover than a bruiser, Corey. I do wonder where Rudolph fits with their team long term. I feel like he's best utilized as a power play guide. I don't know if he has to be a power play one guy.

I think he could be a, you know, I think he's going to be able to tilt the ice at even strength and he could be a really good power play two guy. But I do one on a team that already has long-term commitments to Rasmus Dahlina and to Owen Power, will Rudolph really be utilized to the, to the best of his abilities? Well, let's say Rudolph's ELC doesn't start two years. I think that's reasonable, right? How much does Dahlia even have left on his deal five years from not when that ELC is up? Is there any term left on the deal at that point? I would hope they think he's sticking around though. Well, yeah, but I'm saying like, I mean, at that point you're talking about a 32, 33-year-old Dahlian on another contract. I think there is one more year on his deal.

left at 11. But, you know, Rudolph will still be a very young player at that time. Like, I think that there's a natural evolution to that. It's not the worst thing for a team to kind of have an heir apparent to its top power. Like, maybe you could argue that they already kind of have that in own power. Yeah. And I, listen, I think Rudolph's got elite hockey sense and you see the skill. It's great. Like I said, I just, I struggle when I watch him and saying, is he significantly more skilled than Carl's? Is he significantly more skilled than Chase Reed? I think there, I think you could say if you're really ranking him, he might be one. but I don't know if it would be one with a bullet.

Like that would be my hesitancy given that, you know, the defensive issues that Chris may alluded to. But if you want to say who's the most purely talented, gifted player of all five of these defensemen, I guess I could see the argument that you can get to Rudolph out one. And Dahlene's a killer, but Owen Power isn't a particularly hard player. Redeem Murtka isn't a particularly hard player.

They just acquired Owen Zellweger, who's not a particularly hard player. and the hardness is kind of the thing with Rudolph that scouts wondered about as well. So you don't have, I mean, Matthias Samuelson has that and Dahlien certainly has that, but you do wonder a little bit about some of their guys lacking that maybe a little. Yeah. Chris, with Chase Reed, I mean, he's a guy that we talked about so much and how high could he go, could it be as high as two?

I'm curious, like, when you look back on the avowal on him, do you think it was a lack of kind of an elite trade? I mean, he was kind of the guy who's good at everything, but maybe there's not a, whether it's the skating or the offense, I guess you could make the argument. But is that the theory here? Yeah, I mean, I think there's a couple of things. One is that we talked about it last night was that while he is an offensive, good offensive player, the numbers were not up to the level of a Rudolph or even a Carl's at that point.

And so that was a factor for sure. You know, that's the other thing is like, I do think like the Albert Smith's pick, other ones like that where I'm just like, wow, how did that, how did that happen? And like, you know, those are some of the ones where I'm a little bit more, you know, surprised by than even Rudolph because you can at least say there was that that trade. I think Chase Reed to me is a lot more based on a projection, too, because we don't have the long track record of the just the highest elite level competition that he has compared to some of these other guys, but still have a really good book on that. And we've gotten to see that. So that's the thing where I'm just, you know, I still fail to see, you know, how we ended up at seven. I think if you're the Seattle Cracken, you have to be celebrating.

Because not only did you need a defenseman, you might have gotten the best one. And so that's the thing where I just see him as the ceiling on him being so high. But that also can be scary for teams at times where it's like, what happens if he doesn't reach it? I feel it's widely reported too that if that Bowen-Byrm trade doesn't happen, it was widely expected that Chase Reed, going to be the first defense been picked by the Chicago Blackhawks. Yeah, and there's rhyme to a guy that we know they've liked and Artie Levshanov there, right? I think you make a case that Chase Reed is a better version of the same profile as Artie Levschenov.

Right, but my point is getting back to just how tight the group was. It just depends who was picking when at that spot was going to find how the rest of the draft went. Absolutely. All right, let's take a quick break right there. We're going to come back. We're going to talk about some of your guys's favorite classes from the weekend. All right, we're back.

