The Athletic Hockey Show - NHL Draft: Round 1

Episode Date: June 27, 2026

This year marks one of the most interesting NHL Draft classes in recent memory. But beyond the near certainty of Gavin McKenna going No. 1 to Toronto, where will players like Ivar Stenberg, Chase Reid, and the rest of the draft class land? Join The Athletic Hockey Show LIVE for instant reactions and expert analysis throughout the entire first round of the 2026 NHL Draft.Co-presented by FloHockey, and hosted by The Athletic’s Corey Pronman, Scott Wheeler, and Max Bultman, alongside FloHockey's Chris Peters, this special event will feature the sharpest minds in the business, breaking down every pick and every trade, with exclusive access to the best prospects highlights around. You won't find coverage like this anywhere else.This episode was recorded live at 17:00pm ET on June 26, 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. Hello and welcome to the Athletic and Flow Hockey NHL Draft Live. We will be with you throughout the first round of the 26th NHL draft tonight. I'm Max Boltman, host of the Athletic Hockey Show Prospect Series. And with me tonight are three of the most trusted prospect analysts in the sport, the Athletic Scott Wheeler and Corey Pranman and Flow hockey's Chris Peters. These guys are in the rinks all year watching and evaluating these players talking to scouts and executive. tonight it all comes together with the 2026 NHL draft

and guys flurry of action this week that before the draft is even underway, high picks changing hands. First we had the ninth overall pick going from Florida to Ottawa in the Brady-Kichuk trade. Ottawa trades that pick to San Jose for William Eccland. We had the 16th pick going from Washington to St. Louis for Jordan Kairu.

And then Corey, we had the fourth pick. The highest pick we've seen traded this close to the draft in over a decade. Going from Chicago, where we're broadcasting from tonight, to Buffalo, where the actual draft is being held in the Bowen-Byrum trade. A lot of chaos going on this week. Where does it leave the draft?

And what are the big kind of pivot points you're watching for how this draft takes shape? I think we presume that Toronto's going to take Penn State's Gavin McKenna with the first pick. So I think the first interesting decision comes with San Josea, too. It feels like an evolving presumption that it's going for Lundas-Ivars-Sdenberg,

the two dynamic winger is going one-two to start the draft. But I know there's a lot of passion in that San Jose organization for Chase Reid, who's the projected top defenseman in this draft coming out of the OHS and Sue St. Marie. So which way they go with that pick, I think it would be very fascinating.

But probably the most interesting pick in this draft is going to be what Vancouver does at three. The Vancouver Canucks could go between someone like a Chase Reed or Caleb Malhotra, who's the top center prospect in this year's draft. But the wrinkle, obviously, is that their new head coach is many Malhotra, who just happens to be Caleb's son. We believe that the Canucks think very highly of both of those players and what direction decide to go will be very fascinating.

And then finally, I think it's not a guarantee, but I kind of feel like that's a good chance that the first four picks in some order will be McKenna, Reed, Malhotra, and Stenberg. We get to pick five New York Rangers is where the draft really can open up a little bit and where the rest of the top 10, top 12, and the flow of how all those top prospects are going to go is going to be defined. What do the

Rangers do? Do they take one of the top defense prospects? There's a lot of those guys that are close, Albert Smith, Carson, Carl, Keen-Veroff, which one do they take? They really, really need some center talent in an organization. Do they opt for the five-foot-nine but yet dynamic and super competitive Vigel Bjork? I think those are the main things that we're looking to watch in the opening hour of this year's draft. And that's if there's no more trades. I mean, I don't know that we can rule it out.

There's some really big names thought to be available right now on the market. We could see some fireworks tonight. But let's go to the draft first, Scott. And the top name in this class is Gavin McKenna. He's been the top name in this class for years, a very famous prospect, a lot of track record. And yet it has not really been a straight line to go from the player we first saw come on to the scene a couple years ago to now being the favorite to go number one tonight. No, it hasn't. Gavin has faced some adversity over the course of his draft year in college hockey. He faced it early on the ice.

He struggled in the fall. Coming out of the fall, the conversation had kind of shifted around Gavin. He was viewed coming out of junior hockey as a player who had scored comparably to players like Connor Badard, players like Connor McDavid. This is a kid who was the reigning CHL player of the year. Still, to this day, the record holder for U-17 scoring at the U-18 World Championships. He's a decorated, decorated player coming out of junior hockey. And then it's hard. He's a 5-11 skinnier kid. He dealt with some issues on the ice in terms of the competitiveness, the physicality at the college level. He joined a program in Penn State that was not a historic program

relative to the Boston colleges, the Boston universities, the Minnesota schools, the Michigan, the big Michigan schools. And he tried to sort of stake his claim as the guy at a program that hadn't been there. They had just been to the Frozen Four for the very first time. And there were some ups and downs. And then into the second half, it's okay. I'm still Gavin McKenna. He was tremendous in the second half, sort of propelled by a historic eight-point game against Ohio state. And he was in the second half one of the most productive players in college hockey. He finishes fourth in college hockey scoring this season. And he has at years end the 50 point season that you may be expected he would have when he, when he entered college hockey as a freshman.

But the drafts on ESPN tonight, this is a kid who made his announcement on Sports Center. Like there has been a huge swell of attention around Gavin McKenna, his whole life. He's from the Yukon. And there are all sorts of sort of historic firsts around him. And now I think we're going to see him be the next first overall pick of the Toronto Maple Leafs. And there's some history in that, too. It's a pretty short list. It's Austin Matthews. It's Wendell Clark.

And it's now likely Gavin McKenna. Chris, how's he stack up to some of the recent first overall picks we've seen? Yeah, you know, I think he's probably behind the guys like a Macklin Celebrini, let's say, and a Matthew Schaefer, which were franchise defining picks. And I think that that's the thing you have to manage expectations a little bit. The good news for Gavin McKenna here is that he doesn't have to go into Toronto and be the guy. They have the guy. And now he's got to be a complimentary piece, which I think is a good situation for him.

I've said it a lot this year. And you guys have heard me, if you guys watch the athletic hockey show, there aren't a lot of number ones in this class. There's a lot of guys that I think would be more comfortably suited in twos and threes. Gavin McKenna, however, does have that potential to be a 100 point winger, which is hard to find. Not a lot of teams build through the wing. Toronto doesn't have to build through the wing. They already have their core in place. Do you project him as 100 point winger?

That's basically like that's the top of the projection. I see him as an all-star player as a potential 90 to 100-point winger. And I think at 5-on-5, there's going to be a huge adjustment period for him. I think we've talked about it a little bit on the show, but I think a little bit, back to Jack Hughes and some of the struggles that Jack Hughes had at 5-on-5 on the power play, Gavin's going to run the half-wall from day one. If he's with the Toronto Maple Leafs, which we all expect he will be, he's likely going to flank opposite William Nealander on their power play. that's going to be a dynamic element of his game early. I'm not sure that the five-on-five play isn't going to come with a lot of learning.

All right. So what you just said, though, is he's going to run the half-wall for the Toronto Maple Leafs. There's a pretty good half-wall player on the Toronto Maple Leafs right now. Perhaps the best goal score in the national hockey league right now. Are you pushing Matthews to the bumper on day one? I think Matthews probably plays the bumper and you probably have Willie and Gavin on the half wall. I can see the logic to it. And obviously, being able to score from the bumper is a huge asset.

that you want McKenna's playmaking on the outside. It's just one of those interesting things that they're going to have to manage right away in year one. It, Corey, I mean, it comes down to, like, you make this pick. That's one thing. You get the player in your system. Then how you maximize that player is a whole other question for an organization.

I almost wonder if you do the five forward set if you put McKenna at the point. That might be something I would distribute. They think about because you see that at the lower levels, not much in the NHL, the lower lowest when you have, don't have that number one elite skill defenseman, which is an element underlying this decision for the Toronto Maple Leafs.

that is potentially a direction they could go. Yeah. Chris, I mean, it's not usual to have two wingers, especially two smaller wingers at the very top of a draft class. We used to talk in premium positions, centers and defensemen. What else stands out to you about the shape of this draft class? Yeah, I mean, the shape is, you know, when you do have two wingers like that, you're hoping that the next phase is going to have those centers and defensemen,

and that absolutely is the case. And it's particularly in defensemen. I think that that's where we've seen a lot of those players are right now. And I'll tell you, like the biggest thing that this, class has is when I said they don't necessarily have that number one. That number two's and threes and fours and fives, those, that group is big. So that's a lot of defense. We're talking Chase Reed. Then we're also talking about guys like Carson Carls. We're talking about Daxon Rudolph further down, Albert Smiths. You know, so there's a pretty big clump of players the team

should be very excited about, including those guys and then centers like Caleb Malhotra, Vigo, Bjork, and the list goes on and on. I think that the top 13, 14 of this draft is really enticing. Before the pick start flying tonight, I want to ask you guys a couple of questions about the trades that we saw this week. And there's two in particular that I think are fascinating. Let's start with the one that involved the number four overall pick. Because the Chicago Blackhawks, dude, they make a play and they go get Bowen Byron. They could have used that fourth overall pick on a defenseman who projects to become as good,

maybe even better than Bowen Byron. But they want to win right away. My question is, or get better at least right away. My question is, are the Chicago Blackhawks in a position to be making this kind of move with that level of asset right away, Scott? They almost don't have a choice. They cannot dwindle at the bottom of the standard. things forever. It's already been a long time. I know Connor, but Connor Bedard was only 20, 23,

but that's three years ago. And it could be, they could be right back there this year. And they need, I think there's a lot of pressure there for them to accelerate, for them to find a player who can run the point on the power play. If they're not confident that Artie Lov or Sam Renzell, who they toyed with last year on the power play can be that guy, then you have to find that guy. And he is that guy. Ironically, he's a former fourth overall pick. So, you're You're trading a fourth overall pick for a fourth overall pick. But there's some risk. He's dealt with concussions.

He has not been a number one. He played behind Kail McCart. He played behind Rasmus Dalyan. He played alongside Owen Power. This is a huge test now for Bo who has wanted to be that. Well, now you're that and you're that on a team that has to get better. Corey, on the Buffalo side of this, like this was a playoff team this year, they finally take the step.

They finally break their drought. And now they're trading away and now player for an asset, right, for a draft pick. Now they could use it in a trade. But let's say they make this pick. I mean, what is the timeline of a fourth overall pick to help a team like the Buffalo Sabres? I think you're probably looking at least if it is Reed, if it is Malhotra, you're probably looking at least one to two years in college, I would imagine. So you're probably hoping that they're going to materially help your team by year three. I understand the hesitancy in that regard.

But for the Buffalo Sabers, I think you look at this team, it's still a really young team. And despite the playoff success and the really strong season, I could still see there. being some growing pains there. Well, the goaltending repeat what it did last year. So I think you look at this team now that doesn't really have a premium center prospect. If they end up with Caleb Malhotra in this draft, I think you could really see a really good fit, both from the way he plays, more of a two-way guy, really high IQ, and as well being able to play the middle and project as a top two-line center for the Buffalo Sabres in a couple of

years. What I really think that's when the core will get to the contending status. And the Sabers have centers, but they probably don't have. When you talk about, you know, Consta Heleneas, and these are good young centers, probably don't have quite the same high lineup impact upside as Malhotra. Yeah, they play a lot of the same ways, but those guys are 511.

Mahaltern's closer to 6-2. There's a little bit more pro-projection upside there, I think, in his game. Yeah, absolutely. And then on the sharks trade, Chris. I mean, the San Jose sharks already win the lottery and get the number two overall pick. Then they make the trade for sending William McLan to Ottawa. They get the ninth.

What's the significance of that move? Well, I think it kind of telegraphed at least a little bit what we think we're going to see them do here tonight in the draft, which is Evar Stenberg, potentially being the number two pick and now still getting a pick later that they can use on a defenseman that we've said they so sorely need. Yeah, absolutely. I really like that trade because I think when you looked at this draft class, as Chris said before, I think the top end, there's some really good players, but it's not the one, two at the top that you're used to seeing. But I think this draft from five to ten, from six to ten, it's actually, I would say, slightly, if not

notably above average in terms of the caliber of player you can get from. from six to ten. So I think the sharks really navigate this well. They get a guy who they're going to have top two on their list in Stanberg, and then they get a defenseman later on who's a strong prospect for the range that they're in. And Scott, I mean, San Jose, as they make that pick on a defenseman, we assume it'll be a defenseman at nine, or at least that that seems like where it would be headed. There's kind of a thought that, okay, it's going to be the last of a group of a defenseman here. You've done some reporting, though, talking to NHL scouts and Excel execs, you can get very different orders on that group. It's very possible that they could end

up with a defenseman who was maybe their second or third defenseman in this class still. Yes, this group of five is close. I did an NHL scouts and executives poll in advance of the draft this year and I asked them a simple question. Who's first in that group of five for you? Who's last in that group of five for you? All five guys got a last place vote. Three of the guys got a first place vote. And the guy who got the most last place votes, Daxon Rudolph, who is probably the consensus guy that you'd expect to be there for the sharks at nine, was also one of the three players who got a first place vote and nearly got two first place votes. There was one scout who said that he was he was neck and neck with with a couple of other players there. So this,

that group is strong. And all five of those guys have been top end players domestically. They've had international moments where they've, where they've shined. It's a, it's a very good group. They've all got good size. They can all skate. They can all make plays. I think it's conceivable that all of them run an NHL power play. That's a rare find. in the draft. And I did hear that when they made that trade, I think one of their dream targets was getting Rudolph at the ninth pick. Well, I think there's a lot of passion for Daxon Rudolph in the league. As we get closer, I feel like he's going to be gone by nine, but he could still be there at the ninth pick. Well, and the right shot, what makes a lot of

sense for San Jose, right? I mean, their big defenseman right now is Sam Dickinson. He's a leftie. And if you have, I mean, he's also maybe he's got offense. I don't know that he's necessarily going to run their top power play. Rudolph at least has the potential to run that top power play, play on the right side. I think he's one of the two defensemen in this draft, him and Chase Reed have a chance to, I don't think they're guarantees, but they have a chance around top power playing the National Hockey League. And I think Rudolph's playoffs, he took a team that had no business, frankly, going to the WHL final and playing as well as they did against Everett.

He took that Prince Albert team there. He was their leading scorer as a defenseman. He was their best player. I think that helps solidify him because there had been moments internationally. There had been moments where some of these guys had outplayed him. I think that put him in this conversation. Yeah. All right.

And as you say that, the first pick is up. Gary Betman at the podium right now. And the Toronto Maple Leafs about to make their selection. He's going to vamp a little bit here. So let me just keep this going on. We did see a phone call to Gavin McKenna right before. What do you think that was about? That's a weird time to take a phone call.

Yeah. But no, this is, yeah, you know, right now we're seeing Gary get booed, which we all enjoy. We love all the, this being in Buffalo, the fact that Toronto has the first pick. He loves it. He loves it. And we love it too. But yeah. But I mean, now what a moment.

What a great moment for Toronto. And here comes the guy. Justin Bieber to announce the pick. Who else could you have introduce the Toronto Maple Leafle? I mean, you can actually have a lot of people, Will Arnett. But Justin Bieber. I mean, that's. Yeah, I think, yeah, a little higher.

Most famous Lee fan probably has to be. Yeah. And you're not bringing out the bebes just to make like a pick. A pick. No. This has got to be one. This has got to be one. And I'm trying to.

I presume he doesn't want to get booed. So I feel like we kind of have an idea where this is going right now. Sabers fans have to be getting tired of the Leafs picking first overall when they hold the draft. To remind people, 2016 was the Austin Matthews draft. And it was this draft was held in Buffalo, New York. Easy for Leaf fans to get to Buffalo if they want to watch their future star get picked. Yeah, this is this is an interesting, you know, dynamic here. we've talked about the centralization of the draft and how we'd love to see that happen again.

But you know, you can make it a little bit nicer with these little celebrity interviews. I recall several celebrities at the Vegas draft. And that was a fully centralized fully in person draft. Celine Dion. I was on my way running to the elevator to get better internet in the sphere when Celine Dion made the pick. And I missed it. So I was in the elevator. Who were you most starstruck by at that draft?

I've been Demandoff. Marshawn Lynch. And there it is. Yeah, it's Gavin McKenna going to the Toronto Maple Leafs score. We talked about the level of prospect he is. And we kind of hinted it as we talked about past top overall picks. How quick can his impact be on the Toronto Maple? It's a team that's, you know, whether it's adding Darren Radish,

like they've positioned themselves to try and get better next year. How much can he help them in that? He should be one of their offensive leaders next year. That Gavin McKenna is the most talented player in this year's draft. He is the most skilled player. He is the smartest player. He is the one with considerably the best scoring track record over the course of his amateur career.

He is a dynamic offensive player. The issues, as Scott alluded to earlier, are going to come down to the compete level. I personally don't view his compete level as a major issue. I think, you know, yes, does he get to push the perimeter a little bit? Yes. Is he going to be the most physical? Probably not. But this is a guy who over the course of years has shown up in big moments, who has been a leader

on his team who game in and game out gets onto the score sheet. I do think is the compete one of the top two or three things to get you excited about McKenna? Probably not. But I look at guys in the league like Mitch Marner, like Artemi Panarin, on the high end like Nikita Kuturov. I don't think he's Kutrov. I think he's closer to Panarin. But these are very reasonable comps that NHL scouts do not push aside when you bring their names

up in regards to McKenna. And I expect he will be a top line forward and a top. power play flike option for a long time for the Toronto Maple Leafs. And some people, some people go as far as to throw around Nikita Kutrov and Patrick Kane and those are the players he uses for himself. Those are Hall of Fame or some of the greatest wingers in the history of the game. But that's,

that's what, that he brings out that kind of skill level, that kind of playmaking, the hockey IQ, the ability to pick you up apart from the perimeter, to slow it down. He's not a super high pace player. Like he plays it at his speed and everybody has to kind of work around

his speed, but there are very, very few players that bring about those names. Just to remind, we're doing analysis for every pick throughout the night. We're not going to be showing the draft itself. That's a separate thing. But we got a lot of analysis to come starting with this Kevin McKenna pick, Chris. I mean, you know, this is an incredible opportunity for McKenna, but it's, you know, an incredible opportunity for the Leafs to really kind of start this new administration off with a bang.

The thing that I will say is I think fans are going to have to be patient. Scott talked about it earlier. this could be a very much like a Jack Hughes-esque entry into the NHL just because Jack Hughes made a had a more difficult transition. But nobody's complaining about that now. You know, like that that's one of the things. And I think that when you have the IQ, when you have the skill level that Gavin McKenna does, you find a way. What I loved earlier this week, he was asked about, you know, playing with Austin Matthews and how many players are going to say, I'm, you know, I can't wait to play with a great player like that. I'm, you know, he was talking about how he can help Austin Matthews, the way that he can complicate.

at Austin Matthews. That takes a really mature and confident player. No one has ever doubted that he's lacked confidence. That's for sure. And Jack Hughes didn't have that. So when Jack came in and had some of the troubles and the scoring maybe wasn't where it needed to be, same thing with Nathan McKinnon in his early years in Colorado, they were not entering into a franchise that had Austin Matthews and William Nealander and John Tavares and potentially Matthew Nyes and the star power up front in Toronto, even without Mitch Marner is still very real. And I think that's a separator for what the point totals at least might look like in these first couple of of years.

Just so I know from Elliot Friedman that it would be Boston's first round pick this year going to Utah and the J.J. Patyrka deal. So it looks like 23 just got moved. Wow. Okay. So what we will definitely get to that one as the show progresses, another trade coming in and what has been a super lively one. I just wanted to go back, as you talked about kind of McKenna playing with Matthews,

I mean, much in the same way that we talked about with Chicago trading that pick because they need to succeed soon, you know, for the sake of Connor Bedard. A lot of urgency in Toronto. I mean, Austin Matthews contract ticks away. I mean, this is a situation where they have to get better quickly to show Austin Matthews that there's a path to winning. I think that's a huge underlying layer to this conversation. Chase Reed, a couple of these defensemen, Keaton Verhoff earlier in the year were talked

about at least peripherally in the first overall conversation. Corey touched on it earlier. It can take a year or two of college to get those players ready and look around the league, Artie left Shunov, Simon Nemmich, Zane Perak, Sam Dickinson, Zeev Boyam, even once they spend their two years in college, some of those kids get to get to the NHL level, especially the young defenseman. And it can take two, three, four years. Some of them get traded. Nemich already traded. David Yerechek, already traded. These are top 10 picks as defensemen. That isn't always, that transition isn't as difficult for some of the forwards coming

into the league. He's going to get to make plays. He's going to have more. more of an immediate impact in those two, three, four years that it can take defensemen to get there. The concern is, and it's the name that Chase Reed has often been compared to, does he do his two years in college, and then he comes out and he's Zach Rowensky. That is obviously the major fear of the trauma of Maple Leafs, but I think the point you guys made is valid is, and it seems to be what their general manager, John Cheka, echoed in his press conference a couple of days ago, is that this, you know, there is this opportunity here with Matthews, and they've got it, and they have to maximize it.

Yeah. I mean, you could argue that Evar Stenberg could be as projectable as NHL ready right now. Even though, you know, McKenna makes the move to the NCAA, we presume in part to prepare himself for the NHL, probably in large part. But Yvars Stenberg and Ferlunda has been playing against men and had excellent near historic results in the SHL, Chris. Yeah, I mean, and he's also, we've seen him at the World Championships playing with and against NHL players. You know, I think that there's a lot of evidence there that he is potentially going to be the more NHL ready player. it, but, you know, that's the thing that you have to really focus in on and be patient about is that that's not the point. What you do in your rookie season is great for that short-term thing, but it's all about

what you're going to do later. I mean, if you look back at Nathan McKinnons, I mean, like, we were just talking about his rookie, they were very concerning kind of signs. And he wasn't like he was bad. He was good, but it was like, is he elite? Yeah, he won the calder, but he was like 50, but it was like 50-some points. And everybody's like, oh, you know, he's. And then the following year was even a little bit more like still growing pains.

And so, you know, that's the thing is like if Gavin McKenna doesn't win the Calder Trophy or, you know, doesn't have all this, you know, success immediately the way that some of these other guys have, it's not a death knell. He's a really good player. You're going to have to be more patient. But yeah, I mean, now this is part of the vision you're selling Austin Matthews. This is the part of the vision that you're saying, okay, we're taking steps. We're not stepping back. This was a this was a setback of a season. This is a one-off.

You can't, and that's the thing that I think really is important is that he is a, a kind of a dawn of a new beginning in some ways, but in a lot of ways, there's still kind of a continuation of the trajectory that they were hoping they were on before last season. You also don't commit eight by eight to Darren Radish. Yeah, correct. Who's 30 years old coming off of a career year, if you think. Scott, question for you because I know among us, you probably follow the Maple Leafs the closest. There is going to be an analogy made between McKenna and Mitch Marner.

They're not exactly the same players. Marner is a better two-way player. And despite how dynamic and offensive player, Marner is at the same age you'd argue McKenna's ahead, if not notably ahead, offensively. They tried that core for a long time. They struggled to have playoff success.

Do you think with McKenna they can get over the hump? I don't know that they're prepared to get over the hump as the roster is currently constructed. They have a lot of work to do. And I think the biggest hurdle that they face is the Atlantic Division. The Montreal Canadians are better. The Buffalo Sabres are better. The Florida Panthers are going to be back next year.

That is inevitable. That part of it, I think, challenges the Leafs in a unique way, that they are in the toughest division in hockey. And frankly, they've been in the toughest division in hockey. But you still have to put your best foot forward as an organization, and you have to try to win around Austin Matthews. Austin Matthews is 29 years old. William Nylander is going to be turning 30.

Yeah. The clock is ticking on this core a little bit here. Whether it, whether they win with this current era, though, you still have Gavin McKenna now as a bridge that you weren't expecting to have to whatever comes next. And whatever comes next could be a full on rebuild potentially if Austin decides, and we've seen a lot of players just make the decision to leave their markets this week. But that, that's a tricky, tricky path for them to navigate. It gets less tricky with Gavin McKenna in the fold. They also don't own their next two first round picks. So what other option do they have? If they are bad, Philly and Boston are the ones who reap the benefit of that. You might as well push in. I think that's part of the logic with the Darren Radish deal as well, right? I mean, you mention it. You don't sign a guy to that kind of contract if you think you're just kind of murky, right?

You're doing it for a purpose. And I think a big part of that is Toronto really can't do a traditional rebuild right now regardless. I do think the Leafs benefit from the cap scaling up like it's going to over the next few years too. Teams are going to have a tougher time spending to the cap. the Leafs will not be one of those teams. I think the question is just the blue line still. And I mean, gold hitting is going to be a question there too. But really on the blue line, I like Darren Radish.

I like the brain, the shot, the compete. The athleticism isn't great. He's not a premium defender. There's a lot more work to do there to add on that part of their roster before they can really be, I think, a high-end team again. And what's fascinating, they might not be done with the movement there either, Morgan Riley, Brandon Carlo, names that have kind of been out there in the rumbling mill already.

And TANF has to stay healthy. Like they cannot win without TANF staying healthy next year. Yeah, absolutely. San Jose sharks are on the clock. We talked about, you know, Chris, potentially telegraphing this pick when they made that trade earlier in this year. If it is indeed Evar Stenberg, the Furlenda Winger, how do you put into context kind of what he was able to do? Yeah, I mean, you know, you look at the numbers. Historically, he is, you know, one of the elite scores of the SHL in his draft year.

And that is, you know, the only two guys that had more points than him were Daniel and Henrik Sede. You know, so that's one element of it. The other element is that, you know, you go back to the playoffs last season, you see he was a guy that was a driver for them. And then they still would rely on him in a lot of key situations. Then he goes to the worlds and he goes to all those things. He has done it already for a lot of teams. And he does have that NHL readiness to him. The celebrity run continuing here, by the way, Lela Edwards, going to be announcing.

Yeah, the newest San Jose PWHL player. I mean, elite herself right there. Is it a defenseman? Tip of hand torres for a defenseman. Well, see, she also plays forward. She plays both. So it really doesn't. It's the opposite of the hands.

There's literally nothing we can glean from this at this point. Anything more than we saw from the trade. So yeah, here we go. I mean, like I'm glad we're getting to this now because it felt like that was a long time. And there he is. It is Yvar Stenberg to the San Jose Sharks, Scott. This is a player who, you know, it's such a likable game. This is a very pro translatable player that San Jose is getting.

How soon can he make an impact for them? Immediately. He expects to play in the league next year. He has informed for Rundah that he's going to be playing in the league next year. And I think we talked about the NHL readiness. I think he's the most NHL ready player in the draft. I know Albert Smith has played a ton of pro hockey, played at the Olympics, played at men's worlds. Evar is going to join that team in its top six.

He's going to be on their top power play. And I think about pairs with the sharks now and what could be. Coaches love pairs. They now have, and we'll see what those pairs look like. Macklin-Cellbrini and Will Smith have developed clear chemistry. they're clearly close off the ice. They clearly click on the ice. You've got Michael Mesa as your second line center of the future, second overall pick a year ago.

Now you have a second second overall pick to potentially pair with Michael Misa. You fast forward three, four, five years and you start to wonder what that looks like and what those players in the prime of their careers. Now they're going to have to pay them and there will be a time when they become a very expensive group, similar to what happened in Toronto. But Stenberg, I think, steps into the league next year. I wouldn't be surprised if he has a 50, 50, 5 point year next year in his on Calder ballots and in that kind of a conversation. Who do you think is more skilled, him or Will Smith?

Pure puck skill one-on-one game, I think Will probably edges Evar. Yeah. But he's way harder on pucks. He's a way more complete player at the same age. You know, we talk about how San Jose needs defensemen, and they do. They still need a lot of defensemen. But you looked on that team and the gap between Salabrini and the next best forward on that. team had to have been near historic for the modern era.

He was so leaps and bounds better than another player. So you get not only an elite skill player in Stenberg, but also a guy who's going to win those battles like Mac does at even strength, who's going to be a factor in all three zones. And I think if you're the sharks, you say, yes, we do need a defenseman, but we also needed a player like this. Michael Mesa's very skilled. He's not an elite player in terms of offense.

Will Smith could be that, but he lacks the competition. ped of elements. Stenberg brings all of those elements to the sharks. And that's a point you make about Will Smith, like very similar game to Gavin McKenna, right? And so if it had gone in reverse, we might be having a different conversation here in terms of the duplication, but instead you start to see kind of a real identity forming. You talk about the rhyme and Celebrini and Stenberg, guys who you trust below the offensive goal line to go win you a puck, kick it to the middle to somebody else. Yeah, I mean, this is this to me is a real hand-a-glove fit in terms of the forward group.

And I know a lot of Sharks fans wanted to see this because a lot of people believe that Evar Stenberg is an exceptional talent. He was, you know, we did our TSN Scout poll that I did with Craig Button this year. Yvar was on number one on a number of ballots. And so it is, and that has been the case throughout the year. And I think it's that completeness to his game. The fact that you have Celebrini, who's an absolute dog, Stenberg doesn't have that same level of compete, but he's not, it's not a huge drop off. He's strong. He's a strong kid.

He has a willingness to get to. the middle. I mean, that was the thing that when when people were talking about Stenberg as a rival to McKenna in the draft order, it was because of that willingness and ability to get to the interior and to play in these tough areas. And I think he's a really, that's, that's going to be something that the sharks need. And now they still have that pick later. There's going to be a defenseman there. We don't know which one. But now they still have that opportunity to get some defensive help. How would you construct their top power play unit next season? Oh, man. What a good question. I mean, I think at this point,

point, that's the thing. Like you got obviously Celebrini, I think you've got such an elite distributor in Will Smith. You want to make sure he's got the puck on his stick a lot. You know, Evar was working the half wall for Sweden. He was more of a downhill player. And I think that's a good spot for him to be as a more of a downhill shooter. Then he kind of go, yeah, I'd have to think about it a little bit more in terms of the net

front and the bumper. But I mean, there's fully maybe. Yeah, to fold. Like they have good options. But I think I absolutely have Stenberg with that. I think you have, you know, Celebrini and then, you know, the defense group, you got a couple of options there, too. So you're two flanks or Celebrini and Smith or Celebrini and Stenberg?

Well, yeah, I mean, Max got to be on the one-timer spot. But I think, you know, you can look at Will as a distributor, maybe a guy that's at the bumper even, too. I ask because there's the luxuries they have because you also have Igor Chernishev, who has the size, has the skiing, has the ability to win battles. So I do wonder if Stenberg is in that initial. prime position right away. What does Michael Mesa's offense look like long term on this team, despite the fact that that he does have a lot of skill?

I'll be really interested to see how they use all these options. And given that they don't really have any elite offensive defensemen back there, that could change. They have a lot of cap space. Maybe they do try that five forward setup at some point. I wonder if the men's world sealed this for the sharks, too. It felt like that was a bit of a turning. We talk all the time about these kids, the decisions they make or don't.

make on going to men's worlds. I think it made a difference for him. Seeing him play with Lucas Raymond on a top line for team Sweden against NHL players and have the kind of success that he had. Even after, everybody says, we've done the work. We've seen these players play. We know what they look like. We don't need these final viewings, that kind of a thing. Sometimes those final viewings can really push a guy over the edge. Yeah. And one quick point. He continues the streak. Every guy that scored eight or more points in the last, whatever, 10 years has gone no lower than second in the NHL draft. All right. Let's go to the team that's on the clock right now, Corey.

You talked about how this was the Vancouver Canucks. This is a pivot point in this draft class. For a team that is as early in a rebuild as the Vancouver Canucks are, how do you approach a situation like this from? Obviously, they have premium positions to choose from, but how do you have ballpark, how you would approach something like this? Well, for me, the best player available is the one who would create the least controversy, and that is defenseman Chase Reeve from the Sioux.

I think he is the best prospect on the board. I think really highly of Caleb Boucher, who ends up being the pick here. He has a potential top two line center at the next level. He is very smart. He can skate. He's very competitive. I do. My thought process would have been if it's close and I think it's close.

I think the Canucks had some passion for some other players. Do you really kind of put yourself into this awkward position? Now, the one argument against that with his dad being the coach is I think Caleb's going to need at least one, if not two full years of college. I think this makes two more like. Yes. I think you're probably waiting until year three where this becomes more of an issue. And if Manny Maladra is still the coach by year three, that means things are probably going good in Vancouver. So from that perspective, I can, I struggled with this. I probably wouldn't have done that in their position, but I think he's a great player and a very reasonable pick of third overall.

And I will say, too, I think they always knew that Manny was in their back pocket as a potential coaching option. But I think they knew that Kail was their guy before they hired Manny. So Caleb, the interest and the excitement about Caleb if from the Vancouver Canucks was all year long. I've reported on it over the course of the last several months here. They were there in Brantford constantly. And there was a management change and Patrick Alvin exits. And then Ryan Johnson's there. And they're just there watching Caleb all year long.

He was outstanding in the playoffs for the Brantford Bulldogs. The Brantford Bulldogs, frankly, fell short of expectations. The one guy on that team who didn't fall short of expectations, at any point this year. He started on the third line, was the best player on their third line. They realized this kid's not a third line player. They started him on PP1. Even after they trade for Jet Lucchenco, he's still on PP1. And then into the playoffs better than Jake O'Brien, a top 10 pick a year ago. Like Caleb was CHL USA Prospects Challenge in November. We were all there in Calgary and Lethbridge. Who was the best player on the ice? It was Caleb.

Typically, yeah. So this isn't a kid who was necessarily viewed as this coming in. Frankly, he was viewed as a second, third round pick coming out of the BCHL last year, and he just played his way into this mix. And I think he belongs in this range. Well, Chris, here's what's interesting, too, is that Malhotra coming as that late riser. I mean, shades of kind of back at Seneca here where you just keep rising and rise. And I think maybe we knew by, I don't know, midseason that Malhotra was going to be talked about in this range.

But it's still, like, where did you have him coming into the season? Yeah, coming into the season, I didn't have him in the first round. I mean, if you look back at the BCHL season that he had, it was not impressive. I mean, and the BCHL is where points are there are plentiful. Good playoff. That's right. Which is normally the signal. Yeah, which is a, which I know that there were teams that absolutely were like looking at that.

It's like we have one good year, you know, of elite level production that we can go off of, which I think was a thing that was absolutely part of the discussion. So that was one element of it. But really, he started moving up really in that November range. We were talking about like, oh, this is a good player. And then midseason, you're like, he's a really good player. And then the playoffs, it was like, this guy could go one. Like there were definitely teams that were starting to have that kind of feeling that this is a player.

And I mean, you look at the size, you look at the compete, you look at the hockey sense, the background. The NHL bloodlines do play a role because these guys absolutely have lived it. They've been through it. There's a lot to it. Caleb Malhotra, to me, is a culture building player for the Vancouver Canucks, a team without an identity, a team that probably will not have one for a while. And he's going to need some time. It's going to be kind of Mani Malhotra setting. the identity now, but it's going to be Caleb Malhotra potentially being the flag bearer for the

organization for a period of time here. I embedded with the Brantford Bulldogs in the fall and spent a lot of time around that team. The very first day as part of that embed for that feature, I sat down in the office with Jay McKee and Spencer Hyman, and I was asking them about O'Brien and Adam Bonach, and they steered me the other way and said, Caleb has been through seven or eight games at that point, our very best player. He blew us away in training camp. He's a, like, they were throwing around future NHL captain. And that was early, early, early. Future NHL captain, we think he's going to be a top five pick.

Like, there was, there was a period there early in the season where he just made a statement. And then it never really let up. He didn't have the lull that, that frankly, Evar Stenberg had a lull late in the year in the SHL. Gavin McKenna had lulls. He was good all year long. You mentioned the captaincy. You mentioned the culture.

I know the new general manager in Vancouver, Ryan Johnson said that was a key criteria for him. He said when he won in the American League, I think he said a large percentage of his players had either been a captain at some point in their careers. You could tell that something that's important to him, character, leadership, maturity. And Caleb has that on top of being a really good hockey player who does have a lot of offensive traits, the skating, the skill, the hockey sense. He is the complete package? I think you worry a little bit is the offense going to be special, but everything else about his game is pointing in the positive direction. And I think we often miscast guys who have those intangibles. The two-way center moniker sort of comes with that default notion of maybe he's not a premium offense guy.

He made some highlight real plays this year. The hockey IQ, the skating, he still got room to fill out his frame, which is, I think, very, very important. He's going to have time at BU, whether it's a year or two years to add five, eight, ten pounds. That'll make a big difference. A couple things before we get to the Buffalo Sabres who are now on the clock at number four. First of all, Corey, this is the scenario that you talked about on the hockey show earlier this week, where forwards go one, two, three. We think that was kind of the scenario that Chicago worried about and maybe why they're willing to trade the fourth overall pick. Another one, there is another trade here.

Molly Walker reporting that the Rangers have traded for Pavel Dorofiev from the Vegas Golden Knights. It's not the number five pick. She reports it's the number 26 pick, 92, and a conditional 28 first round pick. So another big name changing hands. And Dorofiev had a really nice playoffs, Chris. Yeah, really good playoffs. And I think he's a guy that has risen each year and that he's been in the league. And I think, you know, that's a kind of player that New York really needs.

They need somebody that can score some goals for him. And I think he's going to add a lot to that. But, yeah, I mean, you just look at the way that draft picks are moving right now. I mean, it is pretty impressive. And I think teams are feeling that pressure. They're feeling the way that they can utilize the cap to their advantage. And getting competitive is more important at this point than building up these futures. And the Rangers still have a great pick.

but now that's a real, you know, a real piece that will help them right now. I think this should be read for Buffalo, but I know that those guys had a lot of passion for Daxon Rudolph. If Rudolph's the fourth pick, that could be like the one big splashy moment of this draft, I would not rule that out as a possibility, though. Well, it's interesting. And you mentioned earlier that, you know, a former Buffalo Sabre, J.J. Peturca gets traded from Utah where Buffalo traded him just a year ago to Boston. So winger's change in hands tonight. I don't know that either of those prices is all that splashy. I think pick pick in the 20s is the headwin, right?

And it's two first round picks, but, you know, Dom had a great article today. I thought about what the value of a first round pick really is. Dom Lushishishin on the athletic, it really falls off in a hurry. It's the top of the draft. You pick one, you know, far and away what you want. And then you got, you know, two through seven, eight, nine really strong value. Once you get past 15 or 16, it really drops off. Well, once we talked about the top 13 or 14 players in this draft off the top,

once we get past those 14 names, we could probably all give 10 different names. Oh, yeah. with the next pick. Easy. Easy. I think the draft will open up around 14. I think it will be a draft order that not everyone's going to recognize. Yeah, absolutely.

And that's why this fourth overall pick for Buffalo is such a big deal, because this is a team that was in the playoffs. You're not supposed to get picks this high once you make that leap. And Buffalo, look, they took their lumps. They spent plenty of time making high picks, but they wanted to take that leap. And they did. And now you kind of have this rare opportunity to get something really special at the top of the draft. And they are going to get something really special.

special with the fourth overall pick. It's coming up any second here now. Yeah. Is that Josh Done on stage there? It is. That the advantages you get as a hometown team. It is Daxon. It is Daxon Rudolph.

Corey with the shout. Corey. Chris, Daxon Rudolph, you mentioned, I mean, the playoff run for Daxon Rudolph is it's one of those kind of late last statements in a draft season. It was. And I mean, you know, you look at what he does and the offense that he brings to the table, there have been questions about, you know, Chase Reed versus Daxon Rudolph and who's going to have the higher offensive ceiling. Rudolph is a good shooter. He's got a lot of ability to move pucks. The skating and the mobility is there. I don't think any of us had Daxon in our mock drafts going here.

Corey mentioned this possibility. Corey did. Corey did. And he said it just now. I'm at seven, though. Yeah, exactly. And so the questions about the defending are going to be there. Like, I don't think it's a huge issue. Like, I think he's going to round out. He's got good enough size. But what I think is going to be interesting here is just considering the way that we've had these conversations all year and the different players, how, you know, these guys are always going to be compared and contrasted with each other. So the fact that Bowen Byron was traded, you kind of get a found money situation because there was a lot of talk about, you know, San Jose potentially moving, getting into a trade scenario with Buffalo and then seeing where that that ninth pick could. potentially be. So there's a lot of different scenarios at play here. And so I'm fascinated by this one for sure. And I'll caught a little bit off guard. I will say that there was two players in this draft. And I didn't have Rudolph rated at this range where he went. So I'm not going to say that I, that I agree with this or that I said that I would have done this if I was Buffalo. But there were two players

this years who I watched and they had, they gave you the most oh my God moments or what what the heck was that in terms of the skill. Gavin McKenna. And for me, Rudolph did the second. most plays of that. You watch him in the Western League and when he was having his best games, he was dynamic. He was a game breaker with the six, two and a half frame, the skating, the skill, the hockey sense. The shot? Yes, there's a lot there. I think you're worried if the defense is really going to be premium with the next level. I don't think it's compete level as a major asset, although this is a guy who now two years in a row has been a premium player in the playoffs, both as a 16 and a 17 year olds. He has stepped up in the big games and the hard games.

So I see the argument. I couldn't get there, but there were times I watched Rudolph where I thought, man, he could be the best defenseman in this draft. Offensively in particular. Yeah, offensively. And the one thing I will say is that when we have seen him side by side, and you've said this before, too, when we've seen him side by side with other top defensemen, he has not looked as good as those players. WHL showcase game, the HALNK, the CHLNTB series, the UAE, the U-A teens is an underage. He's never been a top player there. So this all comes down to how he looked in Prince Albert, which was unbelievable.

But yes, when he has played with his peers, he has been a good, not great player. You'll be at the World Junior Camp this summer for Team Canada. We'll see how he looks there. There are scouts who think that the numbers on Carls and on Rudolph were inflated in a weaker WHL. Yes, I agree with that too. What's interesting, though, is I mean... Still a leading score on one of the best teams. On paper, I mean, the profile between Chase, Reed, and Daxon, Rudolph has a lot of overlap.

You would give Reed the better skating grade. Maybe. So maybe not necessarily. So maybe it's only a slightly higher grade. I think the skating is average for Rudolph. Like I think the skating is a higher grade for a read for me. I think Reed competes a little bit better for me. But otherwise, I think they're nearly identical players.

That's why I could see Buffalo struggled here. And I think they probably looked at that and said, Rudolph's nearly a full year younger, probably is two-year-track record in the CHL for his 16-year-old season. This is Chase Reed's 18-year-old season. He probably thought this is more impressive. We like the projection a little bit more. But I think Reed, especially what he showed you at the World Juniors,

I thought he showed you a higher level of defense and compete and will be able to shut down good players. But you can use a lot of the same comparables, right? Like I thought of John Carlson for Daxon Rudolph when I watched him. I think that's one at one point you even used on Chase Reed. So there's a lot of rhyme in these two games. And obviously, this is going to be a conversation that continues, right? These guys now compare to each other.

These 5D are going to be measured against each other for the next 10 years. What does this mean for the New York Rangers who go on the clock now, Corey? Because I don't know that they would have been expecting to have Chase Reed available to them. They also have some good right-shot defensemen in their system. Well, when they were, you know, seem to have good odds to pick at the very top of the draft. The two names we had heard the most with them was Mount Hotra, who goes at 3, and Chase Reed, who seems to be a name we keep linking to teams, but it doesn't go to any teams, and he seems to be available right now. I think there's a lot of D they like.

We've been projecting Albert Smith to them throughout the process, Carson Carls, them throughout the process. But I do believe there was a lot of passion in that organization for Chase Reed. We'll see if he is the pick here. But I think that's who they are between. I would be surprised to see Vigo Bjork, not shocked, but surprised to see Vigo Bjork's name called here at fifth overall. In my scout poll, eight of 13 had Chase Reed as their top guy. And yet we've now seen the San Jose Sharks pass on Chase Reed. When they needed a defenseman. The Chicago Blackhawks implicitly passing on Chase Reed because they knew that it was going to be a defenseman there. and they wanted one of the forwards.

And we've now seen the Buffalo Sabres who acquired that pick from the Chicago Blackhawks pass on Chase Reed. So it speaks to, there's not a uniformity on these, on these 5D. No, there's not. And I think there's also concern

about the risk profile of a Chase Reed because we've talked about this all throughout the year is that while the offense is higher end, the numbers weren't necessarily the highest end numbers that you would see. And you like the skating, you like the skill,

you like a lot of the things that he does. But it's still, you're talking about a player that doesn't have a super long track record and so that's another thing but we've seen them at things like the world juniors and others I just feel like he he's gonna get there

he was one of the very best players in the OHL this year I say to someone who loves Chase Reed I would not describe him as an offensive dynamo I don't think he's gonna have 70, 80 points seasons in the NHL that's not really with a projection I just think he's a guy with no notable flaw

who checks every box who you could just see having a very long and productive career playing high in an NHL lineup. Were you surprised at all the Buffalo made that pick, Chris? I mean, there was a lot of talk of could they flip this pick for now help, whether that be Connor Hellebuck, whether it be Jason Robertson, Dylan Larkin. Are you surprised they make the fourth pick? I mean, a little bit because it would have been really funny to see what they got out

of it, considering the vitriol that it seemed like the Blackhawks were receiving for getting Bowen Byram. And certainly, you know, I was critical of that as well. But I'd say that, you know, for the Sabres at this point, you're just like, hey, we didn't expect to pick fourth. We're going to take our guy, and that's exactly what they did right there. And I think that that's, that's a lot of conviction in, in your draft room on a player. And that says a lot. We've also already heard Radeen Murka, the ninth overall pick that they took a year ago.

That's a defenseman two years in a row now. We've heard his name peddled about him, trade rumors. I wonder if Radeen Merca gets moved here now. Well, you have Merca at, what, one or two goals in the Western League last year. You have Jackson Rudolph. He's got 30 goals in the Western Hockey League while being a full year younger. So it would make sense that one's replaceable. You can guess which one.

Notable difference. I mean, I do think it's interesting that a win-now team like Buffalo goes that route, though, and, you know, takes a defenseman who's going to take a year or two just to arrive. I think he'll be, I think he'll be at Denver for two years. Yeah, so two years to just arrive. And I mean, you can justify it. I mean, you keep the window open perhaps a little bit longer that way. As your stars, your Rasmus Dahlien's maybe start to get toward 30,

maybe over 30 to have someone like that. All right. The New York Rangers pick is in, and it is Albert Smith's court. So Chase Reed, not the pick for the Rangers. Instead, it's Albert Smith's the Latvian. He spent the year playing in both the Finnish Liga and the German DEL. And he also played in the Olympics. I mean, this is a guy who's played a lot of hockey against men.

What did you see from him? Every time I watch this player, he was just good or really good. This is a guy who in Finland, he was really impressive against men in the league, goes into the DEL playoffs and helps his team win games while just going transitioning to a new league, new team, very impressive overall there. He goes to the Olympics, plays against NHL players, and has a lot of success. He goes to the World Championships for Latvia. He's one of their best players. He's six three. He can really skate. He has skill. He has a great shot. He competes. He is one of the more complete players in this year's draft. It's, you know, a very easy projection into a top four.

It reminds me of Jacob Chikrin, just the profile, the skating, the size, the shot, maybe not elite hockey sense, but it's good enough, I think. And I can see him having a very long career. Now, I would have taken reading there. As you guys can see, I would have taken read at several other spots. But for me, it was a dead tie from between Reed and Smiths. So I think this is a very reasonable pick. I suppose, you know, I think he's a great prospect. And I think the New York Rangers got a lot better by making this pick. And I think he, there's more offense there than he's been given credit. When we've talked about, and people in the public sphere have talked about Alberts all year, it's been, he's the safe pick. He's the

guy with pro experience. He's he's got the physical traits. There is real offense there. And we don't always get to see it when you're playing against men early on this season when he was playing junior hockey in Finland, now a weaker level. But early on, there were some highlights, like him beating four or five guys on a shift, circling the offensive zone, scoring some of the nicer goals that we saw a defenseman score this year. He looked like a man amongst boys there. I think if he were playing in the CHL this year, in the USHL this year, in college hockey this year, we would have seen a lot

of offense out of Albert's. Chris, when Chris Jury talks about this pick, I promise he's going to say that handedness played no factor. But having Adam Fox in the system for the New York Rangers as a prime age defenseman, having Brayden Schneider, I mean, I don't know that you can let handedness dictate your draft picks, but do you think it played at all a role that

Albert Smith is a pro-ready lefty as opposed to maybe Chase Reed the right? I'm sure to a certain extent, but I think it's more the profile of the player. And I think the, the chance for him to be like they just made that trade for pavel dorofia that we talked about this is a team that is starting to make a little bit more noise in terms of like hey we got to move right now and we got to do something Albert smits definitely feels like the more pro ready player at this stage so that's that to me was a play games for them oh it's next year and i think at worst he's playing in hartford for a portion of the season and he's a call up away and that that that's that gives you a lot of optionality as a team as well and i think that that was enticing

to teams is that he's not only a guy that we're getting now, he's a guy that we can kind of control in terms of development and figure out where we're going to put him long term. The one hiccup, if you will, that I've had with Alberts over the course of watching him both internationally and professionally, this season is it is instinctual. It's he can chase it. He can scramble. He can run around a little bit too much.

That, if anything, I think is where we need to see him improve. I'm not sure he thinks it at the level. that a Daxon Rudolph or Orion Lynn or some of these other top defensemen do, but the instincts, he relies heavily on his instincts. The name Rangers fans are going to want to hear, Corey is more at Cider. I mean, another guy who was kind of off-radars a little bit

and then, you know, through the DEL becomes a top NHL defenseman. He was bigger, though, more physical. I think the profile, I'm not offended by the comp. I think at the same age, they're probably close in what they are as prospects, but the player style is definitely notably different. No, going to Calgary here for a second. We've mentioned Reid a lot in terms of where he might end up.