And before we start talking about your guys' favorite classes, I just want to lob this one up, because this one's mine. I don't know as many of the day two guys, right, as you guys. So I got to go a little bit off sentimentality here. When I saw the penguins take Liam Ruck in round one, my only hope was, please let Marcus Lax to pick 39 so they can keep these two guys together. And it does play out exactly that way. What are the penguins getting in this duo that were the top two scores in the Western Hockey League this season?

They're getting two of the smartest players in the class. Unquestionably, that is their identity. that's their DNA. They think the game at a very high level. And they don't just think it at a very high level in the sort of twin telepathy way where they're linked up and they know where each other are. And that is a huge part of it and it's going to continue to be a huge part of it. And they're going to prove, I think, next year they're going to be that one of the best duos yet again in the WHL. They're returning to medicine hat. I think they're going to prove over time at North Dakota that they can do it together at that level, that they can point at that level. The real question is, are they both going to be

equals in the NHL? if one lags behind, how are the penguins now going to navigate that dynamic with the two of them moving forward here? But it's a great story. They're awesome kids. They have a long way to go in the gym. They're two of the least developed kids physically in this draft. So that's going to be a huge part, make or break for them. The skating has to get better for both of them. But it's, it's a bet on the skill level. And it's not a bet dissimilar to the Ben Kindle bet that they made a couple of years ago. Like you can draw some lines. Kindle's going to be a center in the NHL.

I think both of these kids are going to be wingers. But it's, there's some similarities now. And now suddenly that group is, it's skew smaller. They drafted Pierce Bowie today. Another sort of 5-11 guy in that mold. Galvis. Thomas Galvis. There's, there's a theme there.

And that's been a theme for West Clark and Kyle Dubas going back a long time. Now they got to, they got to turn these kids in NHL. players and that's going to be a very tricky process for them to navigate. I think Kindle's a better skater than the rucks, though, and also I think he's a little bit more detailed off the puck too. My concern now with the rucks with the penguins is not that they don't have the offense for the NHL. They have the skill, they have the hockey sense of score in the NHL.

When I think about winning teams in the NHL, you know, because you've got to figure these guys have to play in the top nine. They're not fourth line forwards in an NHL roster. So now you're devoting, you're projecting anyways. You're going to be giving two of your nine roster spots to, you're not. 5-11 and a half below-a-average skating wingers, you know, it's hard for me to think of championship rosters where you had two really,

two important spots devoted to that player type. Maybe you'd have one, but two, and then you have a small center now on Kindle, if they were to build a contending roster from that core, it would be a very unique one. Not saying it's impossible. I like both players, particularly Liam. I like Liam.

Marcus, I had a little harder time with getting around on that one. But Liam, where they're, gone was fine, but I don't know, it's, it would be not unique or, you know, one in one, but it'd be close to it in terms of you look at what recent cores tend to look like. Even though the small core that Carolina had, all of them were really good skaters, all them were super hard to play against. I don't know if the rucks kind of fit that mold. And they told teams, like, they were not shy about it.

These were not kids who were saying, we'll go our separate ways, we'll play a part. I think if it went that way, they would have. But they were very upfront with teams at the combine that if you're taking us, we want you to try and make this happen for us. And the penguins were the team that delivered on that. Is that fair, Chris? I mean, I almost think for twins, like this could very well be a situation where they literally are better together than they are apart.

I mean, I think there's some fairness to that. Yeah, I mean, we'll never know. So I mean, like that's, you know, I don't know that it matters. I mean, and you wanted the sentimental one. I wanted the comedy. I wanted the chaos. I wanted somebody to take them early and force a trade or something like that. Yeah.

But no, you know, I think the Penguins made the commitment. As soon as you saw Liam selected, you knew that Marcus was going to be the next pick. And I think a lot of- Basically said so last night. And he did. And I think a lot of teams were just like, all right, well, that's fine. If you want to use the 37th pick on Marcus, that's fine. We'll, you know, but that's the other thing is like, you know, there's that question of, you know, draft value.

There was one is clearly more valuable than the other. You know, you're also kind of making that commitment with a pretty significant asset with so much talent on the board still. So, you know, that's the other kind of conversation. Could they have waited? What teams have been like, I guess we're just going to have to not pick them? You know, so that's the other thing that could have happened. But clearly the penguins made a commitment to doing this. And now we'll see how it works out because there's a lot of uncertainty there, I would say.

And it's very possible that one of them, separates from the other at some point here. They're not twins, but we just watched Bradley and Josh Nadeau go through it. They played together in the BCHL. They played together at the University of Maine. They were both huge points players at both of those levels. And then you get to the next level and there's a big, big difference between Bradley Nadeau and Josh Nadeau.

One's a first round. Not identical twins, though. No, I know. But there's the two 5-11 playmakers who pointed almost identically and yet were never viewed at any step of the process as equal prospects. And I do think there's a chance that that happens here for Marcus or William, where there becomes a bit of a gap at some point, and that's going to be the challenge for the penguins.

But it's not going to be next year. I don't really love their decision to go back to the Western Hockey League next year. And I realized that maybe they were late in the recruiting process. Maybe there wasn't the openings there that they wanted. They got to wait a year. But you figured they're going to go back and have 150 points each in the Western League. I just figured at their size they would have had a real. I think that was the fact.

at their size, I think they would have had a tough time. They would have. Yeah, no question about it. And I think North Dakota, they both recently committed there. They were not going to have the spot for them this year. And that's the thing that a lot of teams weren't going to have the spot for the two of them. All right. So that's my favorite class on that alone, basically.

Scott, your favorite class factoring in the day two picks now. It doesn't really factor in the day two picks, but I still love what the San Jose Sharks did. I think the San Jose Sharks have positioned themselves. here to win a Stanley Cup at some point. Like I think that's the path that they're on and not frankly failure to reach that similar to where the leave the failure of the Leafs to reach that and for a long time the failure of the Edmonton Oilers, who still have have not gotten there. The core, the nucleus that they now have, the firepower up front, the high picks they've invested up front, now having invested two first round picks this year and defensemen plus Sam Dickinson, you've got to get there now.

And that's a very, very hard path to navigate. The Buffalo Sabres didn't navigate it. Jack Eichael left. Like, it's, they're going to have to thread the needle with all those guys. They're going to have to keep Michael Misa and Evar Stenberg and all of these guys happy behind Macklin Celebrini. They're going to have to make sure that there are three high D picks that they've used become stars for them. Or if not stars, that all three of those are very good pieces of their top six moving forward. But it's there.

It's right. it feels like it's now right there in front of them. All right. Well, Scott took the big one off the board, Corey. What about you? Well, I think San Jose had a great draft. Hey, I know, had a great draft that day one was just marvelous. But I actually think Toronto's draft class in total was the best draft of the weekend. And I say that knowing that I've kind of become, in some circles, the main Gavin McKenna critic in some regards, even though I think he's a wonderful hockey prospect. But I think what you look at not just McKenna as the day one pick, they didn't have another day one pick. Then you look at everything that Toronto was able to do.

do on day two. In part, due to getting some draft picks from sending Brandon Carlo to San Luis. I just thought the day two picks were just solid acquisition after solid acquisition. The defensemen they brought in. Alex Belke, you have Ethan McKenzie, all really good

skating, smart, competitive players. Then you have Mons Goodmansson, who I thought was one of the best defensemen at the U18 worlds. You know, big physical presence who can really shut down players at even strength. They got Patrick Plumans, who I thought was the best goalie at the U-A-Team World.

So just a lot of talent that they injected into their farm system to go with McKenna. And I think they fundamentally changed their pipeline over the course of this weekend. I think they actually now have a really strong farm system right now, which is not something I think we were ever saying about Toronto over the last couple of years after they were really trading picks away. So I think they leave the draft in a really good position and not quite at the level of San Jose and Toronto. But I would also like to give a shout out to Vancouver because I think

this was one of the first time the Vancouver Canucks has really invested in the draft that they've tried to acquire draft picks and they tried to then use the draft picks and I think they had one of the best drafts I've seen from Vancouver in a while they get Caleb Malhotra and Adam Mawhtra on day one. They start up day two