I know, Chris, when you did your scout pull, there was at least one or two scouts that had Reed at first overall. Same thing when I talked to scouts. But another defense minute who got at number one is Carson Carls. And then Carls has been a name we've heard linked a lot to the Calgary Flames. I do wonder if Reed's slide ends here or if they, in fact, do opt for Carls. Yeah, I mean, it's a really interesting thing. And we've talked a lot about the USA versus Canada.

thing too playing a factor into some of these trades or these picks rather i don't know that it would for a lot of teams but i do think it would for calgary a little bit even though they did take cullen potter last year in the first round the opportunity to take a western canadian farm boy at six overall and the lefty righty not that you're making decisions based off of zane perak or brucevich i think having him as a lefty who could play opposite of zane perak i do think is a part of the calms here yeah you know how much i like cars and carl scott though i mean the The concussions, do they scary at all for a player who likes to play as physical as Carson Carl's does? No.

My understanding is that the concussion that he suffered with that knock in the last game of the year was a bit of a one-off. It's not like he has a history of concussions in the way that a Maddox-Dajun A, who we're going to see drafted here, does have a history of three or four concussions. So it wouldn't, it wouldn't be a major red flag for me or anything. So I have heard there has been a concussion or two in the past, but you look at the games play. He doesn't seem to miss games. So I have a hard time seeing that it was a serious concern, but I do know things the team talked a lot about, especially after he missed testing at the NHL combine. What is high in the draft?

Like the margin's small enough that everything comes up. Yeah. I know for some teams, you know, for some teams it was a tiebreaker. There were teams that, you know, had him rated super, super high, including at least one team that's already made a pick. But the tiebreaker, the concussion, the wide go down that route did come into it. All right, the Calgary Flames making their selection as we speak. And is there anybody better than Lannie McDonald?

He made the picks for him last year. Just Lanny should do everything ever. Make every pick for the entire league? Every team. Every team. That's what I would do. But I met Lanny last year at the draft. That was the highlight of the whole thing for me.

The whole thing. I was like, best mustache in the game, elite human being. Now I feel better for having met him. That's really the biggest flaw of the show. And is Carl. And he is Carl. That's right. It is Carson Carl.

Carl's. All right. I mean, this is a unique profile. I mean, this is a really highly coveted profile when you blend the physicality. He had a lot of offense. You mentioned there's some questions on the Western League offenses here, but he really produced well. He produced in line with Daxon Rudolph, who we're lauding as a future PP1 QB here. He made some plays.

He's a tremendous, tremendous skater. He's hard on pucks. Chris alluded to it that the farm boy roots, he's got 500 head of cattle on the farm back in Manitoba. Like, he lives it. I do think that his comment, he made comments recently about not being a city guy and not agreeing with what goes on in cities. I wonder if that was a factor for the New York Rangers who made the selection directly in front of them. Is that a big city? But I think Calgary is a great fit.

And Carson's a tremendous player. He's the meanest of these 5D. Like he is physical. He hits you to hurt you. He'll put you down in front of the net. He'll put you down in the corner. And he's a tremendous, tremendous skater. Like Carson can fly.

And that's a combination that whether his offense is truly, truly high end, the skating, the physicality, that is hard to find. That's the part that reminds me of Jake Sanderson in his draft year because Jake Sanderson took a lot of guff about, you know, is the offense going to be high enough here? But when you saw Jake Sanderson skate, jump into a play, you saw the how for how the offense could come at the NHL level. I will say when I thought the WHL showcase game, Rudolph and Carls both played well. I thought Carl's made way more plays. And I think Rudolph got a ton of skill in hockey since, like I said before. But yeah, I don't know if that's going to be the main thing about Carl's get too excited. I think the defending is more exciting than the offense, but there is significant offense in his game.

Yeah, I mean, I think the player, also the fact he's going to the University of North Dakota next year, which is where did Jake Sanderson go? University of North Dakota. Yeah. The scouts that had Carl's over Reed always asking this question, why is Reed consistently rated ahead of Carl's given that he, Reed is. Reed is both older and scored less than Carl's did this year. And you can argue Carl's is just as good if not a better defender. So I thought it was great questions. Obviously, we've seen those concerns play out here.

I think Reed's slide ends here at Seattle. But it's obviously been something that's on their minds. That there was an elite offense, that the defense wasn't elite, that all these things were very good. But, you know, a late 07, you know, there was maybe there was just nothing to hang your hat on. this why this guy is special like some of these other players were. What is interesting as Seattle goes on the clock here at 7. I mean, this is a team that has literally never drafted a defenseman in the first round.

Now, there is a forward on the clock here who fits their type. I think Vigo Bjork, you can make some comparisons to Berkeley Cat, and he seems like a Seattle cracking kind of player, but they almost have to take a defenseman here. And I think they will. If they don't, I would be absolutely stunned. I might walk off the set. I might walk off the set. I would not be stunned if it's still not Chase Reed.

have heard Keaton Verhoff connected to. Man, it's certainly possible. I mean, there's a lot of, there's a lot there. Really intriguing, though, but like a right shot guy that can move pucks and, you know, Fairhof, if there's any questions on the hockey sense factor, it's going to be really interesting. And then if he doesn't go there, then you've got, what, what happened? Like, we're getting into a territory where San Jose could conceivably still get Chase Reed. Like, like, it's, like, do you think Winnipeg's going to pick him if, if Winnipeg needs the center?

I think it's really interesting. So now that you've got Seattle here, I mean, like to me, it feels like a no-brainer to be read. But at the same time, if it was anybody else, it just goes to show how jumbled these D were in terms of how people looked at them. We did that DSN poll. It was all over the map. They were all over the place.

Scott did his poll as well. I mean, there's a lot there that's happening. So now we're just counting down the minutes here. Carson Carl's great fit for Calgary. Now Seattle has a big, big decision to make you. I don't think I'm like breaking any news here when you look at how Seattle has drafted since their inception.

But I believe they are major supporters of Vigo, Bjork. And I think they highly value the player. But at some point, you do need a draft a defenseman. They have drafted plenty of guys who could play be top six forwards, man. He has been nears, Berkeley, Cadden, Jigel, Brian, Shane Wright. This seems like the prime opportunity

to get your defenseman of the future, to get your power play quarterback at the future. We'll see whether that's the direction they go. They drafted Katten in a class that was a halt like this one too. That was shocking. With five or six defensemen that they could have taken and they still took Berkeley. We didn't have a great year last year.

No. Reed's your number one overall player. I know who you would take. I know it would be Reed. Make the case for Verhof here if you're Seattle. I think more of a playoff style player, six four competitive, good enough skater.

You know, I think you can, if you're really ambitious, connect the dot to him and a guy like what like slaving look like in the playoffs. I don't think he's slaving. But that would be the argument, I think. You know, but it is Reed. It is Chase Reed going to the Seattle crack.

All right, Corey, it's your number one player. Chase Reed probably should not have fallen to seven here. What do you like about it? And I think when Seattle gets the podium after they're going to say they got their best defense prospect in this year's draft, six two and a half right shot who's highly mobile, highly intelligent. He can break pucks out with, he can make plays from the offensive blue line. He's got skill.

He's got good hockey sense. But it's not just the offense. This is a competitive player. You saw what we played against good players at the CHLNTDP series. He was killing penalties, making stops. Goes to the World Juniors, arguably USA's best defense men of the world of juniors. You know, got a lot of production despite not really getting the power of play time,

matched up good players, just checks every single box for me. I know like there's no special traits, like there would be whether Carson Carl's physicality or maybe Daxon Rudolph's skill would be maybe a slight notch higher. But I think this guy's got plenty of skill. A point for game in the O HL the last two years, the trajectory to. A lot of these guys have been top prospects for years. Rudolph, Carls, they've been top prospects in their age groups for years. Chase Reid a year and a half ago is playing the North American Hockey League.

So I don't look at the late birthday does maybe as much of an issue as some others do. I think this is an elite prospect and I think Seattle Cracken just got a heck of a player. Yeah, I mean, I love this pick. And I love the way that this fell for Seattle because after the situation with Jason Robertson, that, you know, they needed a win. This is a win. I see this as a win. Chase Reed was my number one defenseman as well. Oh, three years. Yeah, you know, we all had them high on our list. I think that the offense is going to be there. I think he, you know, my comp for him is, you know, Zach Werenski. If that's the top of his ceiling, that's an incredible player. That's, you know, we, Werensky just won the Norris Trophy. He's a guy that has, I think the defending is coming along. Like, and I think he's going to a place where it's only going to come along further. He's going to have to defend to get the minutes to make an impact at Michigan. Michigan State, they're not going to give him anything. And so this is going to be a great opportunity for him developmentally.

He played so many minutes in the Sioux this year, one of the most utilized defensemen in the OHL this season and an absolute warrior, too, on top of it. Like, is he going to slam you through the boards? No, but he is going to give you quality minutes. He's going to compete. And really, to me, one of the real defining moments of this season was at the World Juniors. Cole Hudson goes down with an injury. They go to the guy who couldn't even, you know, make.

the USHL team the year before to be their number one defenseman on the biggest stage on home ice and I thought he was at that point their best player. I've heard Rewinsky a lot with Reed and I just like Rewinsky just won the Norris trophy. He's not an elite elite offense. That that one's a I thought of more Seth Jones. I know you know Seth really well covering him for years when you're with the program. You know, does you think that's closer? Like why Rewinsky? Yeah. For me, Rorensky, there's a bit more fluidity with his game. I feel like there's, I see like similar size profile. I also see just kind of the trajectory of like Werenski's numbers grew and grew and

grew and I think that that's really going to be something. Like he had a really great season in Michigan when he was drafted. And, you know, but it wasn't like monumental, right? And so 17 year old. He was a 17 year old. There's a lot of important factors there. But like, you know, Noah Hanofin went ahead of him in the draft. And so, you know, that was kind of, I've kind of seen this.

And now you look at where is he? He's picked number seven. Where was Zach Werensky picked? Seven, right? Eight. Yeah, eight. Yeah. So, like, I just feel like he has that kind of profile.

Now, he's got a long way to go to get to that level. Like, I'm saying style of player more than I'm saying the top of his projection. But I am thinking, like, if he's on this trajectory now and he does two years at Michigan State, he's going straight into the NHL and he's making an impact. Now, this is the hard part for Seattle. They have not been very patient with their guys. And they need to be with him. I thought the OHL coaches poll was telling this year as well.

The OHL pulls all of their coaches across several categories over the course of the season. We expected to see him as the top skater and the top offensive defensemen and rank highly in those categories. He was also named the second best defender in the OHL this year in the OHL coach. That was revealing. You speak to John Dean. You speak to Kyle Raffatiss, John Dean, the head coach in the Sioux. Kyle Raffis, their general manager. they said if they put him forward for those a year prior, even though he was excellent in his first half season in the OHL, he would have been nowhere to be seen in the defending categories, right?

So it has come along very, very, very, very quickly. This was not a sheltered offensive defenseman. This kid played 25, 30 minutes a night for a year and a half. I want to go back to the very first thing Chris said about this pick, right, which is that Seattle needed a win, right? And so what you're referencing there is that reporting came out last night that Jason Robertson had to, an opportunity to be traded to Seattle and sign a monster contract, $15 million a year, didn't want to do it. That's a huge number. And it really can't be read as anything other than a little bit of an indictment of the crack and what they haven't yet done as a franchise, which is really make that meaningful progress in the way that, I mean, Vegas set a pretty unattainable bar, I think, but Seattle

hasn't really come close to it. And they've made good picks. I think they've kind of in a lot of ways done it how you draw it up. They've drafted the premium centers with the high picks. Did they wait a little too long to take their first defenseman in franchise history? It's possible. But they need a star to break through. Maddie Baneers hasn't become a star who they picked a second overall.

Chase Reed has a chance to become that. I think so. And I mean, I think that you needed that for Seattle. Like, they still don't have an identity as an organization within the NHL. Players can't I, they don't know what they are. But now we got another pick-ins. That's right. The Winnipeg Jets take Vigo Bjork, Scott.

And Vigo Bjork, another one. Great player all year. played at big events, played well at the world juniors, played well at the world championships, just kind of kept rising up until he was right there in the conversation as the top center in the class. And became kind of a favorite for everybody. We had a conversation on the podcast earlier in the year where we doubted whether he would maybe be a first round pick.

I know. There were questions about the size. He was being rated by Angel Central Scouting coming into the season. And he was phenomenal in all of the big moments over the course of the year. He started out on the wing in the SHL. By year's end, he's the first line center for Giro, and not just the first line center for Jirgaard, their matchup center.

He was checking opposing first lines. He was the top center for the Sweden national team. Yeah. He was the, was he maybe better than Gavin McKenna and Yvars Stenberg at World Juniors? Oh yeah. It's a conversation. Yeah,

I mean, the way he was utilized, that was the thing that always struck me was like, every team he's on, they give him everything. They're like, no, you want a tough matchup? Okay, Vigo.

You want to get a goal? Okay, Vigo. You know, like, he's, he's the guy that constantly go to. And we never see that with a 5-9 center, right. There's always the hesitance of like, can he take the tough defensive matchups. Vigo at 5'9 didn't seem to be any question about whether he could take that. At the same overall championship level, too. He's centered their top line at worlds with Lucas

Raymond and Evar Stenberg. He's heavy over pucks too. You talk to the 08s in this Swedish age group about him. They say in practice, like this kid, you cannot take the puck off of him. He's got that low center of gravity and he's going to be able to hold over pucks even against heavier competition. He's competitive. He's smart. He's in all the right spots. He's skilled outside of the 5-9 on his height by NHL Central scouting. There's not a lot in his game that gives you any concern about what the translatability of his game looks like. And then you watch the NHL playoffs this year. Jackson Blake, Zach Benson, you go down the list. Logan Stankovin. There's, I think there's belief now that with the

right style of play that that 5-9 player can be an impact guy for you. I think there is some concerns that feet aren't elite. I think they're good feet. I don't think his skating is elite for a size. But you mentioned Stenberg. I've seen him play now three times with Stenberg this season. At the world juniors, I thought he was better than Stenberg. World Championships, I thought he was just as good, if not better than Stenberg. Semberg had more production, but I thought the even strength impact, Bjork was better. And then I went over to go watch those two play in Sweden. I watched an S. H.L. game between Yurgar and Rolanda. to Bjork was better in that game as well.

I think now Stenberg is 5 foot 11. So there's a little bit more pro-projection and a little bit more certainty there. But I don't think it would surprise anybody on this panel if in three years from now we're talking about Bjork as one of the one of, if not the best Ford in the draft. Can he impact the Jets this year? I mean, they could use it and upgrade a second line center.

He signed in Jurgarden. I think his plan as things stand is to return to Jurgarden and hopefully have the one thing he didn't have in the SHL this year was the point totals that Yvar has. So I think the goal is return to Jurgard and put up that 30, 35 point season, and then you make the jump a year from now. He'll play a central role for them again at the world juniors. The Swedes will have a very strong team again at the world juniors. I think that's his path.

I mean, Winnipeg Jets here. Like, you know, this is a team that they have to build through the draft. They have to build through the draft. Now, in the scalp hole that we did with the TSN guys, that Vigo was the number one center, one spot. lot ahead of Caleb Malhotra. And I think that that growing belief in this player made it so Winnipeg had to get a center, right? Yep.

And they, a lot of us thought maybe it could be Tyne and Lawrence. Maybe it would be one of the more traditional guys. Maybe it would be a Canadian, quite frankly. There weren't a lot of Canadian centers available outside of Malhotra and Lawrence. Getting Vigo Bjork, high character player, high hockey sense, high compete. A lot of things that the Jets have built in their drafts year over year. There have been sometimes they've deviated and maybe it didn't work out as well.

This to me is an opportunity to hit a home run in this range. It's a risk because of the feat and the other things like that. But I think the hockey sense and the compete level are two things that nobody really beats him on. So maybe you could ask a couple guys maybe, but I don't think on hockey sense there's anybody. Scott just alluded to it, right? And I know you've talked about it with Cam Robinson on your podcast called up, right? Everybody loves Vigo in a place where Winnipeg wants to create a culture where everyone wants to stay. What a great personality to add to your room. Everybody gravitates to him.

Everybody gravitates to him. And now, you know, so a win for the Jets as well, as we talked about Seattle needing one. And now, how about this? San Jose sharks are on the clock. And Verhof is there. He's there. And this is what you hope for when you made that trade. They're for sure taking. Got to have to. You have to. I'm one pick away from being outraged that Verhoff is still on the board. And I knew he was going to slot out. I projected them, I think, at eight in my final mock, so I kind of knew this was the range he was going. I think people are overthinking this one. Like the 17-year-old in college, like if he was playing Western League, I don't think we'd

have his conversation. Now, I hate, I hate, sometimes I hate people do that because you get out with McKenna or you could do this guy who was in college, how would he have done? But I just, if the body work with Verhoff is too good, the tools are too good. He's a great prospect. He better go here at 9 to San Jose. Aren't we always one pick from being outraged at the NHL draft? There's always, and any one pick.

I mean, it could turn the whole night around. I do think people, there were maybe not red flags, but yellow flags late in the season in the biggest games at North Dakota into the Frozen Four. And we only have his call-a-hockey games. We only, we're not talking about Gavin McKinney. I do get his point. He was worse. I full year younger, but I get which, listen, and I get it. But that's just like, I just feel like there's been some.

Let's just say, like I said, overthinking going on here with what I think is otherwise a very complete prospect and a guy who has shown over a long period of time that he's a high level prospect. Do you know how badly I want to see you lose it right now if they don't pick him? Okay, I'm not going to get outraged. I would think the outrage. I haven't viewed him as as a complete prospect. Like I think you mentioned the decision making, the reads. I think that's a bit of a concern. Yeah.

And I've, I know I've banged this drum all year, dating back. to his U-17s in Sarnia a year and a half ago. I don't love the boots. When he has to pivot back to get pucks, when he gets caught flat-footed, when he has to change directions, it can look a little clumsy. None of these other four defensemen

have that sort of look to them at times. I think there's, I'm intrigued here, but like, yeah, I think for me, the thing that sticks out in terms of what didn't quite work for him, and he is the pick here for the San Jose Sharks,

is that he's raw. He's raw, and that can be scary at times. It increases the level of risk, but I think it also increases the level of excitement and opportunity to develop this player. Corey, a year ago, I remember at the World Under 18 Championship, Keaton Verhoff being one of the most impressive players,

even with maybe with the trajectory of the slide this year, what has San Jose just done to their future by adding Stenberg and now Verhoff in one draft? I think they have not only the best pipeline in the H. chill, but the best pipeline by a massive margin. They are built now to be a contender down the line. This is an extremely, extremely impressive group of young players at the moment. I don't agree with Scott. I think his skating is an asset. I don't think he's like an elite skating six-four guy, but I've seen him, he doesn't get caught from behind, he pulls away from

guys, the pivots could use a little bit of work, but the natural athleticism is there, the power is there. I think he'll be fine in time when it comes to the skating. I mean, you can say decision-making, yeah, it's not, like I said, is he going to be this power play one. He leads to the real real real guy, not for me, but he's shown offense everywhere he's gone. His offense this year in North Dakota is comparable to what Zach Rowensky and Noah Hanifin and when they did when they were 17-year-olds in college. He scored what, 20, 25 goals in the Western League the year before. He's competitive.

He's been captain Canada at multiple events. I get there's some minor flaws. I don't think the flaws deserve him to go number nine. I think San Jose just got a heck of a prospect. They should be the envy of the league. terms of what's coming. You hit that fast forward button three, four years from now. It's scary.

If things break right for some of these guys, we already know they're going to break right for Celebrini. We know it's going to break right for Evart. Like if Misa becomes a real player and Verhoff becomes a real player, there's a lot of care. I love Igor Turner Chef, too. Turnbull is awesome. He's a top six forward, I think, in the NHL.

That was a heck of a second round pick by the sharks. Yeah. And Corey is not over. overstating it. Just this is, this is the best system in the league. And, and they're, they're not close. And really, there's balance. They even have the goaltender in, Ravensburg and who is going to Michigan State as well. You know, so there's a lot of different factors. Who was off at play. And he was great. He had a great season. And he took a step. And so I think that there is a lot of intrigue about what the sharks are doing. There's got to be a lot

of confidence now in Mike Greer and the scouting staff and everybody. And you need luck, too. You have to be bad at the right times. You have to be in the right spots. And Macklin Celebrini was like, you know, just kind of like nuclear firepower that you get. And now all of a sudden you're going to have all of these pieces around him. It broke just right for them. It's amazing to see that it did.

That's what it is for me. You can look at the number of top five picks they've had. You know, there's been teams that have had a lot of top five picks. You just look at the profiles of the players that are not. San Jose system. It is what teams dream about. You have one of the five best players in the world is your top line center in in Macklin Celebrating.

And he's going to be number one, I think, within five years. You have a really talented number two center in Michael Misa, who might be a luxury number two center with the skating and the assets there. You have a power play playmaker in Will Smith. You have a kind of play more playoff style, you know, scoring winger and Yvarsdenberg. You've got the big body defenseman in Sam Dickinson and Keaton Verhof. Maybe you don't have a true PP1 quarterback. You even got a great young goalie in Yaroslav Asker.

And Ravensburg, two young goalies. And Josh, Raygoleys, right? They have everything you could want possibly accept a number one power play quarterback. Now, the question is, do they get aggressive? You know, their possession numbers weren't great last year. You know, Sal Greenie kind of wills them into that playoff race. Do they kind of try and accelerate it or do they do wait one or two more years before they try to really turn the corner and start adding pieces by free agency, by trade, trading future assets? If you're a veteran free agent, why would, why would they know?

not be near the top of your list in terms of gas. I know. And now taxes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There it is. And there it is.

But I mean, I am, I, I'm amazed, you know, at, at what they have done in this amount of time. And we've seen plenty of teams that had those top, sorry, New York Rangers fans, but like the one and twos that didn't work out, you know, as I, as I, you know, I, you know, that was actually directly to our producer, Chris Flannery as well, by the way. It's just in case anybody's one. under and but yeah, but like, it's pretty crazy. And to have the board break the way that it did, we talked, you know, like we had talked

about how difficult it is to acquire a top four defensemen and that William Ecclind isn't going to get you a current top four defenseman. He didn't. However, he probably got you one for the future, which is pretty incredible. Interesting one for Nashville now there on the clock. It's a first year GM in Nashville, at least. He comes over from the Colorado Avalanche where he was tremendously successful. There's a lot of work to do in Nashville.

It'd be interesting which direction this is. Heard them link to multi-Gusses-in. I'm not sure what direction they're going to go because of the new management group, not hard to get complete information with them. I think Gus Assin, though, is the best player available here. He's really talented, two-way defensemen, six, four-and-a-half mobile. Like I said, we'll see, but I think that would make the most sense. Maybe even Belchez as well.

This is the range for Belchez as well here. next two or three picks, I think we're going to see Gustafson, Belchez, Wyatt, Cullen, those are the names coming here. By the way, what position is Luke Bryan play? That guy looks like he's ready to hop on top four position right here. He could be your second pair

right shot defenseman, I think. Profile. Oh, man. Well, this, I mean, this is a big pick, and that's Chris McFarland's first, you know, one of his first major decisions. Obviously, has a few more heads. He's made a couple trades with his old team. A couple trades, but there's some big, big times ahead here.

All right, Luke Brian making the pick as we speak for the Nashville Predators. And that pick is, it's Wyatt Cullen. It's going to be Wyatt Cullen, yeah. Wow. How about that? All right. Wyatt Cullen, Chris. What are they getting in Wyatt Cullen?

I love Wyatt Cullen. I think that of the forwards remaining on the board, he is the most dynamic one left. And I think they're getting a playmaking winger, a guy that has grown a lot in the last couple of years, a guy that may not be done growing. He's the son of Matt Cullen. And Matt was more of a role player. I think you're looking at a guy. that we could be talking about as a top six forward in their system.

I think there's a dynamic element to him. He was a point per game player. Didn't have amazing numbers on a pretty weak national team development program team this year. I think the numbers were certainly muted by that, also injury that he dealt with throughout the year. But the fact that he is now a six foot one winger when he was five foot five just two years ago, never lost the skill and dexterity that he had as a little guy. And now he's got that potential. To me, this is a home run swing in this range.

Yes, you're going above multi-Gustifson. Yes, you're going ahead of Ethan Belchets that might have some of the measurables that you're looking for. This is a player that I think has tremendous upside. He was actually the guy that some scouts had been saying, hey, you know how everybody was talking about Beckett Seneca, that late heat that he got? They felt like this was the guy that could potentially disrupt that range. He didn't quite go that high, but he did make a pretty significant impact here as a top 10 pick. The conversation around Cullen for me was always won the production.

and then context with the Grove Spurt. But whenever you watch the program, and mind you, it wasn't a great USA under 18 team this year, he didn't just stand out. Like, he, like, stood out like a sore thumb from that group in terms of the skill and the level of plays he made. He was extremely dynamic to watch this year.