with Brooks Ruggowski and Nicholas Aram Olson they don't have two really good young set of prospects in Raghowski and Malhotra. The kind of center prospects they have had a long time since Pedersen and before that God knows how long, you know, go back to Horvad and whatnot. And, you know, with Novotny, Aram Olson, to go with Willander, to go with Zev Boyum. They've got a lot of more work to do, but I think this weekend was a really solid start

for the new administration. Chris, how about you? Yeah, no, I agree with that. Those four picks from Vancouver was really, really strong and sets them up well. And yeah, getting a few extras later was good. But I'm staying in Canada. I'm staying in Western Canada. I'm going with Calgary Flames. And I, you know, I thought they had a really strong first day, getting Carson, Carl, yes, he was the second defenseman of the two on my board, but when you also consider the factor, it's probably that you got to get a little bit of an extra boost to the Western Canadian kid, right, especially if he's a farm boy on top of it.

So we saw that. I think that he's going to be a real difference maker in their system. He's exactly what they need relative to what they have right now in their system. So that's huge. I think Jack Hextall, not afraid of the Americans altogether. But, you know, Jack Hextall comes in, solid two-way center, a guy that's going to provide some depth, probably middle-six guy, more likely a number three kind of

center with some energy. I like him a bit better than some of the prospects they, they're, you know, then their later picks last year. So I think that that enhances their system a little bit more. And then also like Chase Harrington, it was a guy that had some teams had a first round grade on, but they also got the best goalie in the draft in Tobias Treyball. That was probably one of the bigger things here is he's going to UMass next year.

He's going to be able to play probably two, three years in college, go straight in, get his AHL service time under his belt and then be. ready to go. A lot of teams had circled him as the top goalie in the draft. He was the first goal he selected at 42nd overall. That was big. And even though I didn't love all of their picks because, well, we could talk about the Joe Ginglina pick later, but that was one of the bigger surprises of day two. They did get one of the better overagers in the draft in Igor Barabanov, who was a big guy, 90 plus points in the OHL last year. They got him at 100th overall. So I like the value that they were getting from that pick as well. And really the two of the meaner

players in the class in Carls and Harrington too. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, physical, competitive. You ask about this big time. This class, like just hard to play against. Yeah, and Hextall is a dog as well. Like, at his best, he is a high compete player. And really, I would let you broaden it out beyond the literal draft picks. They also added Simon Nemitz this week and they had a former number two overall.

Exactly. So there's a lot of good things happening and they could have, they picked Joe Inlow and they could have also added Adam Nemich. They need a start forward or two there somewhere along the line here, but there's a lot of other pieces in place. I think a week ago you would look at the Calgary Flames rebuild and have some sort of bleak assessment of where they are. Like, yeah, you like Zane Perak, Muttfei, Gride, and had a nice year when in his first year pro. You said there's a lot of work here to do. You know, you look at all the ways they need to fail out a roster. You say, well, they need this, this and that.

You get to the end of the draft process. They're rebuilt not over. There's still some pain left. But I think you look at what they acquired this weekend. you could see a path forward to getting out of this funk for the Calgary Flames. All right. So just to recap, Chris Peters, the Calgary Flames, Corey Pranman, the Toronto Bay Police, with an honorable mention to the Vancouver Canucks, Scott Wheeler, the San Jose Sharks.

These are the favorite draft classes of 2026. We'll take one more break. Be right back with the biggest surprises of the weekend. All right, we're back. And before we go today, I want to just talk about the biggest surprises of this draft class here. We'll take Rudolph off the board. We talked about him quite a bit in segment one. And I would love, especially if these picks could focus on day two,

I'm not going to hit on the live stream a little bit. Biggest surprise of the draft for you, Scott. Probably Oleg Kuliabkin. Halifax Mooseheads skilled forward. Russian import pointed this year, but it felt like junior points whenever I watched them play. He's a 5-10 guy without a lot of pro attributes, and he went in not just in the second round.

He went in the heart of the second round and was the first pick that the Tampa Bay Lightning made. I have not been impressed. They had a reputation, the Lightning had a reputation that I think carried them for a long time with the success of Braden Point, second round pick, Kutrov's second round pick, hitting on headman, et cetera. They have not drafted well for me in a long time here. And they were my least favorite class coming out of this year's draft.