And you can see the top six, the tantalizing upside. And this is a guy who, what is he, a week away from being eligible for the 2017 draft? Yeah, that's huge. Yeah. You could see the argument being made for why he deserved to go in this range. And after taking, you know, Nashville has drafted a lot of two-way guys. They drafted Matthew Wood.

And like there's been some skill shots they've taken. But a lot of their guys, you could describe as two-way, competitive, physical. Certainly Martin. Yes. But even some of their past picks, you can go to the Felix Nielsen. You can go to Tanner Mulendale. Cameron, Cameron Reed. Riker Lee was a shot for skill.

But this high in the draft, yeah, this is a really big shot by the new management. group to try and get a legit top six forward. In Cohen and Riker Lee, they might have two of the most purely skilled on the puck. Oh. One-on-one handles players now. Yeah. To Corey's point, they needed that. They did.

And frankly, in the history of the Nashville Predators organization, they haven't really had premium skill guys. No one's really, yeah. It's been about Shay Weber and Romanoos. It's been the D. And you know, you have Philip Forsberg, but he's only going to score you a few highlight real goals. goals a year. I think Wyatt Cullen's the kind of guy that's going to add to your highlight

reels and to your point, Scott, that dynamic skill element, it feels like you need more of that in today's NHL. You need guys that are going to distribute Pucks that are going to get, make plays, be elusive, all these different things. And I think we've, we are, Wyatt Cullen is really, to me, only scratching the surface of what he's going to be. Now, what's going to be interesting with Cullen next year. And with the context that Matt Cullen is working at the University of Minnesota where he's going. He has been telling teams the plan is for the gopers to use him at center. He's been a winger's entire time at the program. The gophers apparently intend to use him down the middle. We'll see how that goes. But for an organization that lacks top six high-end

center talent, something to keep in the back of your minds. Yeah. Now that that makes things very interesting. Two years from now, too, we're going to see Joey Cohen, who might be the best 2010 in the world up on stage with his dad as well. Matt Collins is a very popular guy. I don't know the 2010's good enough yet to say he's the best. the best. It's what the people who know the 2010s tell me. I've only seen, I've only seen Matthias Mahalick and he's pretty good. Chris Collins is a guy. When you have one of these players who pops at all the big events, the tent pole events, the CHL and TDP game, the All-American Prospects game, sometimes people look at that and they kind of look at it askance because

they go, well, did he just play well at a couple specific games? Why are those games good measuring sticks, though? Because everybody else is there. Because you're seeing one-to-one comparables. You're seeing him with the Caleb Malhotra's and the and the Daxson Rudolph and all the players that he's gone behind. But you're also seeing him in that environment. How does he elevate his team in those situations? And I think that was the thing that Corey talks about with why he was so much, you know, he stood out so much.

He was a guy. And you can make the argument that he maybe didn't elevate the team enough, but I think that was going to be a very hard task this year. I really like that he always showed up when the lights were brightest because when you at the NTDP, like their home games, there's not a lot of people there. They're kind of out of the way. You know, like there's, there's not a lot of energy. He goes into these environments.

The lights turn on and he plays his best. And, and, but he also plays really well in those other environments too. So it's not just a, you know, a one-off thing. We see those events more easily because we're all there and everybody else is there. But I think this has been a trend that has been going really half the season. When he got back and he was healthy towards the second half of the USHL season, he was excellent. Yeah. I mean, I kept getting messages from scouts who were going to those program games telling me how he was, you know, just incredible, dynamic.

Like, that's the way I was hearing him described in the second half of the season. When I did my scout poll, multiple scouts said they had him top six, top seven. So, and I'm sure the Nashville Predators were amongst that group, not just a dynamic one-on-one guy. And there is a little bit too much one-on-one with him, too. Tremendous skater. So he does it at pace. He does it with his feet moving. He's not slowing it down in the way that a Gavin McKenna does.

he can ramp it up as well. And the size, right? I mean, the growth spurts a huge part of the story here with that too. And that's why it matters is because it's one thing to be a good skater and really skill. But when you get over that six foot barometer, it just matters to teams. It just does. Big time. Yeah.

St. Louis Blues on the clock next, Corey, for their first of four picks. How do you think they approach this when you have four picks? I mean, really three and a five pick span here. With all the wingers in the system, you got to imagine D and center are going to come to mind. Their general manager, Doug Armstrong, seemed to indicate the lean towards forwards with these picks, even with a guy like multi-guuses in on the board. We've heard them link to Alex Command. You know, Tyne and Lawrence is still here.

We'll see what direction they go on the forward front. But that would be my lean. And it is Tyne and Lawrence at the 11th slot. All right. Tyn and Lawrence got this is an interesting one because this is a player who at various points was among the very top players in the class. When he was in the USHL with Muskegan,

he looked like one of the top players in the class, maybe the top center in the class. He makes the mid-season jump to Boston University. It doesn't go so well. Now, he still gets a pretty good landing spot. 11's is still a very good spot. What did you learn about Tyne and Lawrence when he went to the NCAA? How much did it concern you?

I think you learned that it was just that there's a physical leap that still has to happen there. He's an excellent skater. He works very hard. Those things drove him in the USHL to a ton of success. Clark Cup MVP as a 16-year-old, the second player to do that other than Adam Fantilli. Just a tremendous, tremendous, tremendous, tremendous USHL player as a 16-year-old. He was good, not great at the HILCA better.

at the Halenka than he was at U18 Worlds for me. But then he just got pushed off of pucks a little bit early on. He was tremendous in his last couple of games there. You talked to Jay Pendalfo, talk to the staff at BU. They will tell you that at that last weekend that he played for BU, that's the Tyne and Lawrence that they think they're getting next year. They still think he can come and have a 40-point full season in college hockey next year and be a top-end player there.

Ironically, he's going to be playing with Caleb Malhotra. so they have a one-two center punch that they're going to have to figure out there. I think Caleb will get the leg up at BU like he did in the draft tonight. But just a very hardworking, decently skilled, fast player. And it's just the decision-making a little bit at times. He can tunnel vision. We saw it, I think, a lot, maybe too much at U-18 worlds where he was forcing it. And I think he felt he had to force it there, but he was really forcing it,

skating into bad spots, turning over pucks. But then he works to go get it. And so scouts and coaches along the way have always been able to kind of live with that because he's just such an active, hardworking player. I think most scouts I talked to in December had him in their top five. I think him going to school without a question tanked his draft stock. If he would have gotten injured in November or December, he was going in the top five of this year's draft. But I think the college level did expose some minor hockey sense and offense questions

that were lingering in his game that you kind of identified. at times at the junior level, but I think we're definitely exposed more at the collegiate level. His backers, though, I mean, like I read one of your scout surveys and the name Dylan Larkin gets thrown around. And that is that that's a reasonable, you know, those are the same flaws that you would say about Dylan Larkin. Is the sense elite? Is the playmaking elite? Maybe not. But when you have speed, when you have some size and when you have the compete level, it makes up for a lot, Chris. Yeah, it really does. And I think the other thing is that the total body of work for him,

he was the MVP of the Clark Cup playoffs in the USHL. He led at 16 years old, which, Another summer birthday. Yeah, another summer birthday. Another guy that, but like, yeah, Adam Fantilli was a 16 year old MVP in his year as well. So he was a little bit older at that point. But yeah, but you're also saying like this is a guy that has track record. There's something that we can point to. There's something we can kind of hang our hat on.

And I think the thing about Tyne and Lawrence that strikes me, you know, about is that I think next year at BU, I think we're going to see a big point boost. I think we're even though that they're going to have, they have some things to work out because they've lost. some offense from their team last year, they've gained some guys. I think he's going to have a chance to be a big driver. And while he may, why Caleb Malhotra may end up getting the leg up, Tynan Lawrence has the head start and has shown it at the college level. So let's see how the transition goes for Caleb because I think Tynin's going to be a little bit stronger and a little bit different with that experience.

I talked about this before, I feel like every time he's been on a team, the USHL College International, every head coach pigeonholes him until being the flank guy the power play. I just don't know if he has the vision to be that guy. He's shown it at times. He has to show it at other times. I feel like with Xavier Villeneuve, with Malhotra, I wonder if you just make him the net front of the bumper guy that he used his speed to go in and get the puck. I feel like he could have a lot more success in that kind of role as opposed to being the guy who has to touch the puck all the time and make all the place. All right, we're going to take a quick break right there. We come back with the devil's pick at number 12. Stay with us.

All right. We are back in the New Jersey Devils. Chris take Alexander Command. We talked about late risers earlier. Alexander Command, as much of a late risers as anybody, especially what he did in the World Under 18 championship. Big, big fans. You know, we were talking about guys like Oliver Savanto and that next tier center. And then all of a sudden, Alexander Command comes out of the under 18 worlds and everybody's on him.

I mean, this was a guy that was considering to go the college route. He ends up signing in Sweden to play pro next year. So he didn't have a lot of pro games. That was probably, you know, one of the things where it's like, you know, kind of wondering what he's going to be. This is a high compete player. This is a guy that's a two-way guy. He's physical. He can shoot the puck really well.

He has a lot of things that he does at a high level. And I think that the thing is that that motor, that compete, all those different things, he's not a number one center, but he could potentially be a number two guy or a matchups guy or somebody that is going to play in a variety of roles for your team. I think if you're the New Jersey Devils, you've got some high-octane offensive performers. You need some guys that are going to be diggers and gophers and other things. And, you know, what's Nico Heeshire's long-term future in the organization and other things like that?

A lot of questions. Alexander Command is one of those guys. It doesn't, it feels like the floor is very high, but I still think that he's reaching ceiling here. And I got a lot of, I got a lot of, I like the player a lot. Max,

we talked off camera. You compared him to Marco Casper, which I can actually, I can really see that the dots being connected there. Oh, yeah. Casper played SHL, his draft year, played it very well, played mensuel championships. I think there's a little bit higher level there, but they're close.

And like the play styles are very similar, and they don't go that far apart in their actual drafts. And what the thing, I mean, I've covered Marco Casper, right, his entire career. What coaches love about him is you can really put him in any situation. Yes, ideally he's probably going to be some kind of matchup center here.

But when you need a guy who, like Chris said, to kind of do the work, do some digging for your skill players, you can throw him up onto Jack Hughes's wing and ask him to go for check, dig below the goal line, be around the net to clean up some rebounds. These are all things that I think will suit Alexander Command. No, nobody in this draft class that I watched up front shed checks like he did. Like guys, he goes right through sticks. He stays overpucks. He's strong.

the skill level, the playmaking isn't high end in the way that it is for the other forwards that we've already seen taken, but his ability to just hold on pucks, extend sequences, play off the cycle, that's a huge, huge pro attribute. He was excellent at the men's U-18 centering the line with Elton Hermanson and Marcus Normark,

both extremely skilled wingers who have chances to go tonight. But he was the center. He was doing all the dirty work, all the two-way play. Well, those guys, let's just say, are not known for that. And I had like one scout, make a remark that he was like a daycare teacher at times, but while still having to provide the offense, which he did, and I think the way he ended his seats on such a high note

was a selling point here for the New Jersey Devils, who now get a really great two-way player to add to their system. Yep, and it's the first time. I mean, you've seen it with the Devils and Dawson Mercer even, too. Like, it's just good to have these players who you trust, who you think can do some of the harder elements of the game. New York Islanders are on the clock now here. This is an interesting one.

The Islanders stole the show of last year's draft, right? they come out of it with Matthew Schaefer, who ends up being the caller trophy winner. They also come out of it with Victor Eklin. They also come out of it with Cichon. And yet, they're not a team that has really leaned full on into the rebuild here. So as they make this pick, it's going to be interesting. And it's going to be Matthew Schaefer actually announcing this pick, which is pretty fun. They're a team that we thought might be steering into a full rebuild.

Now they look like a team that might be able to kind of rebuild on the fly, Chris. Yeah, I mean, when you get a Matthew Schaefer fall into your lap, that's a big thing. And he obviously overe exceeded our expectation. So that's a pretty incredible thing. too. And now he's going to be the face of the franchise. Here's the guy that's going to help him out. They don't have anything like Ethan Belchez. They have a ton of lefties in Romanov, Schaefer. They took Kishon-Acheson last year. They've got a ton of left-shot defenseman. That's what Maltie Gustafson represents. They don't have anything like Ethan Belchiz. I wonder if he's the pick here.

Matthew Schaefer announcing it as we speak. It's Maltie Gustafson is the pick for the New York Islander. So it's another left-shot defenseman. This is fascinating. Now you have Matthew Schaefer, Schaefer, you have Kishon, Acheson, you have multi-Gustifson. Corey, how does Gustafson slot in here? Well, one of them is playing the right side, but I think you can do that. I think that'll have shots play the right side all the time in the NHL, and I just think he maybe on a deaf chart, you didn't

love it, but to me, he was clearly the best player available right here. The big mobile defenseman, he's physical, you can make plays, he has a really good defensive traits. I think people are going to look at a stat line and not going to be impressed, not huge points of the J20

level or in the SAHL. Keep in mind, Both his HV-71 senior team and junior team. We're playing in the relegation round this year. So not a lot of help around him. What do you play in this club team? When he played with the national team, I thought he was the best defenseman at the U.A. team world championships.

Outshining names like a Keenan Verhoff who goes ahead of him in this year's draft. Really impressive two-way player. I think he projects as a top four defenseman in the NHL. And while he doesn't quite have the nastiness in the offensive, Kishon-Herson, I would argue he even defends better than Kayshaun-Hinson. Oh, yeah.

And I think he's got every bit maybe not the true meanness, like Kishon Hitchison is an enemy. Kishan actually does not like you at all. Yeah. But he's an extremely, extremely physical, competitive shot blocking size. Yeah. That's his identity. If and when this court reaches the playoffs with Gus has since 6.4.5.

Kishon H.son, 6.1.5. He played like he's 6.4. Matthew Schaefer at 6.2 with the absolute dynamic traits. That's going to be one heck of a blue line. Yeah. 10 against in the postseason. Yeah. And I think you have to feel, if you're the islanders, I think you have to feel fortunate that there was a player of that caliber in this range because I view Gustafson firmly in that group of 14 players, which basically outside of Alexander Command, who really started to disrupt and become into that group late, you know, the only one left that I haven't seen called yet is Ethan Belchitz as a guy that I felt like was kind of firmly in the vast majority of top 14, top 15s.

that's, you know, we're seeing it. So now you get this premium defenseman who really wasn't that far off from the guys that went several picks ahead of them now. Gustafson is another huge building block for this team. I had multiple teams tell me in advance of the draft when I did my poll that they had multi-Gustifson ahead of one of those 5D, whether it was Daxon Rudolph, whether it was Keaton Verhof. There were teams that felt that he belonged in that group. As we turn to Columbus here, they have been a team I have heard linked to Ethan Belcheth throughout this process. That doesn't mean they're going to pick him. And I think that Belchess, who we once thought of as a potential top five pick is here still

a pick 14, speaks to some of the maybe the hockey sense, the skating concerns. He didn't have a tremendous offensive season. He had a good offensive season. But if I was to bet, I would say that this might be where his slide stops. And Belchess is exactly what they need. They need that big sort of power winger. Belchess didn't have the draft year that many imagined. He would.

He frankly ran a little hot and cold over both of them. his two seasons. Oh, yeah. This is a kid who had, what was it, a six-point game in his second ever game as a 16-year-old, the first overall picking in the OHL. And I think it was a six-point game in his second-ever game with the Windsor Spitfires, got off to hot starts this year. He had 10 goals in his first 13 games this year and then just hit a bit of a, hit a bit of a lull.

He was brutal at the CHL USA series. And the whole encamped, yeah. I think he was brutal, but he wasn't good. Yeah, he wasn't a standout. I thought he tied for the scoring lead on that team Canada, that team Canada. But that team Canada was brutal. Yeah, great. But just very, very skilled.

Then he broke his collarbone and everything kind of got sidetracked in the second half. We'll see whether he's fully healthy, sort of coming into development camp and then beyond at Michigan State where he's committed. But just a very, very skilled, big, strong kids. I have one question for you guys, Chris Scott. When I saw Ethan, when he was a 16-year-old, talked to him, you saw just how much of a mammoth of a man he already was. Like he looked like he was, you know, 220, 2.30 of pure muscle.

We're going to have this conversation when Nazar Privalov next year who has the kind of same build. Do you guys view that as a positive or a negative when a guy is that physically developed already at 16 years of age? I definitely take note of it. And I think that there's a huge opportunity for the player to continue to grow. But you have to see evidence of that.

I do think we saw some of that this year. But the thing about Ethan, and it's a good point because when a player develops early, they are naturally, he was a number one pick in the OHL draft. He's naturally more physically advanced than his peers. You have to develop more of your game around that, which I think he's, he did.

And actually this year, I felt sometimes he didn't play big enough in games, where last year I never really got that feeling from him. I saw him play in Saginaw and Brantford early on this season in back-to-back weekends, coming out of both of those weekends, speaking with scouts at the arena, speaking with NCAA coaches who were there to watch him play. There was talk at that point. When he got off to that 10 goals and 13 game stretch, there was talk about, and they don't even take him. They take Oscar Heming here.

But there was talking about Belches as a top fight. Who argues a better skating version of Belchis. I was just going to say, I mean, a lot of the things you guys are talking about with Belches apply to Oscar Heming here, who, to Corey's point, maybe a better skater. He's another guy who joins college midseason, Corey. And he has a really positive, I think, trend from going to Boston College. Six, four, you like I said, the feet are positive. The offense is, you know, started. He got a couple of points there early in the year.

then he kind of faded into the conference games as the season went on. But he came in hot in the middle of the year. Really strange season where he tried to leave Finland to co-play major junior. A contract dispute with his Finnish team held him up. So because the federations wouldn't allow the transfer, he ends up playing college hockey, which isn't governed by any federations. A lot of legal mumbo-jumbo, just to say he had a strange thing that didn't play a lot of hockey.

But he is very talented. He has shown offense at the Huyinka Gretzky when he played Finland Jr. the year prior to go with a really high level of physicality. I can see the path for him to become a top six power winger in the national hockey league. Him and Lawrence kind of went in opposite directions a little bit in terms of their college seasons. His first few weekends, he was outstanding.

Hemming on those first three or four weekends in college was an immediate impact player. Then he had some learning to do. It kind of went the opposite direction with Warrens, where Warrens struggled early and then figured it out late. a lot to like about the skating, the power, the presence. I did hear that teams were looking into an injury concern about him over the last few days. That was one thing that came across my desk, if you will. I don't know how serious it is, but there was at least an injury question with him,

but you're betting on the profile and the speed and the skating and the size. The other interesting thing about Oscar Hemming is he is a symbol of kind of our new era in hockey, where he was under contract and decided to leave home. And the double IHF has transfer rules that don't allow you to play. So he didn't play at the under 18 worlds because he was suspended. He could not play due to this dispute that is ongoing. That is why we keep hearing the different kind of things about, you know, the NCAA is not beholden to that transfer agreement,

which has become a competitive advantage at this point for them. So that's one other thing about Oscar. Heming, why he's such an intriguing player because his is a path that is something that other European players are going to look at as opportunities. Now, it may end up sacrificing your international duty, which is a bridge that a lot of them won't cross, but it is something to watch out for it. But Heming now, he was one of those guys, like outside of Belchets, that was the next guy who was in that 15 group, even ahead of command. And so it's not really surprising to see him here. And, you know, Columbus certainly needs the size. They need the

skating. They need the skill. They've gotten it now. So intriguing player on so many levels. He was excellent in the Hohlinco last summer, too. That top line. And that was all we had for several months. And that was a good impression. Like at that point, people were like, if he doesn't play a second, he's still going in the first round. Columbus, by the way, I mean, we talk about the power profile here. They just traded for a guy who is a kind of ready made addition of the same thing into their lineup in Valerian, Natchewski. That's one of the more underrated trades of the last week. I mean, Natchewski goes from Colorado.

And look, there's been ups and downs on and off the ice for Natchewskine the last few years. But for a Columbus team that I think that there's a lot of urgency to win there, getting Nchuskin into their lineup is a pretty big move this week. Huge, huge. I mean, like, the kind of player that can make a real difference for you down, and also change the way you play. You think about having Fantilli and other guys that are going to be, that's something to be a really hard team to play against.

Hemming fits into that, too. That's the other thing is now you're seeing a little. little bit more of the structure of what Columbus is going to look like. Now, the whole Zach Werenski thing hanging over the organization right now, that's not a small thing. That's a seismic thing. The fact that there was talk that that might not get done until after the draft and now we're here, they're making picks. This is, that's seismic and that hangs over the organization at this point. So a lot left to be determined there. St. Louis back on the clock now with the second of their picks, Corey. I mean, we've talked a lot about belches. I have to imagine.

he very much has St. Louis Blues type of traits. Yes, you got to imagine. And especially with these two picks here, you got, you got to imagine he being in their wheelhouse. And like we said, the 11th pick, it seems like their strategy

going into this draft, according to their general manager, Doug Armstrong, if it's close, take the forward. And you've got to imagine that he's, I don't even know what defense will be close to him

at this point, quite frankly. And we talked a lot about them having a plethora of wingers there. They're all right shots. Like Jimmy Snuggarood, right shot. that him being a lefty, I think.

And it sounds like Robert Thomas is here to stay now. So you have divorce. You have Ty and Lawrence. All of a sudden, an organization where you said, I don't know about the center depth. Doesn't look like it has that much of an issue. It's not saying it's amazing center depth,

but I wouldn't call it an issue right now. St. Louis is actually the next two teams on the clock here because they have both 15 and 16 against 16 in that Kyru trade. I just want from each of you. Do they make both picks here in short succession? Scott first? Looks like it. Corey.

I always say you have the picks till you don't. I hate trade rumors. They're making the picks. Chris? Yeah, they're going to pick. I mean, like, unless they're, unless, unless we're not hearing something, which is possible. We're not, we're not hearing anything at this point. We're talking to you guys here and thanks to everybody that's been watching.

But, you know, really, I think if you're the blues and you do see a bell chutz at this range, I mean, how are you? I feel like he just fits into that, that whole dynamic. And the one thing that I will say about that player, and we'll talk about it more, once we see if they actually pick him. He needs to find his identity soon because I think there were times where this year where he was the skill score in times where he was the bully. He needs to find a way to combine both and he will be a great player with that.

We did a mock draft on the athletic hockey show a couple weeks ago and I had both blues picks at the time that the two, 11 and 15. And I thought maybe you could float multi-gustifson, not take him at 11. And because there was the left shot D with the Islanders, the New Jersey Devils, a lot of defense model. they just traded away Simon Nemitz earlier this week. And even the Columbus Blue Jackets have, you know, some young left side defensemen behind Zach Wrenzke.

I think that calculus certainly changes with all the Werensky stuff. But I did wonder if that was away St. Louis might try to approach this and get Gustafson here. Now that Gustafsons off the board, Corey, I mean, the board would heavily heavily favor going forward forward. Yeah, I guess like the nest defense would be Ryan Lynn, be Tommy Blale. But I don't think they fit in this range. I would guess they're more 20s guys. So I got, there's going to be forwards here.

Which forwards, I don't know. It could be, you know, it could be, you know, it could be, Elchez. It could be Elton Hermanson. It could be Gleb Pugachev. I think that's the, you know, Savanto is still on the board. He's a really good center. We'll see what direction they go here. I'm not sure if a trade's going on on because it's been the clock's been at zero here for quite some time. And maybe they aren't making both picks. Yeah, here it is. Elliot Friedman reporting that Mason McTavish is being traded to St. Louis here. How about that? Yeah. And 15 is one of the picks going. So we were all wrong.

And also to everybody saying, look at the chat, I am looking at the chat. And we, they, they were trying to help us. So that's bad hosting by me, putting you all in a position to be wrong, consecutively in a row when the information was out there. I see you. See, I, yes, chat. I mean, I said you don't make picks until you, I said you have picks until you, I said you have picks until you don't have them.

We didn't have them. Basically, Tavish in St. Louis. I mean, that's a huge development here for the St. Louis. So let me correct my statement. They have good center of depth now. Yeah, yeah. Lawrence and McTavis changes the look of that team down the middle, big time moving forward. Yeah, absolutely.

And now now if you're your, you're Anaheim, does this make that decision easy for you here, you know, at 15? You got to imagine that's what they're trading in for, right? Like, I'm looking at the premium guys left. Belch has seen, I don't want to say, seems to be obvious. Maybe it's Savanto. There's a lot of scouts who love Savanto. Yeah. A center goes out.

You might need a center going back. I don't think you can take Savanto over Ethan. I could see it. The Ducks, I'll say this. Like, the Ducks forward prospects, I think, are, we talked about how good San Jose's young players are. The Ducks forward prospects are competitive with it. When you talk about, and I'll include young players when I say prospects, but you talk about Leo Carlson, Beck at Seneca, Cutter-Goti.

These are some really, really talented players who also have size. Ethan Belch just fits that like a glove, and he has the meanness factor at a level. You know, Seneca at times, I think, plays with a little edge, but I just different level. mentioning the issue is his skating. Everyone's really worried about a 6-5 guy with really heavy boots. It's hard to get, you know, he's still a really good player. But I think it's not just, you know, the offense wasn't, it had not been a lead in junior. And the skating is a significant issue. Those are two red flags that despite all the positives in the body and the physicality and that there is some secondary skill there. I think coming into this year, we thought there would be a legit

skill. Like you heard the names Rick Nash being thrown around with him. He doesn't have that. I think he's shown he does not have that level of instinct. the level of skill. So it wouldn't surprise me if someone says, he's like a middle six wing. I don't think that. I think he could be a top six wing. He reminds me a lot of Alexei Pradesh,

but I can see how teams would arrive at that conclusion. The challenge for me is that if you're passing on him and you're taking in Oliver Sivanto, you're also not taking a player with top six skill. There aren't many players with top six skill left. Yeah. Well, maybe not worse, but it's not much better. And the guys who do have top six skill have,

whether you're a Kepov or a Herminson, there are questions with those. We're just at that point. in the draft now. Herupers to. Oh, yeah. Actually, that is a name I think could go here. Oh, wow.

So we'll see. Corey, to your point, though, about Belches and the skating, I think that goes back to the point you made to Chris earlier about the physical development and where it is in the process. When you have a tall guy, I don't get too worried about the skating at 17 usually because muscle makes a big difference. I think about some of the Michael Rasmussen's a guy that I've covered for a lot of years in Detroit. Skating got way better as he added muscle.

Belches' muscle is kind of already there. And that might make. make you feel. Yeah, the physical, the physical development of the player also, like, you know,

he's a, he's a player that has had a lot of the advantages of the different, you know, training opportunities and, and other things like, where he's done the extra stuff to get to that level as well.

And so, yeah, you're losing some, you may be losing some upside. You may be losing some ceiling there. But it's just a rare profile. But it could be Logan Brown, too, if the skating doesn't come up on.

Now he doesn't be, no, he competes way harder than Brown. But I just mean, in terms of the skating at the size. Like that isn't a res. Oh, Ethan Belches, head to head against Ryan Rubrik early in the season. You and I, we went to Windsor.

At the time, those were two top 15-ish prospects in the class. Belches blew him out of the water. He was awesome. I think he had like three points. There was skill, there was playmaking. I understand that wasn't every viewing on him. But when I've seen it, it's really hard to unsee it. And I think NHL scouts are similar.

Some of those games I saw early in the year. He was playing on a line with Liam Greentree, a 19-year-old first-round pick and Jack Nesbitt, what, 12th overall pick a year ago? He was in both of those early viewings. of him on the road he was way better than both of them yeah we'll see my guess is this is belchez and i think hurlbert has a chance to go here um but i would guess that this is belchaz like might not be two more different players in the class yeah yeah and i mean just in terms of where guys fit and yeah hurlbert doesn't strike me as a as a as that's their style but at the same time you

know mart like martin madden is is one of those guys that doesn't probably get talked a lot about in terms of like he's been in the big jobs in the NHL. He has a really good track record. I mean, you look at their drafts in the last several years, the way that they have reformatted their team. And the fact that they were so competitive this year is, is a huge credit to the work that they've done behind the scenes as well.

So Pat Verbeek has obviously, you know, come in and made a lot of different changes here. But yeah. If it is Belches. They got the 29th to. So they get two of St. Louis's four picks. St. Louis only has one more pick left. It's going to be the next one at 16.

I love Ms. McTamberton. I think he got a bad rap in Anaheim. Like, I'm not saying, I understand there's some issues there with his consistency, but I mean, that, I think this is, though, that was a really nice move there for St. Louis. You know, it's hard to get impact centers. And I'm not saying McTavish isn't impact center. He was a healthy scratch towards the end of the year. But I think he's got the potential to be a top two-line centerman. And we always say they don't become available that often. One major has just become available. Well, and Trevor Zegris last year, we just saw a young player who had struggled in Anaheim. He goes to Philly and he really is transformed in new surroundings. It doesn't go that way with every player. And certainly Trevor

Ziegress had already showed us a little bit. How about this? This is not one we were expecting here. Now, this is actually not that different from J.P. Hurlberg. So I think Corey's point there is still kind of holds. The Ducks take Nikita Kleppov, the leading score from the OHL this year, Scott. Kleppov had an excellent, excellent year. He's another Michigan state guy, not the Michigan state guy, maybe, and Ethan Belchis that we thought was going to get picked here. But there were teams over the course of this season that I spoke to, scouts that I spoke to with NHL clubs who viewed him as a top 10 talent in this draft class. It doesn't mean you take him there.

But from a pure skill, craft, playmaking, creativity, ability over the puck, half wall on the power play, he's a pretty unique player in this range. The players with those attributes are already gone by and large. And so from a pure skill standpoint, extremely, extremely interesting. The reason why I suspected Hurlberg and why they went with Kleppov is I believe there was this direct. I believe they did want to try and act. skill in this draft.

Belchez, well, I think he could be a top six four. I don't think he's a power play guy in the NHL. I don't think he's a legit top six skill type. Klepov is he was excellent this year. I just saw him at the Gold Star Camp last week. He was the best player there. You know, high end skill, high in brain,

good skater, you know, absolutely has a trajectory to being like a second, third line wing who could help a power play. Yeah, I mean, this is a really interesting one on a number of levels, but getting that high end skill, he was a guy that I think had a little bit more late buzz going both ways. There was polarizing opinions of the player.

Some people don't love the compete. Some people don't love some of the other attributes. You know, there's a lot of questions. Now, he's an interesting one too. He played for Team USA at the at the Hlink of Gretzky Cup. Did not play for them at the World Under 18 championship. He's saving it for Russia. Exactly.

And so, like, you know, that was a big, that was a bit of a tell. Not saying that that really means anything for his development, but it was, was kind of this interesting thing. But he was part of the team and a important integral player to the first U.S. team that won the first Holinkogersky Cup for them in over 20 years. And so he was a big part of that and really took a lot of pride in that. You go to the playoffs and other things and that was where I saw a couple of the concerns. It wasn't amazing in the postseason this year. And that was a, that's why I'm at least a little bit surprised by this pick, just because, you know, the way that the ducks have kind of structured their picks.

But if you wanted to add skill, there aren't a ton of guys in this class that are better at him in those hand skill categories, including a really nice release on a shot. Michigan State has one of the deepest forward groups in the country for next year. And I know they have him penciled in as a top six guy as a freshman. They view him as a PP1 guy for them next year on a team that's loaded with guys that want one of those roles. Corey, who was your comp on Cleop off? I thought of, I thought of Bjork Strand.

I thought of Jordan Eberle. Like, I just thought like these really cerebral, skilled goal scores. The athletic traits don't jump out. The compete doesn't jump out, but it's good enough. Like, I think he's got a chance to be, you know, a 20, 25 goal score, 50 points in the NHL, a guy who really helps the lineup. Now, what I think would be the, the season he had was pretty rare for an OHL rookie. So I could buy the argument

The projection is higher I would guess if you ask that ducks They think they just got a top six wing A potential guy could be a first power play guy If things could really go well I couldn't get all the way there All the way there Sorry

But I can see the argument for sure I ask the kids every year About 50 to 60 kids The same question every year As part of my player poll The question is Who is the most skilled player That you've played against in the draft

Not necessarily the best player But from a pure skill standpoint Who's the first name that you That comes out to you in your draft class, he got more votes than Caleb Malhotra amongst the OHL kids this year. That's the kind of talent that we had a better year. He was a first team all-star on the OHL this year.

I don't think Matt Hulter was even on any of any of the all-star teams. The skating, Corey, I mean, that would be the one thing that when I watched him, I think you graded at average. It's good enough. It's not a, like, for 6-0 is not like this elite twitchiness, elite quickness, but I think it's good enough. All right. So now St. Louis back on the clock here.

And I feel like, you know, we've been talking about Ethan Bell for 15 minutes straightened out here. I almost don't even know what to ask you guys anymore. But if he's, he's not off the board yet. Do you think the injury is the biggest reason for this? I mean, how do you size this up, Scott? I think it's a combination of the lost time and people falling in love with other guys. I think that's just a natural thing to happen over the course of the season. But it's also what they saw of him at the end. Those weekends that I talked about earlier in the show, those early weekends where he was blowing people away and people were talking about him as a potential top five pick in this class, that's a long, long time ago now. And even

before the injury, before he got knocked up, that last sort of three, four weeks in the OHL plus the CHL USA NTDP series, he just wasn't his best. And I think that those viewings have maybe lingered with scouts. If St. Louis uses their four picks to get Mason McTavish, Tyne, and Lawrence and Ethan Belches. It's hard not to walk away from this draft thinking. They just, like the sharks, they just fundamentally change their organization. That's a big, big praise.

I mean, and Mason McTavish, the fit in St. Louis, I think he can slot right in, too. And you have, you know, Titan Lawrence and drafting him. He's probably two years away. True, yeah, I would say. But McTavish slots into the top nine today. Right now, yeah. Absolutely.

Yeah, pretty impressive stuff. I mean, and yeah, you got to give a lot of credit to the Blues for maximizing their access. And it's Maddox Gajunet going instead. I love. This is one of your guys. This I love Maddox-Staginay. Like I, you know, he is, he is listed as a center more likely to play wing.

I think a lot of teams see him as a wing, but he's a six-foot-four guy with skill. And I think the thing is when you have the size skill combination, when you have shown enough grit and compete, which is the one thing we need to see more consistently from him on a game-to-game basis. But when he is at his peak of his game, he is competitive, he is able to score and he's able to get to the interior. He does a lot of those things well. I think he's going to be a really good player here. He was pretty high on my list as well. One of my favorites in this class, because of that six foot four frame with hands. And he can skate.

And he can skate. You know, and my comp for him was Alex Tuck. I don't think Alex Tuck's top end skating is better. But I would say that Maddox-Dajunay has put himself into a category where I think he's going to be a potential 30-goal score with the shot that he has, with the ability to do the things that he's done. Now, he's expected to go back to Quebec next year. He did explore the NCAA option. He's decided to go back to Quebec where they should have a pretty loaded team and a team that's going on a bit of a run or has a chance to go on a bit of a run in the QMJHL.

And he's going to be a leader for that team. And I think that's a good solution. And obviously the Blues have Justin Carboneau, who they allowed to go back to the QMJL, had a great season as a leader of a team that went on a deep run. You said 30 goal NHL score. He was a point per game in the Q this year. Didn't really score a lot as an underage. It was good, not great.

guys who don't really light up the Q rarely tend to become premium in HAL scores. Why do you think he's a 30 goal score? The hands. I mean the hands. The hands are absolutely hands at the size are a separating factor. I think the hockey sense is good enough. I also don't think Quebec. I don't think it's good. I think I don't think

I don't think it's good enough. I just you know, I don't think that the Quebec team that he was on this season was necessarily going to be one that allowed him to produce at a high level either. It was a very interesting year in the QMJL, a lot of very weird results across the board. but I think this is a player that, okay, if you don't love the hockey sense, everything else is there. He's a good player.

I just, like I said, I do have some concerns on whether you just got like this third line banging a forward, maybe a center, maybe a wing, still a good player, an HL player, a valuable player type, but his lack of offense. And I thought at the U-A teams, his hockey sense got exposed a little bit for me too. At times, yeah, I would say that's fair. Corey, what would be the difference between Maddox, Dajunay, and a guy who I know you like a little bit more, who you could maybe similar profile Glebukachev.

Well, one's Russian and one isn't. So the risk profile is different for teams whether people like to hear that or not. I think Pugachev is the most physical player in the draft. Unbelievable athlete. Yeah, and like the way he crushes guys, I think would be a distinction there.

But I think with Dajunet, you know, he is bigger. He is about an inch bigger, a little bit more of a natural goal score. So I think that's the difference. Both are really good players. Both, I think, playing the NHL, the second, third-lined type of player.

Do we got a trade here right now? I don't know. There's not that big, buzzy trade graphic behind Gary Bettman, but he's announcing something. L.A., I think, is targeting a center. I think that's been my understanding, and Savanto still on the board.

Oh, they're announcing the GM of the year. So let's... Yeah, but this is the guy who's the GM of the year, by the way. Eric Tulski is the general manager of the year as far as I'm concerned. Chris Lippon isn't even the GM to his team anymore. For the GM of the year.

And the NHL award will be announced. Yeah. So, yeah, it's Eric, yeah. Looks like it's going to be Bill Garan. So anyway, we move on. But the other thing I will say, too, about Maddox-Daginay, I mean, I have Ethan Belchett's ahead of it. And that's the other thing.

It's like, as much as I love Maddoxstajunay, I do look at Ethan Belchett's as the potential better fit for the blues here. So while I do love the player, you know, I think that there's, this is very intriguing that he's, that Belchett is still there. This has been the one issue from him with Dajne, and I know talking to teams they that's concerned. Is he for sure an NHL center? No.

No. I don't think he is. No. I think he's a wing. If you told me he's a center, I buy it a 16. Chris Compton and Tuck. Tuck's not a center. Yeah.

Yeah. I think Tuck has more skill, more hockey, more playmaking in his game. He might have more playmaking in his game, but I think the skill is pretty high end for Dajunay. So that's the big differentiation between you two. It's the sense. It's the vision. Yeah. I mean, well, I have vision.

He doesn't. Yeah. Yeah. You have. No. Yeah. We mentioned it earlier in the show, too, but I do think the concussion. but I do think the concussions with Dejeunay were in the back of some teams his minds in this process.

He's had a few, a couple each year here. At the risk of making this, the Ethan Belch's hour here, Corey. You just mentioned L.A. needing a center. I look at Washington. I think Washington needs a center. Ethan Belchis could slide a little bit here. I mean, Utah at 19 feels like a place that he would be a great fit, but this is getting pretty late. I think you've got to abandon plan sometimes if a certain asset comes in front of you.

And I love Oliver Savanto, but I think he's probably a third line set. center. And so I think you got you got to balance that what do you think Belch is really projected? He thinks he's the third line wing, power wing. I think he's a top. I think I like him more than everyone on the panel, Belches, that is. Now, you guys will certainly watch more than I do. I think if I think I can see the argument for Savanto over him, but I think if you start getting that next tier of centers, Brooke Fragowski, Jack Hextall, like, then I think you're really starting to squeeze me a little bit to take some of those guys ahead of Belchis. All right. And here. It is Bill Garron as the

Jim Gregory GM of the year award. And look, Bill Garon had a great year. Certainly, especially if you factor in the Olympics of it all, right? And maybe you can. I don't know if you're supposed to in the voting for this. But he pulls off the Quinn Hughes trade. And obviously he GMs Team USA to a gold medal. Is that part of the criteria?

I don't know, but it's certainly changing the NHL landscape pretty well. Yeah, I mean, I think just making the Quinn Hughes trade alone is a big move. It's a franchise changing moment. It takes a lot of, you know, fortitude to make a decision like that. And so I think, you know, that's probably going to get honored more years. But you think about, you know, I go back to like this. It should be a cumulative award probably and not an annual award because if you say, okay, well, Eric Tolski turned an awful situation with the Miko Ranton situation, turning it into Logan Stankovin.

And I thought, well, they got the third best player in that deal. But he just helped them win a Stanley Cup. I mean, like, that is, it's pretty incredible. And the Carolina Hurricanes just won a Stanley Cup and have all of their, have a first round pick in the next. That is, yeah, I actually was not aware. I was seriously not aware that you could go and win a Stanley Cup without trading your first round pick. I did not know that. I really don't care at the GM of the war.

I do, GM of the Year War. I do care what L.A. is about to do here. So if they went Savanto here, what would you guys think with Belchia still on the board? I wouldn't like it. I know. They're not far apart on my list. L.A. needs impact, guys.

L.A. needs him. Now, Savanto's young and he's a center, and I get that that's a position of premium. And then Kovatar's gone now. there's no centers at the, at the amateur level, and they're going to need center help with the NHL. Where L.A. stands with Kopitar retiring, they need something to go really, really right for them to get back into contention, right?

Especially they're in a division with the Anaheim ducks. They're in a division with the San Jose Sharks. This is a break, much like Chase Reed going to the Seattle Cracken. This is the kind of break that the Los Angeles Kings need. And I feel like true power skill wingers in the NHL have become as hard to find as centers. I don't think, our commenters think you're like a bell chest truther, right? I am a Belcher's truther. It's fine.

I just don't think Suvanto makes any plays. Like, for a six-three, for a six-three sender, his game offensively is extremely vanilla. He did have a brutal second half. I would be, what do you have, like, zero goals in like 15 junior games? I would be sure. I would be shocked if he's pros.

He didn't produce against pros. For a guy. Exactly. A week, a week way of being 27 eligible, he produced at the national team. He was one of their best players of the world juniors. That's true. That's true.

I know it's true. Thank you. Well, you had to make one good point. It's been a while. Well, we're losing Steve here. I will say about Savanto. First game of the season, NHL season starting is H.Lingha Gretzky. First game of the year I go to was Canada versus Finland. Canada has their plethora of first rounders on the ice, including Ethan Belchis.

Savanto was the best player in that game. He dominated team Canada and all their great defensemen, Carls, Rudolph, Verhof, Ryan, Lynn, he pinned them in their end. Atlanta DuPont was on that team. That was 10 and a half months ago. I'm aware what the summer was, but my point is there is... What's the best case scenario for him? Like, what's the best case scenario for his progression?

I think, like, Shane Pinto, I think. Because Pinto is also not a great skater of the offense. I think, or Selke Kandidat, at least. Got votes. Yeah. Yeah. I think that's, you know, I mean... What if they take neither of him here?

You look at Lundell when he was a late birth in his draft. You look at this guy who was a couple days away from being eligible for next year's draft. I don't think if you separate them by 12. months. Lundell was ahead, but I don't think he was dramatically ahead, but now there's a trade. All right, there's a trade being announced. We'll see what that's going to be. Utah mammoth

have traded up. I just said this would be a pretty good, Utah would be a pretty good spot for his name. You guys want Belchitz? I mean, he fits what they want to a T. I mean, Bill Armstrong's probably salivating right now to get a 6-5 winger with legit skill. The team that already has Lawson Krause on

their team. Yeah. I mean, and Yeah, and Daniel Boot, yeah. Like, I mean, they've got... Cole Bo Dwen down the middle. Yeah, I mean. They are going to be a big, mean team to play against. Which is great because then you still have Cooley and you have Keller. You have that balance.

Like, that's the thing that I think... Tijiga. Yeah. I mean, they've got so much coming up. I mentioned San Jose earlier, but I think once you get past San Jose, you're talking about Utah in terms of... They're in the conversation for sure. I mean, Utah's already made the playoff here. If you're Utah, would you try to make like a splash trade this in?

you be willing to deal from that? Yes. From the top of it to go after one of the top players. I think the radar to your corner, you saw there were like a top 10 possession team last year. Get a little bit more consistent goal tend and get a high impact, high scoring player into that lineup. And you see some of those young kids produce come along.

You got to imagine some of those locomotive Russians, Dimitri Simech, Daniel Boot, Maverick, Lamru are going to start pushing here soon. I think they're close to becoming a contender. I'm talking about dealing from that class of player, though. But they have so many of them. Lamaroo could play on the team next year for all we know. Not all these kids are going to play. Scott was saying to us earlier that he thinks T.J. Ginn was on the team next year.

I think they think Tijuana was on. Caleb did not a fourth overall pick probably thinks he's close. Not all, there's always so many roster spots on a team last I checked. That's true. Tucson Roadrunners are going to be fun to watch next year if nothing else. I mean, like this is this is really on flow hockey. Exactly right. Thank you very much, Scott.

Well, Michigan State's probably thrilled if they take Belches because they'll wait like, they'll wait at least two years. give them time in college. Yeah. They don't have any. Yeah. I mean, I, I, I, I have, you have to think, like, I mean, it just seems like a Bill Armstrong pick.

But so could be Pugachat. I mean, frankly, like, Corey, I think you had Pugachev tiered in the same. Watch them come up again, like, Liam Ruck or something like that. Yeah, if they go, they go small and skilled, and they're like, yeah, we got, we got heard they like Ryan Lynn. Well, they actually did just, in the Paterka trade, didn't they just get a pick that they could use to go Ruck Ruck Ruck. I mean, 45, 45, was the 45 that they got?

No, they got. another one in the first for uh from oh yeah yeah 23 i think it is 23 so now we're so now we're yeah you're on rock watch we're on rock we're this would be early right this would be really this would be really this would be pretty uh i think we're getting there i think it's earlyish but we're getting there yeah i mean like the thing is is belchitz is still on there exactly and when you trade up it has to be somebody you're super passionate about it's not just someone you like uh then you got to imagine if you think about what the utah mammoth tend to prioritize you got to imagine they're not just happy to get belchette's why you're not just happy to get belchette

Washington tends to prioritize stuff like this too. The team that employs Tom Wilson, they have both promises. Washington also has about 500 wingers. So you could, my point is you could tell a pretty good story that, okay, Utah didn't think that one of those two guys, whether it's Pugachev or Belchitz is getting past Washington and they had to jump Washington to go get him. Let's see what Gary Bettman has to say. This is riveting. Here we go.

He's slow playing me. He's messing with me. This is baited breath. What's happening? This is great television. Here we go. People. All right.

That's fine. We'll go back to talking about it. The Utah Mammoth, Chris, this is my question about the Mammoth. When you have Logan Cooley and Dylan Genther, and these are kind of your next wave of stars, they keep Nick Schmaltz, right? Yeah. Is this a team that can kind of merge those cores successfully? And, you know, as you break in all these young players that we're talking about, you kind of still have established NHL scoring talent that can carry the load until they're ready

to be impact guys. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think that's kind of the way it feels like they're building is like, and it's also like interestingly like how many of those guys are you know a lot of them are former coyotes now coming into the now original mammoth guys that are you know part of this organization there's a lot of things that play there i mean you think of what they're doing as an organization as a whole building a new practice facility starting to really sew their oats a little bit here as as an nchl franchise there will be that transitional phase but gosh that group that they still have now is so good where it

feels like hey we're buying ourselves some time with some of these players we're getting those guys like, you know, De Noia, whether or not he's on the team next year, T's whether he's or not, he's on the team next year, they're, you know, no more than two years away, it would feel like. So they've got a lot of good things going right here. And this is an organization that I think is definitely building momentum in a market that is right for some real growth. And so I'm excited to see it. Obviously, you know, I think any of us want to see hockey continue to grow throughout the country. but like, you know, they've got a lot of work to do still to just continue to build that relationship. Have you been to see a game there yet?

I haven't been there yet, but like that I'm very much looking forward to it. So I had been to Salt Lake one time before and I liked it, right? I mean, the mountains are an easy sell. I was really impressed with Salt Lake City there and I was really impressed with the passion of the fan base. I was walking around and I think I kind of like nine, ten different player names on the back of jerseys and that area. Like that market has really taken to the man. Yeah. And I think now you just increase, you enhance that relationship here.

as we get ready to see who they ultimately are going to select. Yeah, good thing we didn't just stop talking. Sit there in silence and wait for that whole promo reel. Was that Patrice Bergeron? I don't know why this was. Yeah, so the group that's announcing the pick is from the team that was, you know, had that tragedy in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, who, you know, one of the players had lost family members in a shooting and they're now announced the pick.

So they did get a visit from Patrice Bergeron, and I'm sure that they were slotted to make a pick here in the middle of the range. And then also the players have been the ones handing the players doing the runners and handing the players the jerseys and all those different things. Because normally the team would have their own representative, but these guys are there wearing their jerseys. I mean, a remarkable story. And yeah, it was really cool to see Patrice Bergeron, obviously a lot of Bruins fans in that group in Rhode Island to go do that. So now we're getting a great moment on the draft floor, which is really, you know, we've seen some really great emotional moments over these last couple of years.

And now we're getting a chance to see this is a big moment for Utah as well. And they're going to be part of this emotional moment. Absolutely. Here's the pick. It's coming. We've been clicking at a pace here and that pace. Has the trades really changed the pace. Yeah, for sure.

Starting to St. Louis. At 15, that trade, they go all the way on the clock. Actually, past probably the clock. And then we reset here. But you can tell the emotion in the audience, a really touching moment, even though I don't have the audio on, I can't really hear what's being said. The actions tell you the story. Max, you're obviously covered the Red Wings full time.