That has been a bit of a theme for me. You look back at their picks of the last five, six, seven years. they took Benjamin Rautein and finished lit up the finished league this year in the fourth round last year. That's a positive pick for them. I was scrolling through their picks over the course of the last little while here. Not a lot of not a lot of those picks for the Tenth Bay Lightning. But that Oleg going that early, like I bet you the brass with the Halifax Mooseheads were surprised that he went where he did. Corr, how about you?

I know you said, that's folks on day. I would have said Klee Aitken as well. That was the one for me. I've been nice, nice player, good skater. I don't think he's, you know, when you think of five, ten guys that have success in the NHL, they need to be, you know, physical, hard, get to the inside.

That's not really what he is. So, like, I have some questions on that one there. I've really struggled with the Jackson Cover pick. It's actually kind of funny. I feel like if you look at the online discords with Ottawa's always been about more about Jonas Lagerberghone. And I actually like the player. I like that pick.

I think if they didn't take him, he was going like a couple of spots later. but Kover at 32, I understand that he's 6-2, he can skate, he has good aesthetic skills, and there's the whole, like, the story about how he hasn't had much high-level hockey experience, but there were other 6-2 guys who can skate and have offense who you didn't need to wonder how they're going to do as they develop and get older. Like Chase Harrington. Yes, you know, did they really need to take the bet at 32?

who felt a little rich for me. All right, Chris, how about you? Yeah, so I kind of telegraphed. I already said that Calgary was one of my favorite classes, but the Joe Aginla pick was a tough one for me to kind of wrap my head around. It was probably one of the first ones where, I mean, Kulibakins surprise me, but I, I still had 80 points. Yeah, he had a lot of points.

Joe, Ginglow was about a half a point per game player in the, in the W. H.L. He's 5.10. it's hard to see, you know, a third round pick in that player. Like I understand the story, obviously the Gingla family connection, all those different things. Jerome McGinla, great player. You know, they did not get Tejj in his draft year, you know, all those different things. But, you know, at the risk of, you know, looking very foolish later, if they know something about Joe Gingla that the rest of us don't or that not a lot of people see, with the number of picks that they had, probably could have gotten them a lot later. Was anybody really going to be, maybe they know something we didn't, but was anybody really going to be working in the late third round to jump on him?

I doubt it. And so, you know, they did make five picks before that, which I think, I guess, gives you some license to take swings. But this felt a little too familial for me to feel like that was a good use of an asset. I mean, I think the good thing is, is that they did make some better picks later. I mean, of all the players that they picked, I would probably rank him last of those players. And it's due to the third round, like Max, when Detroit took Keenan Draper was in the seventh round, even then that cause, that ruffled some feathers. But at least you're like, oh, you know, at that point in the draft, if you actually do like the player, it's fine. I think given the optics, given the fact that the player just really hasn't accomplished that much, he's not that big.

It's the due to the third round, I mean, it requires asking some tough questions on the organization, I think. Yeah. All right. Before we go, I want to set an over-under here. Three and a half players from this draft class to play 30 plus games in the NHL next season, over under, Corey. So we're talking McKenna, we're talking Stenberg, we're talking Albert Smiths and who'd be the other Canada you think is going to play. Well, I'm asking if there's another one. Is there a Ben Kindle coming?

I mean, it would be hard for me to say. I'm not even sure Smith plays right away. He might need to go to the American League to start. I think the safe bet right now is McKenna and Stenberg. So just two then. I think so. Our colleague Thomas Drane's asked me this same question earlier, and I went with two.

Like, I think it'll be those two picks. I think Smith will play games. It could be like how left shootoffs rookie, you know, his draft plus one season when. Maybe he starts in the American League, and he comes up the second half, or he makes the team go up and down because they're going to have that luxury

with the American League time. I mean, he's an awesome player. I love the players. Maybe he just blows him away at camp, and he sticks from day one, but I don't think it's a guarantee. Carson Carl's did consider giving it a go, but it sounds like he's locked in on North Dakota at this point. Yeah, I think so.