Were you surprised that Larkin didn't get moved today? No, I'm not. Because I think once the flurry of action happened earlier this week and a lot of the picks that would have probably enticed Detroit to make a move, just didn't, you know, the interesting one would have been Seattle. Like if Dallas had gotten that seventh pick from Seattle, that was one that could have made a lot of sense for them. But once a lot of those top 10 picks are out of play, what's Detroit's rush to do a deal

right now? I don't think the piece you're looking for. Especially if his list is as short as has been reported. And there is Ethan Belches. So his weight ends, Scott. And we've talked about him enough. But I'll go back to here and just to me, you know, to me, I see a player here that's a unique skill set. I know it wasn't consistent the whole year.

But for Utah, this is a great spot to get a guy. You look around the league at some of the bright success stories that have come out of the NHL draft. I'm not talking about top 10 picks, but the players who've been picked in the second, third round, who've had sort of impacts here in recent years. And I immediately go to Matthew Nyes. And that's a player who I know that Ethan has talked a little bit about. We talked earlier, is there such a thing as being too big, too early? I think we've seen it play out with Colby Barlow and the lack of sort of continued development

that Colby Barlow has had. And Colby was kind of looked that way. He had the beard and he was physically mature at a really early age. But then there are other guys like a Matthew Nyes, like an Arneck, who had that early on and just stayed bigger and stronger than everybody else. And this is a kid who we've all been in the same room as him. He's going to walk into an NHL locker room tomorrow or next year for his first training camp after Michigan State, whatever it is.

He's immediately not just going to be a big kid in that locker room. He's going to be bigger than everybody else on the roster. He's going to add something to an NHL roster, except Danil Bout maybe, although he's a thicker kid than Danil is. But just that is so, so, so hard to find. And to find it almost in the 20s is, I think, a coup here. And I think he's going to get the development time. I think he's a two-year college player,

maybe even a three-year college player, given that the need to develop the skating and given that Utah has so many options to work with that, you know, in terms of young players, there's no need to rush this player. It's going to get to the pro level. I mean, you're going to have loss in Kraus for the next two or three years

are probably the rest of Lawson Krause's prime. And then Ethan Belch's is going to enter and I think play a pretty similar role, maybe with even a little more touch, I would say. Yeah, I mean, I would expect his offense to come a little bit more. But yeah, I think you're now putting his development in the hands of a very capable staff at Michigan State, the opportunity to continue to grow the chance to earn ice time too, where he hasn't, you know, like he's been a top guy for so long. He's not going to go in and immediately be the guy there.

He's going to be an important player, but not immediately. be the guy. Great lesson for him to learn as he kind of goes into this mode here. But I think if you're, I think if you're Utah, you have to be thrilled here to get this player. I think it's worth moving up and worth making a, making a good choice here. I really like him a lot. You know, I do think that there's, there's plenty to pull out of them. And I just, like I said, I just want to see him find that identity as a player where he's able to more seamlessly meld that competitive, hard, heavy game with that skill game that he does possess. This has been the Chase Reed and the Ethan Belchish show so far in terms

of the amount of air time they've gotten. That's the fallers, though. It's always notable. It is. That's Aaron Rogers, right? I'm not saying either of those guys is Aaron Rogers, but that's how it goes. We expect a guy to go high and we don't see the name. We wonder why. And we, you know, that becomes the conversation. Now, Washington's assistant general manager,

Ross Mahoney, who runs their drafts did indicate his preference, quote unquote, would be to get a big center in this year's draft. There's one there. I'm looking at a six foot three center who fits in this range at Savanto. I know you guys all hate him, but I, but I think like this seems to be one that's tending to line up here. I don't see any other big centers on the list. I might be missing somebody obvious, but there's not, I mean, there's only so many big centers who have Brooks, Raghavsky. That is a, that is a big center. There's, you can also, you have hockey questions on

Savanto. There's more hockey questions on Raghavis. Yeah, I agree. No, but I, I, I, and the thing is, is that Washington has not picked a lot of fins. That's something that it was pointing. That's it out exclusively to me because I believe I mocked him in one time by a lot of Washington fans. And they never pick a fit. I've heard that too. Yeah, but I, but I think in this, in this instance, there's a first time for everything. And I do think that that's a, that's a possibility. Savanto was one of those guys that was very consistently in the teens and in, in, uh, pulled rankings. There are a lot of teams that do believe, despite the fact that there are some offensive questions, his be, you know, his B game is pretty significant. Like,

where there is an ability for him to be a matchup sky, a guy that is hard and heavy to play against. I think his world juniors was one of those indicating moments. But we'll see. I mean, like, that's the, now you're looking in Washington, what are they going to do? There's also, they've loved their W.H.L. guys, too. That's, so.

So Ryan Lynn, Hurlberg would be what would be those guys. I think that I think it's mostly Western Canadian. Not just, not just Western. That's true. That's true. That's very fair. Very fair. Washington has had one of the most interesting off seasons in the NHL.

Oh, my goodness. They trade the pick to get Jordan Kaira. They also make a trade to get the signing rights to Alex Tucker, who they immediately extend. We don't have word

on Alexander Ovechkin's plan for next season yet. But with or without him, it is a very loaded winger core they have when you factor in Alexi Protas, when you factor in Ryan Leonard, Tom Wilson.

You know, the centers are the question. I don't think whoever they pick here is going to help next year. Look at their more recent picks, too, Terric Parasack, Andrew Kristol. Like, it is just... I think they think Ilya is a center.

Morost, Chancow. Yeah. I mean, yeah, it's a lot of wings. Strom Dubois and Ilya Protoz. I mean, they've traded away Hendricks LaPierre as well as part of the soft season. But are Strom Dubois and Ilya Protoz a good enough one, two, three centers to get, I mean, they're in a division with the Stanley Cup champions. It's a tough road. But is that a competitive enough trio of centers? Competitive enough, but you're, you're wishing for a little bit more offense, but I think it's competitive enough. I think I think I'llia Proto is a real player.

like I think he goes top 10 if you redo that draft. Oh, yeah, yeah, he's all day. He was incredible in the HL this year with Hershey. He was incredible in Windsor. Yeah, he was incredible in Windsor. He was what they probably were hoping that Ethan Belchrez was going to be for them. There were, there were quite a few teams that were like saying, you know, when we, when we talked to the scouts and like, where do you think guys are going? All of a sudden, towards the end of the year, you're saying Ilya Prodis when he was playing with the Des Moines Buccaneers in the USHL.

And he didn't produce. He did not produce. And then all of a sudden, bang, he had an amazing season in the OHL, another great. season last year. That's why they have scouts. So that's and that's why they do their thing. And that's why, you know, sometimes player cards don't always tell you the full story. I think Washington, don't be mean like that. Washington is going to be kind of the, the aspiration for a lot of teams that want to rebuild on the fly. I mean, this was a team that looked like it was headed for a true gut it rebuild. And they've managed to get back to competitiveness. Spencer Carberry obviously has a big

hand in that. But even the way they've retooled the roster, getting chikered and now talk. And, you know, I think Matt Roy was a great ad. And it is. It's all. Oliver Suvanto for the capitals, Corey, just like you wanted it to be. Vindicated. Yes, I think, you know, the 6-3 guy, there is offense, there is playmaking in his game. He is competitive.

I think there's a lot of good things about this player's game. Is it high-end skill? No. I think, you know, because I think you got to weigh all the evidence. You see the guy who's performed an international play, who's been in a first-line center, but you also got to consider the fact that after he was sent down to the finished J-20 league, he had something like six points in 20 games in a really,

like, not a league that doesn't. not tend to produce NHL players in their draft season. So there's some concerns there. Like, I think you've got to be realistic. But I think the, listen, there were scouts I talked to when he was lighting it up, not lighting up. After he had the good Hulika Gretzky and then he had a really good start to this league of season. There were scouts that were talking to tell me he was going to go top five.

Now, Tyler Lawrence at one point, it's going to go top five. And Ethan Belcher's at one point was going to go top five. You got to watch, watch all the games and away all the evidence. But I do think he has talent. And I think that, you know, he's got a really good chance to be a middle six-enter in the NHL. Yeah, I think he does too. I think the ability to play the matchups and the other things that he has in his

game. And the way that he was relied upon, like, you know, Finland did name him one of their top three forwards at the world juniors, which was in large part because they could just put him in any situation and he was going to deliver something positive for them. And so I do think like, he didn't, he still didn't produce. He did not produce. He had what? He did not produce.

But I think that's pretty. Three points at U18 worlds and we're talking about him as a standout from the tournament. he was one of their best players. I mean, at the, at the world juniors, I think it was the not producing was not the problem. Like that was not the problem. That's been his game every step of the way here. Like every time I've watched him play,

he's in the offensive zone. He's holding the puck on the cycle. He's winning battles. And then he, and then he changes. Like, that, that finishing play, the play. And Vigo Bjork, we've talked about it on the show too. Vigel Bjorke, you could probably make a similar case

that ego didn't, you love seeing him on the puck, you love seeing the playmaking, but he didn't actually maybe produce as in line with what you're seeing in the player. I think Suvanto is that to the extreme. Like you have to make the finishing play. You have to make skill plays to play in the NHL at lower levels.

So if they want a center, who would you have taken instead? You don't take a center. You take, you take Ryan Lynn, you take, like, there are options here, and maybe you don't take a winger, but there are, there are options here.

Would you, would you rather have, this is a, this is a dumb question, but would you rather have Ryan Lynn? Like, you have Cole, you have Cole Hudson.

I think you can have both. You can have both, but not a lot of teams would agree. I would say, like a lot of teams, you can't have both, but I think they did, the hurricanes just did it.

Like with Walker. The Colorado, Abelanch did it five years ago. They're, so, Gerard was hurt during that. But yeah, but yeah,

but like that's, that's going to be, That's going to be the kind of the argument is so I would see like that's where, you know, if I'm Washington, I'm looking at that, maybe that's part of my discussion because as we mentioned, they like the Western Canadian players, but apparently not that one. Well, the last time they took a center in the first round was Hendricks LePierre, who they just traded, and Connor McMichael, who they just traded. So I understand from the position, they're like, okay, next center up.

And I know people are going to squirm and say it, but it's always best player available. I can assure you they are not the first team to say, where the general manager says, give us a setter. All right, we're going to take a quick break right there. We'll come back with the LA Kings are ready to pick. All right, we are back. L.A. Kings on the clock. They were already on the clock once here.

But now we're starting to thin out. I don't think there's an obvious best player left court. There's two guys for you in your upper tier, Glebukachev and Casey Mutron. Yeah, but I also think L.A., like Washington, is going to say that they're going to want to improve their center deaf. I have heard them link to Jack Hextall. This might be early for Hextall.

It wouldn't surprise me if this is, This is the name you hear, but the LA also needs a lot. This isn't like a very deep farm system. I would say it's one of the bottom five or so farm systems in the NHL right now, especially after trading away Liam Green, trading away Liam Green Tree. So we'll see what they do here. Scott, what do you think the need is for L.A.?

The need is everything, to Corey's point. They took Bruce Savage last year. Taking Bruce Davis does not mean that there's no longer a need on D. They have goalies, but there are no goalies that are going to go in this range regardless. so you're taking a forward or a D here. My guess, I've also heard Hextol. I don't think Ryan Lynn lasts much longer here. Hurlbert's in this mix.

Like, we're starting to get into that tier here. And it's Elton Hermanson. This fits, right, with what you're saying, right? Because the way you're basically talking about, they need everything. So how about going to get one of the most purely skilled players in the class? And Hermanson, like, puck on his stick inside the offensive zone can break open a game. He can break open a game with his shot. he can break open a game one-on-one, made some of the more creative one-on-one plays that I saw any of the players in this draft class make.

The question with Hermanson throughout the year was sort of wavering compete level at times, times where you wanted to see him play a little bit harder, be a little bit more involved. But he was big and big moments for them still. And we were, I remember sitting in Bratislava with Corey, and we were talking about sort of the up and down tournament that he'd had. And then in the games that mattered, he scored. and then he scored in the next game that mattered, and he made plays, and they won the gold medal. And it was the same thing at the pro level this year. This is a kid who scored in line with,

and frankly, he goes in a similar range to David Pasternack, but scored in hockey Al Spenskin in line with players like David Pasternack and it's produced against men, which not a lot of these kids did. It's not small. He's six one and a half. It's a swing. It's average size, but it's really high in skill. Maybe you're getting Pashtenac.

Maybe you get Eddie Scholey, who went around this range too. That's the risk here. I think with scouts, the one thing with Hermanson that they liked is he didn't just, yes, you saw the junior games. There were some off moments, some inconsistent efforts. You saw the elite skill. But when he played against men, he did play effectively. It wasn't tremendous production at the hockey house fenskin level in Sweden, but he still was able to help his team and help and score and show some pro habits that you think, okay, we can work with this.

Chris, Hermanson, to me, you know, when you talk about what L.A. has lacked, there's, there's just not a lot of sizzle in the L.A. King's game. He can bring sizzle. He does. Yeah, he brings sizzle. And I think that that's a reason that I had him a little bit higher on my board as well is because there is that dynamic element. We talked a lot about how there are guys that may have the dynamic element, but they have flaws. I mean, like guys that have gone already, Dajunay, Klepov, I mean, others that have skill. But there are things in their games that you maybe don't love. I think that with Hermanson, you are banking on scoring. And that's what he can do. And that's what will do, I think. And to Corey's point, the fact that he was still effective against men goes a long way with a lot of teams. It gives them a lot more confidence to make that decision. He was my BPA here. He was 15th on my list. Once you got through those 14 names that we spent all show talking about,

Hermanson was my next guy. All right. On the clock now is the Buffalo Sabres. They've made one pick already. It was the first surprise of the draft decks and Rudolph, but that's a clear projection here. Open board for a deep, deep system now, Corey. How do you look at this from Buffalo's perspective? and they have so much of everything. And like they've got talent at center and ID, young talent. You know, obviously, I think they're, they may goalies, they can use a little bit more, but there's no goalie here that makes sense.

You know, take a swing on a high skill guy, I think. Take a swing on a unique athletic profile. Like, I think there's a, there's a, they have a real opportunity with this pick to try and add a player that might be considered more risky to some if there was, if there was an only first round pick. So that would be Lynn,

Harlbert, Blile. I think that, you know, there's, players usually call that injury risk players fall into that into that pool so we'll see one name i've heard they really really like is celia morozov so i i wonder about him here six three center who's not the most skilled player but physically mature going to play i think they need a little bit more size within their lineup we've helenius benson olslin they're all kind of five nine five ten five eleven and I do wonder about Morozov as a potential sort of third line center of the future for them here.

And I know that I know they like them. I have to say when the night started, I would have been shocked to find out the Buffalo Sabres made both of these picks. I don't know if, again, we had this earlier with St. Louis. I don't know if they've already traded this and I just don't realize it. Yeah. Should I check the chat? Yeah, check the chat. Let me know if Buffalo's traded this.

What's popping? Are we surprised they didn't trade the four? I thought they would trade one of the two. I think you could definitely justify making the fourth pick because it's such a rare chance to add a premium asset. You don't get that chance when you're a good team anymore. And so I get making that one. But I kind of felt like this one would get traded for a now player. Yeah, but it's tough to know, right? Like I think like we saw the two first round picks that it would have cost to get a Mason McTavish and different things.

You have to have the assets here. And while we've seen the trade market get pretty active and other things, like I just think that in this range of the draft, that's when you start. falling out of you're not getting those guys that teams have to have. And so that's kind of an interesting part of it as well. And so the other thing is hosting the draft, there does come some amount of pressure to that. And I do think that that's also, it was a sold out draft on top of it. So, you know, like, you know, I'm hearing from a lot of people that were like, I thought I could get tickets. Normally you could, not this year. So, you know, I think that that was a part of it as well. And it's not a big factor, but it's a factor nonetheless. And so now, now that you, now that

you're in this range, you got great opportunities here. I think because you've already made that big pick up at the top, you can continue to make that swing. And now the pick is in and they're going to make the pick and a great opportunity once again for the Sabres to continue building on a team that is already pretty darn competitive. All right. So as the Sabres get ready to make their second pick of the night here, Corey, do you pretty, I mean, you've talked about how, I don't know, I don't know if we talked about this on camera now, but you and I have talked about you don't know, especially with some of the departures here, losing talk, losing Byram, where they stack up in the Atlantic next year. Right now, playoff, no playoff. How would you size up the Buffalo Sabres for next season?

Right now, no playoff. Okay, and it is Ilya Morozov. One of the youngest players in college hockey, yeah, very good call. Illiam Rose of one of the youngest players in college hockey, Chris, and at the Miami University of Miami of Ohio, what does he bring to this organization? They just traded away Anton Wahlberg, and I almost wonder if there's some rhyme there. Well, yeah, you know, I think what Morozov is is a very incomplete picture at the, a moment, but he's an exciting opportunity for a team. I think he's a bit of a project. He goes into college year early at Miami University in Ohio. Just I don't, I don't want chat to get after us on that one.

Miami University. I know. My apologies. So, yeah, but my, but Morozov has the size. I think there is a bit more offense to game there. I've seen some big time plays from him. Now, Miami was a program that was in dire straits two years ago. He comes in early, which I think was a great job by their staff to make sure that he was able to get eligible and do all the things he needed to do to get in early. And he comes in and he is an immediate impact player despite being one of the youngest players in college hockey. Last year at the fall classic of the USHL, I came away. I was like, this guy is, there were some things he was doing there that I was like, this guy is going to be special. He had to adjust and there's still been more adjustment in college.

I think he has a chance to be a transformational player for that program. Certainly going first round is going to help that. But I think the best is yet to come for him. And he's maybe there for a year or two more, but good development ahead. And that's a guy that I think will score as a middle six kind of probably third line center. I know teams really challenged him at the combine, too, on we don't think you have offense. Convince us that you have offense. Did he score a goal afterwards?

No, but that's been the conversation around Morozov. He got off to a great start. He was their first line center at Miami, was extremely productive. in that early part of the season. And then he went, I think it was like a 15, 16 game stretch without a point late in the year. And he finished, he did finish a little bit stronger towards the very final home stretch of the season. But the question is sort of, we love the size.

We love, like, you see him around the rank. He's, he's not Ethan Belchese, but this kid's, he's. We had Corey's tool grades up on the screen. I mean, below average hockey sense, that's the big question with him. Your comp on him is a guy Sabers fans will be very familiar with Zemgus-Gergensen. Yeah, and obviously, like, you always have some concerns when guys, I have the non-conference games in college, and then when the conference schedules start, they vanish a little bit.

Who did he have to play with, though? Yeah, I know. I understand. And, you know, the numbers were not, were good, not great. USHL good, not great. Correct. You know, like, I think there is skill there. And there have been, like Chris said, there have been ties.

I have watched him where I was buying. I'm like, okay, middle six center, top 15 pick. Like, he's got a real chance to play, you know, heavy minutes, significant secondary offense in the next level. level. Then you watch him that second half and you think like, is this just a less mean Charlie Stramble? Now, Charlie Stramble went right at this pick. And I feel three, four years later, he looks like he should have gone higher in that draft after what was initially a really tough year or so after he was drafted. So, you know, maybe three years from now, we're talking

about Morozov as a first team NCHC player. Yeah. Who's playing heavy minutes, who's, you know, lighting up opponent and scoring. And it's a Hobie candidate. Maybe that's a, the case. I couldn't get there like a coach stramble during the draft, but I see how you could draw the line there. Yeah, for sure. For sure. And I had him like 27th on my list. Like, and the offensive concerns were there. But I definitely can

see this player continuing to mature into one of the better college hockey players. I think Miami is on the way too. There's going to be a better recruiting class coming in. They're going to continue to build. They're continuing to gain some reputation again. Getting a guy like Ilyam or Roseoff at the top end there, pretty impressive.

All right. So the Philadelphia Flyers are on o'clock now. They're one of the most interesting teams to me because we talked about the Washington Capitol's rebuild on the fly. Philly wasn't coming from the heights that Washington was coming from, but they've kind of taken a similar approach that they've tried to stay competitive. They've made a couple of really high impact picks. Mavey Michkoff, Porter Martone. They're both on the wings. Where are the center is coming from? I don't think Jack Hextall is related to another famous Hextal in Philadelphia, but he would be the best center left on the board here, Corey? I think so. I think Brooks Rogowski's up there too. I don't, but yeah, both of them are probably

third line centers and that's you know i think that but you still got to talk about because i think if you they have jet lichenko they have jack nesbit they have jack bergland all of them are something along the line of second the third liners you think i think lichengel may actually have to be a wing but i think nesb could be a second line center i think bergling would be a third line center you add another potential third line center you hope as time evens out one misses one becomes a third liner one becomes a good a good two or something like that so i wouldn't just because they've taking some centers were not high upside. I wouldn't discount a Hextol or Raghowski here. Scott, you, in your work earlier this year, am I crazy? Was there someone who comped Jack Hextol

or at least having a chance at a Nick Suzuki like impact? Am I crazy? Yeah, the staff in Youngstown have been, have been kind to Jack. No, that's, that's, God, that's great. He's good. He's not going, he's never going to be Nick Suzuki. Nick Suzuki had already shown more offense, etc., etc., etc. but he's the two-way details, well-rounded center. I have heard, not that I'm going to try and go back to back here, but I have heard Maxim Sokolowski, the tower in London. I know that the flyers like him. I don't know whether this is maybe a little early for Sokolowski,

but he was a name that generated a lot of sort of talk in the second half of the season after a very, very difficult start to his OHL career with the London Knights. Where to Lammaroo go? Lamarou went 23. The comp that people have used for me when I talk to people in London, when I talk to people around the O HL, the comp that they used for him is Zadarov,

who went 18 and Stanley who went 16, or one of them went 16, one of them went 18. Those guys were more polished than Sarkhorov. I was going to say, I had a conversation with Scouts about the Zadarov one, because I've heard that too.

Zaderov had, I think, triple the production. In London, they both wanted nights. Yeah, I mean, like, that's the thing is like, and this would be, way early for me, but I still think that their, his postseason run, his late season run, team saw a guy that could play in the playoffs.

Team saw a guy that was using his stick and his length well. They saw a guy that was physical. He's a guy that wasn't beyond, you know, like the pace wasn't beyond him, even though like the feet are okay, you know, so like that's, that's okay or good for the size. Good for the size. Yeah, which is okay. Okay, whatever. Whatever.

But yeah, but I mean, like, I think that. that that's that's going to be that that be tough but like yeah it's like where else do they go here like again like we get into this range of this and you're going to see wide ranging opinions I think you're going to see guys that you know weren't on really any public list this is the start of Tommy Blyle like the 20s can they do that can they do that with what they have right now everybody in philly keeps telling me they need a power play quarterback of the future I don't think he's a top tier guy but I think a top tier guy in the league who still the league consensus scalpel is Adam Nevatni he's still on the board

right now. I wonder, I wonder about him because we haven't really talked about him that much, in part because he didn't have a great year. And playoffs. Yeah. Playoffs were rough, yeah. So, like, I do wonder if this is right around the range, we start having that conversation about Novotny. Yeah, and that's where I would, I mean, he would be the next player on my list. So, like, you know, I think that there's, he's not a guy that I think you get

really excited about, but he's a guy that's going to play. I think he's going to play. I think he's going to play for quite a few years. Excellent skater. He's built like an ox. He can rip the puck. back in and of itself is a player. It would be another winger, but I think with the centers they drafted and Jack Berglins' positive progression,

I don't think there's a pressing need other than maybe defensemen. No, the pressing need is for a first-line center and you're not getting that. Or a dynamo on defense, and there's not one of those either. If you're just thinking upside, what about J.P. Hurlbert?

It's possible, I think. Yep. Yep. I think that would definitely be in range here. Along similar lines there. Although, given that they're taking their time. I was just going to say, I'm getting deja vu here.

Hey, chat. What we got? What we got, chat? We got chat. They showed us the inside look, too. The ESPN broadcast showed the look at the flyer's draft room. They're just hanging out there. They're just like, hey.

It's like we're staring at each other. I mean, the pick may be in. I don't know. The pick is not in. So. Well, let's ramble now since we're waiting for this. Well, chat's not helping. Chat's saying nothing right now.

All right. Thanks, chat. Did could, you know, when you think of the top five, top eight, 10 players from last year's draft, did any one of the one of the last year's draft, of them have a better year than Porter Martone. Matthew Schaefer. No, well, outside of Shafer. I'm talking about guys outside the NHL right now, kind of I think.

No, you'd have to say no. Like, Frondell had a night, had some nice stretch. It was the end of the NHL. But I remember when we were doing this, you know, our draft coverage, one of the big conversation with the Flyers last year is they got to take our center here. It's got to be Higgins. It's got to be Jake O'Brien. But then they go and get, and then they go up and they take Porter.

And I think Martone is not only a lot. ahead of Hagen and O'Brien. He's clearly ahead of the guys. Oh, yeah. So here's what the delay was on the Philly pick. So the San Jose Sharks are trading up to the 21st overall pick, right? They were originally at that 20th pick. They flipped it with Buffalo earlier in the week in the Michael Kesselring trade,

back to number 27. Now they're trading up from 27, along with 62 and 120 for 21. And it's your boy, Pugachev, that I'm thinking here. It's very possible because they are an organization that's been willing to gamble on Russians, obviously they did that with Chernton Shepharnshaf a couple of years ago. I'm looking at the list, you know, maybe it's Lynn, maybe it's Novotny, those would be the names that would come to mind. The idea of coming out of this with Evar Stenberg, Heaton-Verhoff, and Ryan Lynn to me is...

That's a haul. It's just greedy at that point. We've already called them the best farm system by a mile. Yeah, certainly your blue line looks different. That's your best available, right? I mean, I think you said Novatni was there, but Linus is your best available. By my, I have Lynn 10 on my list. I actually said earlier that my best available was Hermanson, and it wouldn't have been

Hermison. It would have been Lynn. So I misspoke there. Yeah. Yeah. Because this is, this is interesting, though, because now, well, we saw the fist pumping going on in the room, too, when the trade came through. So obviously, they're really excited about the guy that they're going to get here.

Also, for Philly, we were just, we were struggling to figure out who they should take. Maybe they were too. That was the, that's the move to do when you don't, just get more operational. So they get three picks out of the deal. Especially you're talking about Rikowski. Like Rikowski could be there. Yeah, you could be. Certainly could be.

I think you, I'll see you talking about a 23. That would scare me if you're looking at Rikovsky. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I mean, Pugachev's still up there too. So, yeah, he is up there. I think Hector will,

could be there. Yeah. So there's a lot of options. But now, yeah, now if you're, if you're San Jose and you're loving your night. Let's see who they came up to get. All right. They didn't wait.

Which I love, by the way. When you trade for you guys, you know how much time for. Take, don't take it to the stage. Let's see. Here we go. What are you got, Gary? Give us the good news here, Gary.

So this is, this is Ryan Lynn. It's Ryan Lynn, Scott. This is your guy. This is my guy. I've stuck my neck out on him a little bit over the course of the season. I think he's going to be an excellent, excellent NHL defenseman. He's competitive. He's mobile.

He thinks the game at among the highest levels in this draft class. He's physical for his size. I think he surprised some people with his athleticism at the Combine. Maybe that pullaway gear he hasn't always had that. He's great edges, surfs well, closes out gaps. All of that is a hallmark, frankly, of Ryan Lane's game. But that sort of pullaway straight line gear hasn't been. Then he performs really well in some of the sprints and some of those elements at the Combine.

Great kid going to the University of Denver, a program that has, for anybody that's watching, that's unfamiliar, developed a lot of 5-11, 6-foot defense. over the last few years. I think he's on a path to be Denton Matechuk. Like that, that's the player that I've comped. Denton Matechuk went, what, 12th, 13th overall? Denton Matechuk had, I think, 14 goals in the NHL last year, 30-something points as a 21-year-old defenseman,

while a lot of young D in the league struggle. He doesn't skate like Matechuk does, though? No, he doesn't, but we're talking about a WHLD in that mold, and I think he thinks the game at that level. He's competitive. I think he's going to be a future top four defenseman in the league, You rarely get those guys in the 20s. You talked about Denver.

One of those smaller defense for the Denver has developed is Eric Polkamp, and that is a San Jose Sharks player. What will be interesting this year at Denver is he's going to share that blue line with a very high pick in this draft. The fourth overall pair. Dax and Rudolph. I would guess they're both on the power play. Yeah.

Power play one? Yeah. Who takes a flank and who takes up top? I would guess, I would guess that Rudolph, because he has the shot probably more on the flank. Yeah, I agree. That would be my guess. I agree. this is an unbelievable haul for the sharks.

It's crazy. We've already said how good it is. I had Lynn at 21 for what it's worth. So I thought both of us off the best. Yeah, I had Lynn at 20. So Scott had him at 10. He had him at 21. I do feel robbed.

Like if Lynn had really gone like 15, we would have gotten a great Scott and Corey debate on him, one saying too low, one saying too high. Instead, Scott's saying, you know, bang, home run, but Corey has no problem with it. It's okay. To quote Chris Peters on our podcast earlier this year, three years from now, I'll be right.

I love that. Yeah, that is probably, yeah, one of my better quotes. Thank you for bringing it up, Scott. I appreciate that. Also, there was one about a tape measure on time. But either way, that's probably, that's probably the whole thing. We should have had one. We should have had one.

Not for me. I'm the shortest at the floor. Let's just think about now, where are the sharks' holes in their organization top to buy? I said earlier that there was only one. It was Power Play quarterback. Now, here's my only question, Corey, and this is where I will come to you. Is Lynn that guy? Is he a power play one quarterback?

Not my favorite option, but I think he can do it. Like, I think if it's between him and Verhoff and Dickinson in long term, it's Lynn, here's the issue. I think Lynn's athletic traits. He's not an elite skater. He's 511. I think he's going to have to prove that he's going to be able to play 500 to 1,000 NHL games. I think Verhoff's for sure in the lineup in a year or two.

Lynn might need some American League time. So five, six years from now, I think Lynn's got the most offensive talents of the three. I can't guarantee you he's going to be there. I will say one thing that you guys kind of agree, we do the promen versus Wheeler article every year. And one of the names I threw out was Sean Walker for Lynn. And Scott, I think you were like, well, I think that's a good player. He's on the Stanley Cup champion. Corey, I don't think you had a problem with that.

If he's Sean Walker, that's still a heck of an outcome at the 21st. What if he's Josh Morrissey? But I know, I'm just saying. Morrissey elite skater. Motea Tachuk elite skater. This guy's not an elite skater. But that's why I bring up Walker, right? I think Walker's like kind of a, maybe not floor,

but that's like a very reasonable projection. And that's still a good asset. I think the, I like, and again, I like the player. I like Sean Walker. Walker's, you know, also like, you know, he was a creation sign. Like, you know, he was a rare profile where the compete was just so special that he made in. And Lynn's probably isn't that level. I think it's really good.

Like, I had, the scouts who love him will say he's a 6-1, 6-2 defender because of how, how hard he competes. Like I said, I just think it's a gamble because sometimes Rasmus Sandin was that profile, and it's kind of worked but not... It's worked. I think it's been a success for where he's worked. It's worked, but it's not to the degree... And not in Toronto.

Yeah, and not Toronto, and he's not a premium name by any means. So, like, it's a balance of the risk for me. Like, I get it. I think it's a good... Especially with your third pick? Absolutely. Like... And my argument would be that win was way better this year and over the last two years for the Vancouver

Giants than Sandine was for the Sue Greyhounds. Like he was just a more impactful player. Different Sue Greyhounds at the time. Like that was a O.HL contending team. Well, speaking of the Sue Greyhounds, on the clock now is the Pittsburgh Penguins GMed by Kyle Dubas. A year ago, we talked prior to the draft and we were pretty hard on the Penguins farm system.

That system looks way different a year later. And part of, you know, that was prior to the Ben Kendall pick, but even a year ago today when we talked about the Penguins draft and we were all shocked that they had taken Ben Kendall at 11. I mean, Ben Kindle was the story of, I mean, you talked about guys who had a better year outside the NHL, but Kindle was like the big surprise story. He slowed down a little bit in the second half, but still just for what he did, cindering the third line for the Penguins, was really impressive to compete the hockey sense, all very impressive. Our Penguins writer Josh Yo thinks they're going to try and add skill at this pick. We'll see what that skill is.

And the skill is Liam, Liam Ruck, who absolutely has a lot of skill. You know, one of the leading scores in the Western League high-end brain, competes really hard. The skating isn't great for a 5-11 and a half guy. Now, I never circled the penguins for the Ruck twins.

I thought of, you know, St. Louis, I thought of Calgary, I thought of Utah, in terms of guys, teams that had picks that I know had at least talked about the rucks. So now, where is the Penguins next picks and where was the opportunity now potentially to get Marcus? Because I know the Ruck twins have expressed

the teams that they want to play together, that they want to be part of the same organization. and I think it is a strong priority. 39. So that's in range. You can come up from there too pretty easily. I mean, I don't think you have to. I like because unless somebody wants to jump the line and force you to trade for Marcus has the back questions.

To Max's point earlier, I love that they knew who they were taken. They wasted about 10 seconds and they made that pick. Not waiting for the whole clock to run out. That's right. Which to me signals that they had him very hot. on their list. And so this is where I want to go with this, Scott, because you know these players really well. Marcus was the one who was actually the leading score of the WHL. But in the lead up to this draft, Liam was the guy who was like, Liam could go first. And we thought Marcus was more

likely to go second round. Why is that when Marcus outscored him? He outscored him by four points. So it's 108 and 104 points. They were the two leading scores. You wouldn't expect a gap in that case then. No, but part of it's that he's the goal scorer. And teams put an emphasis on the ability to get to the inside and be in the guts of the ice and finish off plays. And then the other part of it is that he's a slightly better skater and a little bit more competitive. Ironically enough, Marcus is the center, but they're both viewed as wingers. So I think everybody expects that both of them are going to be wingers in the NHL, despite the fact that Marcus has played a lot of center. But he, he's just a smart, crafty player goes to the middle of the ice. I think that's the, that's the

differentiator. Now you're looking at a core. And the back. If they take Marcus with the next pick, You're looking now at the two Rucks and Kindle now as some of your core forwards. But they did at least add, it's small, but at least with Bill Zonan and Will Horkoff last year. I don't know if Zonan's going to have a ton of offense in that level, maybe a bottom six center. Orkoff could be like a middle six wing. At least there's a little bit more size there with those two other first to complement what's going to be a very small and not really dynamic skating trio forwards as part of your core young prospects going forward. Rucker McGroarty is not that fast either, even though I think, even though he had a great year in the American League.

IQ IQ, right? Like that's what the penguins are prioritizing here. One of, despite the fact that Marcus is the passer and gets sort of the benefit of the doubt from an IQ standpoint, Liam is one of the smartest players in this class. There's a fair amount of rumors

that the penguins were really trying to move up in this draft and trying to see, you know, if they could get, like when you're talking hockey sense, like there were a lot of people were wondering if Vigo was going to be the guy, Vigo Bjork, if they would, if they had the ability to move up. They didn't have the assets, though.

But they didn't. You're right. They didn't. So that was always the thing that made it a little bit tougher. But now you're seeing there's a clear profile that they're going for. And this fits that for sure. All right. Next up is going to be the next Utah Mammoth pick.

And I'm very curious where this goes. Again, you know, we've seen Utah make one pick already. Glebhugachev still hanging out there. He is. I feel like Pugachev. I feel like Raghowski lines up with him. I could see one of those big demon like Mons Goodmanson or William Hawkinson. be their type.

I mean, it's almost kind of hilarious at this point. I kind of want to see them, draft, somebody that was super small here. Just, just, what about,

what about Tommy Blyle? Tommy Blyle. Like, here's the thing, though, so like, let's look at their organization. Who is the elite puck moving?

Their best puck movers are Surgachev and Dersy probably, right? And Simashev has shown more offense than I think people expected him as a pro, but he's probably not like an elite, elite offense type. So,

And that's, to me, because you have built a forest of trees here, a guy like a Tommy Blyle could potentially fit in there. I'm not saying that's, he seems against type for me for this team. It was highly rumored they were very interested in Zane Perak during his draft here. So I think they would, they would explore that kind of player type if it was the right player. Right. And there is, there is the, so the thing about Tommy Blyle is, he's an elite skater, just a

tremendous player. good hockey sense and other things moves pucks well. But yeah, are you getting dynamic enough, you know, in terms of that offensive style to pass on the Pugachebs and the others, you know,

and Novotny too, for that matter, you know, who's a heavier wing who has good two-way capabilities and did still score 30 goals this year in the OHO. Where did like the elite athlete types go

last couple of drafts, Nestra Sill Mason, West Dean Laterno, like that first. The late 20s. Like I'm saying that's probably right around what we're talking about. Raghowski, I think.

Like, you're giving up some offense here. But when you're six, seven guys who could skate and he's a legit six, seven, two. Yeah. I mean, look at, look at Nestrasil's year this year. Yeah. He's a special athlete. Letourno had a good year. Yeah.

I do think those guys are better skaters than Ruggowski. Mason West did not have a good year. So, you know, you win some, you lose some. But I feel like this is the route, around the range. We're starting to talk about Raghowski. He had Ternos, D plus one, not go according to playing either. And then D plus two. Yeah, two points.

They're not good. And then bang, he was one of the best players. Yeah. I do like that Ruggowski's not going to Michigan State that he's going back to the OHL next year. So he doesn't get himself into that kind of electoral situation where he's fourth line with Michigan State getting 10 points and your question and you're questioning the decision there and questioning the offense. I don't know if he has much offense, but have an opportunity in Osceau next year to at least maybe get 70 points, maybe get 80 points, show that there's at least a little bit of skill there. I'm glad that the mammoth are still all wearing matching suits. I wasn't sure if that was in the decentralized era.

Are we going to do that next time? Maybe we should. I really don't want to do. Can we just match the mammoths? Should we find out what they're wearing and wear the same thing? Get the belt buckle like they did last time, a team belt buckle. I like that. Maybe the chat can tell us what color suits we should wear next year for the broadcast.

I'm not sure that's a good idea. I almost didn't have a suit for this broadcast. I think we should all wear the suits that Peters is wearing right now. That's right. A little inside hockey, yes. Scott just had to run out to Nordstrom right before the show to buy a suit. Tell your story about your luggage here. My luggage, I don't know where my luggage is.

My luggage is in Toronto. It might be, and they tried to get it to Montreal, which is the opposite direction of Chicago. There's a trade here. Oh, wait. Whoa. Hey, whoa. Trade. Sorry, Scott.

The suit story will have to wait for the trade. It's funny because the mammoth staff was all standing like they had just made a pick. Oh, right. The Red Wings are all right. This is going to be very interesting. I'm very curious to see what. this ends up being. Wow. Yeah, I would imagine. Might change my night just a little bit. It's for Sebastian Cosa. All right. So Sebastian Cosa, the goal turn. He was their top goalie

picked 20-21. He was the 15th of the rub. Like, they pick him over Yesper Walsett. I'm a big COSA fan, and I actually think this is fair value. I was surprised when I heard like second and third round picks being thrown on for COSA. Like this is more fair value. He's a legit goalie. This is a pretty good value. Michael Haradle. Fair value, but yeah, they have a better goalie in this system right now. He's three, four years ahead of Horado. That's true. That's true. The question is, are you talking about Harabal being the battle? Harabal, to me, is the better prospect. I think it's close.

It's close. They're basically the same player type. Kosa is going to be there next year. Kosa lost his job. He did. For the best team in the HL. Yes, he did. In the playoffs.

That is not a good sign. That's, he said. 24-year-old European three-Augus is 23. Postov was like half a year older than. The most anime we've gotten by far, so far, so far this show, I thought Sebastian Coz. Well, hey, you know, I think there was one right before the last break that would ride. Yeah, but. But now, so this is a really intriguing spot.

But like, Max, I mean, what do they do here? Like, we're looking to you because I thought we thought. Well, the need is for a top line center, right? Everyone knows what's going on with Del Marlonic. We've discussed it. You're not finding it here at number 23. Not going to happen. So, and they got plenty of middle six centers.

They do. They've named Marco Casper, Nate Danielson, if you go on the roster, even to Andrew Cop, J.T. Comfer. So it's probably not. And you don't, you don't, after taking Sandy and Pelica, you don't need a bile. Nope, probably don't need a puck moving defender there. Do you take a swing on some skill and take J.P. Hurlberg? And then you could justify Hurlberg.

I actually think you could justify Hextol much in the same way that Philly can, just because it's one more and you hope that somebody outperforms. I also be curious about Pugol. I think that they really lack those premium athlete types like the Pugachian. Michael Brancic Niro would be probably the closest that they have. Even though I just, you know, kind of trashed Kosa. Because I think that he's done, he's done everything the organization. is asked of him.

He bided his time. He played in the ECHL. He went to the AHL. It's just one of those examples where it just didn't work out. They found somebody better and now they're moving on. But, you know, this, yeah, for, for,

again, he also fits, Utah is seriously, they are building a forest of trees and they just added a six-foot-six-six-coly. I think it's just that they prioritize athleticism. It's not the height. No, of course, yeah. I'm not just saying it's just big.

You know, they just want elite athletes. And, I mean, whether they're not valuing the hockey skills that's something you can debate, but I think COSA's got plenty of skill. Yeah, and COSA really should be at this point if he's not yet, you know, he should be a number two in the NHL.

And they need goalie helping. He's going to be on their team next year. Yeah. I will say this about the Pistava-Cosa playoff situation. Postava was outstanding going into those plays. Oh, absolutely. Any reasonable person would have looked at those and said Postava starts game one.

The issue was just that it was every game. Like, they closed it didn't find a game beginning. And I think at the end you could have probably justified it. So we'll see who the Red Wings are going to do it. I can take right here. It's J.P. Herlberg. This is the skill shot, right? And J.P. Herlberg leaves the NTDP to go to Camloops.

Ends up the fourth leading score in the Western Hockey League. Scott, what are the Red Wings getting at him? Just a very, very smart player. You talked to Sean Cluiston, the head coach in Camloops, anybody who's been around him over the last few years. Right place, right time kid. He's around the puck all the time. He's consistently involved in offense.

They gave him a letter there almost immediately after he showed up in Camloops, played center, played the wuck, wing. I think people view him as a winger long term, but he played the first half of the year. And frankly, he was actually more productive as a center in Camloops this year in the front half than he was as a winger in the second half. But just really, really smart. There are some sort of minor questions about pace and skating. Like it's, I wouldn't say it's a major concern, but it is average and that that size average is a bit of a question, but skilled and very, very smart. Yeah, the pace, I think is fine. It's nothing special for like a 511, 6-0 guy, but I think

is skating is fine. I think if you're a Red Wings fan, though, you're happy that they finally took a shot. Yes. I think it's not a guy who the first, who the first word coming out of the mouth is skill, scoring, playmaking, and not just how, the guy with that you said. Yeah. It's that. They finally took a shot on this as opposed to another high-competter two-way guy. And I think his compete is good enough too. So I think, I think Red Wings fans, given the situation you're going with COSA, given how much you like Trey Augustine and Postov. I think you got to like this. I think, I think you got to like this outcome if you're if you're Detroit. Yeah, my one concern with JP is just there's a lot of junior points there. There's a lot of junior points and he's going to have to find more ways to get

to the interior. He does have creativity. He does have skill. He has the ability to do it. That's going to be the challenge as he goes to the University of Michigan this year is say, hey, hey, you are going to have to fight for your ice time with Michael Hage and all these other high skill players that are in our system that have years of experience. Where do you fit in? You're going to have to get to the middle. You're going to have to do things. And I think we saw that with a guy like Adam Valentini, who's eligible for this draft this year. We started to see the motor a bit more. We started to see him make more plays. He got more responsibility. I think JP can grow into that role, but it is going to be a little bit of a longer kind of tail for him. But I'm excited about it. He scored 40 goals this year.

Yes. Certainly, I think we talked about the WHL being maybe a little watered down. And the junior, I think there is truth to the junior points. Nobody was given anything on that Camloops team. Like this isn't a kid who was playing for Everett or for Prince Albert or for one of the dominant teams in the league. Like he was the guy. He had to do a lot. He had to do a lot of it himself. The Red Wings best draft find of this era came out of Camloops, right? Emmett Finney, the guy they picked in the seventh round in 2023, was probably their best breakout story this year also comes out of Camloops.

One thing we've talked about is where does he fit in Michigan now with Landon DuPont coming in? Is he going to be on the top powerful unit that where you've got to imagine DuPont? is going to play where you got to imagine Michael Hage is going to play a flank, where Henry Mews is probably going to play on either the point or the flank. Will Horkoff, got to imagine, is a big body in there somewhere? So is he part of the main offensive weapons there? Of course, there's been like these rumors out there that Hage might reconsider going back, you know, or not kind of thing.

We'll see. But I think that is, it's not a major question because I think the player is still excellent, but I think you are a little bit worried about the development path these coming 12 months at least. There were some people at the Combine who were surprised when his weight. came up as 190. He was listed at 170, like 176 or 177 for most of the year with NHL Central scouting. So at 190 already, despite the fact that he's six feet, he's not small. We've mentioned Novotny a few times. I've heard him with Vancouver. I'm not sure if this is

where he goes, but I think this is where the conversation starts getting real. I think top 20 always seemed rich to me, given this is a 6-1 guy who was at a point for a game in the OHL last year, but he's an excellent skater. I think mid-20s is where the conversation for Navani, starts getting a little bit more serious. Yeah. I mean, I like, he's, he's my top remaining guy left. I think that there's, there's a need there, you know, in terms of just getting a little bit harder and heavier, which I think he can be. And I think he's a guy that can play a lot of different roles. There's versatility to his game. Like, we've talked about, like, his A game and his versus his B game, his B game is really good. Like, and that's, that's something that helps a lot.

All right. Well, we'll take a quick break right there. We'll come back and we'll see what the Canucks do number 24. All right. We are back. And as T's right before the break, the Vancouver Canucks do go with Adam Novotny. We heard you guys talk about what Novotny brings. But, Corey, let's start here. Vancouver, we talked about it. They're at the beginning of a long process here. What is the state of the Vancouver rebuild?

I think it's at its inception right now. I think, you know, we all love Caleb Melochoa. He's a great young player. I know the panel here loves Zeevoy. I'm like, we all think he's a great, he's a great defenseman. I think, you know, they've got some other good young players. Tom Olinner is a good young player. And now Adam Novotny is a good forward.

It's a good forward could be like a middle six two-way guy long term. but I think there's years of pain coming still. Like you need way more premium pieces. Like there's, you know, the elite offensive tights. You're going to need another center depending on the future of Pedersen, obviously. I think the blue line still needs a little bit of work. Like there's a lot more to come. I think you're happy with this day.

Malhotra deserved to go where he went. Navatne deserved to go where he went. They're both good players. They make your system better. But I think we expect Vancouver Connect to be back here at the top of the, you know, at the top of the draft order. for a few years to come. And we talked about them being in Brantford a lot this year.

I think the Vancouver Can I can expect to be at Michigan watching Land and DuPont a lot next year as well. Yeah. Yeah. On Novotny, though, like, just a strong, powerful, like he can, he's only 6'1, but he plays a power game, considers himself a power forward, can rip the puck. Legit speed, like legit speed. The playmaking and the getting his linemates involved,

then the IQ is maybe the question mark. there, but he's going to play. If I had a question, I mean, he's a sturdy built kid, Chris. Like, is he, is he, we talked about it with the, the bigger bodied players. Is he one who, like, maybe there's a little less runway on? I think that's fair. He's no seven to. Yeah, yeah.

I think that's a fair assumption. You know, the thing is, is I think the floor is pretty high. The other thing that I think about with Adam Novotny, I talked about Caleb Malthur being a culture builder. I think Adam Novotny has a lot of those same qualities. He is a great personality as a young man. that he also has a good work ethic on and off the ice. He has that physical strength.

He gets into the fight and he'll drag you into the fight with him a little bit. We've seen him stand out in some of these international competitions where he didn't have a lot of help. And so I think that that's a good thing too. So I just think the player himself is a really good player to just kind of have as part of the – he's not a cornerstone piece, but he's a good piece to have. He's a guy that I think you're glad to have. He's a player who wouldn't – if you only watched international games in the last year, you would have said he's a top 12 pick, top 15 pick.

It's really his club games where he didn't show as much offense. Right, right. But, I mean, there were definitely times in this process where he was often discussed as a lottery pick. Yeah. And I, you know, one game where he really stood out was the OHL Top Prospects game. And he was playing in Peterborough and he really showed out. And he gets to the middle. He does the hard work.

He battles along the walls. He gets down low. That's a guy that you can really help. And I think you will score. And he didn't point at. the world juniors, but he led that team in shots. I think he actually might have led the tournament in shots on goal. I thought he was snake bit in tournament, yeah.

And they used him in hard minutes. Big time. He penalty killed for them. He was out for defensive zone faceoffs as a draft eligible at the U20 level. Yeah. With the Vancouver Canucks, Chris, and we, you know, we've talked about where they sit in the rebuild and all of this. Like, what are the things that, you know, Ryan Johnson as the new general manager

of this team? You've obviously followed the HL very close. I don't know how much of that translates, but what are the big priorities that someone like Ryan Johnson sets in their first year? year with the club. Well, I think it started with the hiring of Mani Malhotra. So I think that it's, they have to start building the culture. And I think that that was the biggest reason that they had Mani and Malhotra. He built something down in Abbotsford. Now, the entire team essentially departed after the Calder Cup, which was, you know, so they were the last place team in the, in there,

this last year. But still, you saw the building blocks. That championship run meant a lot to that organization and meant a lot to the fan base. And to all those players that were there. So I think that building that championship mentality started a little bit with that Abbotsford Canucks team, but now there's a long way to go. And I think the patient, pragmatic approach that it seems like they are preaching is the way to go. Does the ownership have the patience to match what they're selling right now? That's the question I have. All right. The Ottawa senators are on the clock at number 25 here. Another team, and we talked about it with Buffalo, like a team that once you're on the rise,

the draft starts to become a little less, you know, splashy. Much thinner pharmacism, though, than Buffalo. And they take Lagerberg hone here. Okay, Corey, this is a really interesting one for you specifically, because this is a player who did not play much hockey this season. You were there live to see him play one of the, I think, only seven games he played this year? Yes, coincidence in that regard. I do not know he's going to tear his knee and be out for the season.