But I'm going to say it's going to be under, but it's going to be three that play 30. I think Smiths plays 30 games in the NHL next season. And so that's what I think. The one guy, there's one guy that I'm looking at that I don't think anybody would pick to do it. And the one guy is Winnipeg, giving Vigo, a chance. It's not unreasonable. Yeah, he's played pro. hockey this year. He played at the world championship.

It's not, hey, what else is going on over there? That's a good call, actually. I see, I could see that one actually happening. Yeah, so that's one. I'm not calling it. I'm not going to take the over, but I think of the of, if we're talking Ben Kindle guys, Vigo's that. I mean, you think of what he did in the

S. H.L. towards the end of year. He was playing like 20 minutes and 90. I mean, his playoffs were and men's world. Yeah. Just first line. We know that the college defense path tends to be doing two years when you are Keaton-Verhaerha and your first college year came when you're 17. Is that still a two-year thing?

Can we see 10 games of Keaton Verhoff at the end of this season? I think that's in the cards, yes. It depends how his year goes, but I think he's going to have a big year. In the cards, you can't rush that asset. And I would need to see a big jump from him to think that that's possible. Well, what you could do is you could play his college season. You could turn him pro, give him the taste, and then just the plan B, barracuda or big summer kind of thing. You could.

You could. I just think there's a lot of work that's still left to be done there. Reed and Rudolph aren't going to be one and done either and play at the end of the year. Carl's. Carl's might play in the spring. Yeah, I would back this Carl's is going to be a one-year player. Yeah.

No, no question. Yeah. So, all right, we talk about a little bit McKenna Stenberg. I mean, more points you would say long term,

obviously, McKenna, but in year one, would you take Stenberg to outscore McKenna next year? I think it's going to be close. And I would probably, probably lean Stenberg. Now, the X factor there is William Nealander and Austin Matthews.

Oh, Maclin Celebrity and Will Smith. I think, I think they're going to be in a pair, though. Like, I'm not, and I don't know what their coaching staff is thinking or what their management group is thinking in terms of lineup construction. But putting those three players together feels like a tall ask of those three. In terms of the age. Outside of Macklin, in terms of the age, I'm sure, like, Tofoli is going to be on one of those lines and Charnyshov played a little bit with Will Smith and Macklin Celebrating.

Maybe Charnashov's there. They like Colin Graff. Like there are other players that they're going to mix and match in there. My guess would be that Stenberg's on the second line. But is he on the, is he on PP1? Probably. And I think from a readiness standpoint, he's, he's closer to ready to make a real consistent game to game impact than Gavin McKenna is.

I think Gavin's going to have more peaks and valleys. I think they're both between 50 to 60 points. I think like there, it's going to be neck and neck and kind of like what Scott said, I would lean Stenberg just because it kind of feels like Celebrini's on some sort of alien trajectory right now. And like if he even gets a chance to play on his line for a considerable amount of time, he's just going to get a lot of helper points. Let's put it that way. Take him. Take him how you get him.

Yeah. I mean, I'll just for the sake of being contrarian, I guess, you know, I think, I think McKenna is going to be put in the positions. to have the points. Now, the thing that we talked about, that Jack Hughes kind of trajectory of a rookie year where there's going to be those peaks and valleys, he's insulated far better in Toronto. And that, to me, he is that good hockey sense-wise

where put his stick on the ice, he's probably going to have 40 points. Get a little bit more, he's probably going to have 50 and get a little bit more, he's probably going to have 60. So, yeah, I think 40 points is the low water mark. All right, well, we'll call that a draft weekend, guys. Great work all weekend. I know you guys got more to do here.

Make sure you go on theathletic.com and read everything that Scott and Corey have to offer coming off this draft. And, of course, on Flow hockey from Chris. Thank you. Thank you guys for tuning in with us last night for the round one live stream. If you didn't see that, you can find that on YouTube. Go watch it back. We had a lot of analysis on every pick. So if your team made a pick on Friday, there was a lot to say about it.

You can find that on YouTube. And remember to subscribe to the Athletic Hockey Show on YouTube. We'll be back with more for you next week. We'll talk to you soon.