But he's a 6-2, 6-3 winger, really good skater for his size, really good skill and shot, had 27 goals in the J-20 in Sweden, the year prior. I actually went there to go, I was to go watch Marcus Nordmark play. I like Lagerberg, but he actually ended up out playing Nordmark and obviously, and then you see how he goes ahead of him in the draft today.

I like the player a lot. I think if he's healthy and consistent, you can see the top six upside there. Like there's definitely a lot of tools. The lack of sample is a little concerning for me to have gotten him up, you know, to the top 20, top 15 level. But right here, this is a very reasonable game.

gamble. And I think senators fans are going to like that. Because I feel like a lot of their picks have been big physical guys, two-way guys. I think they like that they just gambled on a guy who if he hits, he's a 25, 30 goal scoring winger with size. And there's more of room. We just talked about Novotny being filled out. He's got more room. Like just seeing him in person for the very first time. He's an 07, but he's an underdeveloped 07. I wonder whether the knee surgery played a part in that, not getting as much time in the gym as some of these other guys in season. He tested at the combine, though.

Yeah. Yeah. And performed well in testing at the combine. Yeah. Now, this was a, I kind of said on podcast, some of the things, there are going to be guys that go in the first round that I knew that I didn't have on my list. This is the guy that I was talking about. Now, I didn't have a big enough book to feel comfortable.

I made a 75 player list. He wasn't on it. But you talked to teams and the senators were not the only team that were high on this player. This is interesting too, because there's another kind of Norwegian sniper in this class, Nicholas Aram Olson. And he was the one that was maybe more on my race. are coming into the year? How do you compare and contrast Lagerberg-Hohn? He's three inches taller, so that's one. And I think there's a little bit more competing jam in his game, too.

I think Aaron Molson, probably a little bit more skill. The shots a little bit more made more elite, but he can play on the outside. There's, you know, he's going to be you. He reminds me of coal eyes a little bit in a little bit in a little bit, in a little bit more translatable traits in how he approaches the game. Ottawa Senators, too, you talked about kind of that thinner system, and that is an important distinction as they kind of look to reload. Now, they get William, Meckland using the ninth pick that they got for Brady Kachuk. But it's a team that necessarily, like there's going to be a shift in identity. There's going to be kind of a shift in, you know,

the look of the Ottawa senators here. And, you know, I don't know how far away Lagerbergh Hone is, probably at least a couple years, you would think, usually at this range in the draft. But he becomes one of their most important prospects immediately. Oh, yeah. I mean, after Yakim, Chuck, I would say he's their next best prospect right now. Yeah, I mean, the thing is, I'm, I get scared of of players that have had, you know, significant injuries at this stage of their career. There's a lot of risk that you're taking on. We've seen a lot of guys that have gone through massive injuries that, you know, didn't play a lot. Some work, some don't. That was another reason for me where I was just like, I didn't feel confident enough in the sample and also in what I saw from the, you know,

just the little bit. And then knowing the story, that's where the risk is. And I think if you're Ottawa at this point, you feel like you've got kind of some, you've got some insulation from that. I was kind of surprised that it wasn't Maxim Sokolowski because we were just talking about those guys, those big physical guys, I was like, hey, why not? Just get another one of them. A future de-pairing of Gabriel Oliason and Maxine Sokalozky. All right.

Who's going to be the next player that Vegas trades away here? Yeah, exactly. Yeah, this is, that's all it is. I mean, Vegas is. Well, they might be training the pink here now because they're the, the clock's at zero. The clock's gone. Yeah. Would be pretty fitting here.

I think this is, this is their whole MO. It's, and we talked about it, you know, I think earlier this week where there is a, a lot of teams that are now looking at this Vegas structure saying, do we really need to make all those picks? Should we use them? Like, can we use them? Tampa's done a lot too. Yeah, Tampa has.

Yeah. But I mean, I think, I don't know that anybody has done it. No. As aggressively and as frequently as Vegas. So, uh, chat, what you? Florida has been. I'm deferring to the chat. I was like, chat, what you got right now?

What you got? Because, uh, because this is, this is a really an interesting thing. And is it, is that really interesting? It is a 26 pick When it gets trade Is it really interesting? Well, Building a franchise

With a franchise Trade lord Are you interested now, Corey? Yes. All right, Gary's up there We'll see We'll see what this is going to be Yeah, this is, this is fun

So I remember they just got this pick tonight Montreal is coming up now Oh, oh Here come the Habs Here come the Havs. So interestingly, they didn't trade They didn't swap picks

They still have their next pick. So they traded away the first. I didn't hear what the return was. Yeah, we have no audio in here. So we'll find that out. Montreal is moving up two spots. Vegas is adding a third. It is a swap.

So I blame ESPN for not, I didn't get it wrong. ESPN got it wrong. They didn't update it. All right. So how about this? So Vegas gets beat by Carolina in the cup final. They take a page out of the Carolina Hurricanes book.

They trade back and get more picks. Maybe they're seeing a new. Yeah, a third round pick to go back two spots. It's not too shabbing. Yeah, I don't. That's not bad. Yeah, a little bit, a little bit. So let's see.

Now, now I am excited, Corey. Why are you excited? I'll be interesting to see what they do here. And why they felt like they needed to leapfrog Philly to get there. Right. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So, so is that a hell that it's a center, right?

I think I've heard Hextall. I've heard Tommy Blyle with Philly a lot too. So that would be one that. But Blile on a team that has Hudson. I feel like people think that Blyle can be, be a little bit more than just an offense guy. Yes, agree. Because the skating is so good that there's a little bit more there,

but I get your concern too. Time will tell. We'll see what happens here in the next couple of minutes. But yeah, they obviously felt their information is that Philly was going to take their player or there was a player they were just so passionate about that they had to come and get it. How do you think a team gets that vibe, though? I mean, these teams aren't sharing their list with each other.

No, it's, I mean, the same thing when we're doing mock draft. You talk to coaches, you talk to agents, you talk to the players, you scout the scout, you're seeing who's at the ranks kind of thing. I know, I've said for many years that scouting is as much reporting. It's attendance taking. Yeah, it's, yeah, when they're, they're asking us all the time, they're asking agents, like it's, yeah, I mean, that's the thing is that it's all up. Oh, no, I'm even talking about. And in terms of how useful it is, well, just look at our mock drafts tonight and you can see how useful a practice that is in terms of getting information. But I think my point about the attendance taking, it becomes a very real part of like when you go to a rink and you're seeing, okay, who else is here for this player?

If you see an executive, it's a big time. Yeah, I think late in the year, playoffs, the spring, that's when the AGMs and the GMs start getting out. And teams know what range they're in, like in September, October is not really relevant. Everyone's got to see all the priority guys. But that, like, if I pop into a rink in March or April and I see a GM there, I'm like, okay. Well, and which rink matters too, right? Everybody goes to Plymouth, right? Yeah.

If you're at an NTP ring, all that means is you work in the NHL. Yeah, exactly. But there's certain ranks where you're like, all right, what are you doing in North Bay here? Yeah. Like when I mocked, let's say, Dylan Holloway to the Oilers, for example, I went to a game in the spring there. I saw Ken Holland there when he was like. And he was in the A.J. Right.

No, that's when he was without University of Wisconsin. Oh, yeah. Just an example kind of. And you're like, oh, okay, he's on the short list, I think. I was looking like, what was last time? I think he was with Edmonton, you know, he's at the time. One time, Evanton played near Ohio, and it was not anywhere close to that kind of thing. So that's just a little bit of the inside hockey.

I don't know how much of our listeners really care about that stuff. I think they care a great deal, right, chat? You tell us in the chat. I'm not reading the chat. I'm reading the chat. They're definitely going to care a great deal about the Montreal. He's taking. There is.

So, Corey, this is a player you just got some FaceTime with at a camp in Florida. Yeah, no, he was, I think he's the best power forward in the draft. He's six, three. He hits like a bull. He's had two really good playoffs now with the, with the torpedo MHL team. He played well versus men, the VHL and KHL. You know, Nick Bobrov, their head coach is one of the few guys who goes over to the other, there is to watch these Russian players live.

Yeah, he's their head scout. Great pick, honestly. Like, he's a top six winger for me. And he's had luck with Rush. He's only here because he's only on 26th because he's only on 26th, because he's Russian, but, like, I think he's in, like, you look at, you know, where Chernoshev was at the same age, like he's a comparable, like comparable player in terms of player value. Different players type of Chernobyl had more skill.

This guy's more physical. I think of more Lawson Krauss when I watch him, but like that's the profile. I really like this pick from Montreal. And hear that Montreal fans, I like this pick from Montreal. They've had luck with Russians, though. I mean, obviously Demadov's like the big one, but Alexander Zorovsky, huge success. story recently. Yeah, they've been killing it well over there. I am lower on the offense.

Like, I'm not convinced we're talking about a top six player here. I do wonder a little bit about the offense. Guys who produce under a point per game in the MHL don't typically become that, but he did show, he showed really, really well against pros this year. I thought he was better against

pros than he was with junior players. And that speaks to the physical profile and the makeup and the way he skates and how strong he is. I think he's at the same point as where Igor Surin was when he went went into the draft, Surn's a little bit more skill. He's a center. This guy's a little taller.

He's a wing. But Suren now has become a premium young player in the KHL with the same type of play style. You know, that's kind of what I view Pugachiev as. I think when he gets to play full-time versus men, I think the value in his game is going to come out. All right. Now the flyers are on the clock. I mean, do we think, I mean, was Pugachev one of the landing spots you saw for Philly?

No. No, I think that's just Montreal. One to be sure. Maybe maybe how Vegas could do. Vegas. Vegas takes Russians, so I think that was a concern. And Philly did take all Russian in Montevne and Michkov, so maybe they were concerned. I think that's just Montreal being so passionate about a player that they just didn't care about the third round pick a year from now kind of thing.

Go get a guy we think's a premium asset. I'm going to go back to Sokolowski. I think it's, I think it might be Sokolowski. I'm going to say Tommy Blyle here. One defenseman, one's just two slightly different play styles. I've heard, yeah. I've heard they like Blylew. One has 90 points.

one had four points or whatever he had kind of thing. Let's bring another Hextal to Philly. Different, different family. No relation. No relation. I just wanted to be different. That's all. So right now, Tommy Blyle is the best player available on my personal list.

But Hextall is right in that mix. So, yeah. I will say one thing about Blyle and people are going to squirm when I say this because they're going to think this is stupid. But it's somewhat relevant in the NHL. So Blyle initially was. measured around 5, 10, and 3 quarters at the start of the season. Yes.

He gets re-measured in the middle of the season. I think Central said on a note saying he was 6-0 when he was measured in the middle. 5-11 and 3 quarters. Yeah. Then at the combine, he comes in closer to 5-11. So it moves from a 6 to a 5, which is like literally a half an inch. It doesn't seem like it's that big a deal. But I think we're trying to sell your GM on a 6-0 defenseman versus a 5-11 defenseman.

Maybe there's between 20 and 30. I can't remember what, what session was, was Tommy Blyle in at the, at the, oh God, no, don't tell me.

Yes, yes. Where was the moon? Yeah. It was like, it was like, it was like middle of the process. Middle of the process.

So, you know, if he was measured throughout the day. Yes, exactly. You measure, you measure in and all of a sudden. So,

all right. So the Philadelphia flyers are making their pick right now. It is Sokoloski. Great call. You're very familiar with this player from London. Yeah, just a,

a mutant, frankly. And maybe that's it. Maybe that's it. an offensive thing to say about a teenager, but that's kind of how they describe him. Like, he is just a physical specimen, and we've seen him demolish guys.

It comes very naturally to him. He was a part of my survey this year of NHL scouts. He's just towering over his whole family right now. It comes very naturally. Like, he enjoys that part of the game. He can skate for his size. It was very, very hard, the front half of the year. I remember just a couple of weeks ago I was at the OHL draft,

pulled Rob Simpson, who's their longtime associate, manager, just because I was curious coming out of the combine at how much I'd heard about Sokolovsky pulled him and said, look, like, what changed front half of the season to the second half of the season in his play? And he said, that's a question that NHL scouts have asked me. And my answer has been is that he, he was a fish out of water early on, not from a physical standpoint, from a pure culture standpoint. He used a translator at the combine in all of his interviews that he told me their coaches would yell D to D when he was on the ice. And he didn't

know what D-D-D meant. Like, that's how harsh it was for him. Just did not speak the language, did not know the game. But it's, he's, he's just a big, strong kid. And we mentioned Adarov. We mentioned Stanley. Like, that's, that's what you're hoping to get here. Chris is looking at the highlights laughing at some of the hitsys.

You know, the, the thing that I thought was, was so interesting about him was, was the way that scouts started talking about him after the playoffs and just feeling like, Like, this is a guy that plays a style that works at that time of year. And yes, it's in junior hockey and it's a different thing. But it is a grind in the OHL playoffs. And the thing is that they saw a guy that was playing a style that really resonated with them for that. And so that's big too. He's way lower on my list.

There are definitely some things that I think, you know, I'd love to see cleaned up. And I think there's a lot of things to be nervous about. I mean, you know, 27. The devil's advocate. He was not as big a risk. He was 70 on my way. Same with me. The devil's advocate argument

for the people who really like him, as they would say, and I hate this argument, throw out the first half, just focus on the second half and his playoffs where he was moving the puck a little bit better, where he was making a few more plays.

He was really raw. It was developing. You know, he was a late bloomer. And I don't like throwing out data. I feel like that's bad practice. But that's the argument that. If you watch him in the playoffs, you watch him in the last month

or two of the, regular season, he looked like the player deserving to go in this range. And he would have more offense if he would have played that way all year. Don't throw out the data. Just add in the data of what Scott said off the top here, right? Of what the transition was like, that would be the case for it. It's not, you're not throwing out that data.

You're adding context to it from the other stuff that you know about the player. And he wasn't even a highly recruited player into the OHL. He told a story to teams at the combine about the hunters going down to see him and basically saying we want you to come to London and we'll figure it out. This was an

incredibly, incredibly raw player. Yeah. So the thing that I wonder about is ultimately, without the puck play, there's probably a very limited chance that he's of top four defensemen in this league. Yes. And Lamarro went right about,

he didn't go 23. He went right around this range. That's what you do. He's a freak athlete. He's really physical. There's no offense. I don't care what people say. There's no offense.

None. None. But Lamaroo, two years later, was one of Canada's best player. at the world juniors. So if he keeps developing over the next year or two, maybe you are getting someone you're super excited about could be a top four defenseman.

We're not there. Lamarou might not even be a top four defenseman either, right? He's taking a little step back. I still like him a lot. I still think he's a good player. Maybe he's Kevin Ball. Maybe this is Kevin Ball. But that's the dice roll.

Yep. And this is a spot in the draft where you're pretty willing to take. I mean, we talk about first round picks, like they're all kind of creating. But once you get past 20, it's a different draft. You're in the second round right now.

I have said that I think like really, you know, probably right now you're thinking about guys that maybe it would be in the 50s on one of our lists or 60s. And like we just saw with Sokolowski, who's even lower than that, it's all about at this point making sure that you're getting the player that you're most enamored with. And, you know, I think if you're if you're the flyers, you're feeling very confident about where where things have kind of gone in your system already, where you can take those swings. All right. Fun trivia. We're at 28 right now. Carolina is 31. Do they make the pick or do they trade down?

I said on the pockets, there's no chance they're making that pick. They're trading down. Not only is Carolina, they trade down a lot, but they also just don't have picks in rounds two, three, four this year. If they can pick up darts there,

they've shown us that that's how they want to do this. Yeah. I mean, I'd also wouldn't mind like a break after winning the Stanley Cup. Let's just make the pick. Just make the pick. Make the pick and have a late start tomorrow.

Make the pick. And yeah, but I mean, like, you think about the different players that they've, they've drafted or signed or brought in. And, man, I mean, like, Jackson Blake is going to be one of those great stories, you know, for them for for a long time. And, yeah, so we'll see. There's going to be some intrigue here. You know, just in terms of, you know, best available, like, Corey, who's who's your best available at this point? With guys, we've talked about a lot, Casey Mutron, Jack Hicksdahl, Brooks Ruggowski. Adam Goliar, and then the two Swedish defensemen, Goodmanson, Hawkinson, everybody else in my top

28 has basically gone by now. I have my list right now, and everyone else is gone at this point. That clock hit zero. There's no pick is in graphic. All right. Here we go. Here we go again. Who's coming? Oh, trade alert. Gary and the trade list. Is this for a player or a pick? What do you think? I have no idea at this point. I think that Kelly's just having fun with us now. Um, what I, this is, oh, Anaheim's on the dot on the, weren't they up next? So they trade up one spot. I think no. Yeah.

Were they up next? Or were they, we're 30 right there, 29. Okay. And now it's switched to Vegas. So Vegas, people are really worried about Vegas taking their players. Montreal's been worried about Vegas taking their player now. Anaheim's like, what are we? They got someone that, they got someone that were really scared they were going to take.

29 and 117. So they just traded Olin Zalweger, right? Yep. Blile? Blile. Doesn't seem like a Verbeek type, but I think the skating would... The Ducks have taken a ton of QMJL kids. He's a better skater than Zellweger was.

Yep. So that is the argument there. They took Kleppov earlier. You could argue that Marcus Nordmark is in a similar tier-off skill as clubbaw. I can't see them doing two of those guys in the same time. Yeah, I have hard time seeing it too. So then you've got Casey Mutron choreo player. You've been really high on top 15 on your list.

Yeah. Yeah. So, and I think this is around the range where he's where he starts to get talked about. I think the offense is a minor question, but I think when you're 6-3 and you're that fast, that physical, I think, you know, I know his scoring hasn't been prolific.

His hockey sense is a minor issue, but he still was top power play guy at the program, guy who scored a lot as an underage. Didn't have a great draft season, and we've seen guys drop for those reasons, kind of thing, but I think he's a guy, I believe, in the long-term projection of. And I think he's one of their,

he's someone who would fit their type, but we'll see what direction they decided to go down with with this pick. Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of different ways that can go. There's still really good value, I feel like, throughout the board. You know, there's, there's all those guys. It's, it all comes down. These are the picks where it is completely feel. It is completely fit. It's completely, you know, you've made your list. You have your guys. Maybe there's somebody there that you didn't expect to be there. That might change the dynamic a little bit. But now we're just at the range of the draft where, you know, honestly, you're just hoping you get an

an HL player. And, and I think that they've, they've got a good chance here. All right. So the Pick is in, Gary Bettman, coming back to the stage for Anaheim. Just make it quick, Gary. He's got to an ounce of trade. Marcus Normark. It is another of those skill guys. Wow. It's a big investment in skill there by Anaheim in this draft.

And Normark's really, really talented. 6-2 guy with high-end hands. He can skate. He can make plays. But I think when you talked about compete issues, he was probably one of the top players where that came up the most. But there were NHL scouts I talked throughout the year who had him as a top 10 guy in this draft, top 12 guy who said like this is one of the most prolific talents, pro, you know,

he's got all the tools. And he was productive too this year. I think just he had a really bad U-18 world championships and it rubbed a lot of people the wrong way with some of the bad penalties he took, the bad decisions he made. I almost took him off the list entirely. Yeah, I obviously now this is this is a dice rule here. Didn't interview well at the combine too. Yes, you know, but like I said, if he overcomes that stuff, then, you know, I said,

he's got all the physical traits, all the skill to be, you know, a middle, top six winger in the National Hockey League. I spoke with four or five members of the Gergarten staff when I did my feature on Nordmark earlier this year about him. And they said, this is a team that had Anton Frendel, Vigo Bjork, you go down the list. They said he's as skit. From a pure skill standpoint, he's as skilled. as those guys were at the same age.

It's just the consistency, the habits. You've even heard terms like selfish tossed around. Like that's the danger here. There's some risk here. You asked who best players that he was. Despite those concerns and I share those concerns, he was still my BPA. And maybe there's a similar lodge as what we talked about earlier where if you're going to take two of these guys,

you don't expect both of him and Kleppov are going to hit, but you only really need one of them to hit to bring that. I mean, you better hope it's the one you took way earlier. Obviously, this feels like Papford Peak told us, guys, we're adding some offense here. We're adding some skill in this draft. One story about Nordmark from the U18s

is, you know, the gold medal game. I think it was a one goal game at the time, Scott. Yeah. And it was the middle of the second period. They were up on Slovakia by one. And he takes one of the Slovakia defenders sticks, and he just chucks it into the stance. And Slovakia, it gets in,

and they get a five plus ten from that. And he gets tossed out of the game. and you're watching that and you're just shaking your head because he was been one of their best players and he's a great offensive player

they were you know you thought like that could turn the tie at the game almost didn't they won the gold medal but he's got to cut you know some of the crap like that out of his game

he sounds like a golden knight the way you're just like why do they why they trade away from him he got a penalty earlier in the tournament for snowing goalie that was my favorite one

just bad bad body language on the bench and yeah like the things that he does on the ice are enraging at times. Extremely talented. Yeah, extremely talented. I mean, I heard the Swedish coach like yelling at him on the ice kind of thing. Play harder.

Go, go. Yeah, it's just to me like, yeah, you are, you're completely betting on skill and you're saying you hope that, you know, the maturity comes because that is really it. Like that's that, that's the thing. Anaheim has so much young talent, though, especially it's on the floor. Oh, yeah. They're well insulated to take this pick. Like, that's the thing.

It's just, but like, he is a guy for me that I just, you know, He's pretty low on my list. And, you know, I just, it's not, it's not a player that I would want to roll with. Vegas actually didn't make the pick this time. All right. Third times of a charm here. They're going to trade them soon anyway. Yes.

So. The next deadline acquisition is, youho, Pippa Rhinan. The right shot defenseman out of Finland, Chris. Yeah. So Pippa Rinen, you know, good, good size, mobile enough, you know, really mobile got, has as the ability to move Pucks. I think there were times this year where I think, you see the athletic profile, you just want more from them.

You know, I think that that's one thing, but there is clear tools there. I think, you know, the fact that he's a right shot, the fact that he's got all these, you know, that ability to move pucks.

There's just not a lot, you know, as we mentioned, like puck moving, great solid puck moving defenseman. I think he'll do fine with that. Defending's fine. Like,

it's not, you know, he's just, you know, kind of okay. Vanilla. Yeah, he took a lot of boxes.

He's a, he has some offense. Like, you can see him running the power play internationally. He's just okay. He's, you know, when Gus sent down to the J20 level, he didn't point it at a huge level there in the Finnish junior level, but he's a world junior defenseman for team Finland.

Like, he's competitive. He's mobile. He can make stops. He can kill penalties. I think he's an NHL defenseman. I think he plays. Is he going to be like a prolific NHL defenseman? I don't see the high end upside there.

But he's a good player. He's very athletic. Like, I mean, this was his range. Yeah. Yeah. It's totally fair. He was a guy had just outside of my first round. So yeah.

So I mean, I think that that's going to be a player that, you know, Vegas is probably not going to need for a bit. Probably can use them in a trade down the road. That's the other thing is the right shot, six foot two right shot defenseman is going to carry some value with teams as he continues to develop. His high watermark was also coming out of Halenka. Like there was a time where he was viewed as like a big time player,

a teens guy, maybe a top 10 guy. Like that was the conversation early in the season. All right. Well, as the Calgary Flames go on the pick on the clock, sorry, at number 30, We'll take our last break of the night here right before pick 30. Be right back. All right, we are back.

Calgary Flames pick is in. So we will get to that in just one second. But before we do, Corey, I just want to ask your biggest, what's the biggest thing you're going to be thinking about as we leave the studio tonight? I think we had a lot of conversations throughout the draft about this defense class. We all talked about all the year about how close this group of players were at the top 10, how you could put these guys in any order. And yet, I think when somebody went out of order, we were a little of surprise.

And that would have been Daxon Rudolph. I don't think we ever really had a serious conversation about him as the top defenseman in this draft. We had conversations about Verhof, about Smiths, about Chase Reed, about Carson Carl. But we never really had a substantive conversation about whether Daxon and Rudolph would be the first defenseman. I think that's one where tonight and tomorrow morning, I'm definitely going to go over my notes and review what I thought about Rudolph to see whether I missed anything. Not saying I would change anything just because something I didn't expect. but that was one that even though I knew it was a possible outcome, it went contrary to what I saw on the ice.

So I've got to maybe reevaluate that one. Scott, how about you? The sharks, I think, have just perfectly executed this rebuild. And I think if Mike Greer and company play their cards right over the next few years, I think they've got like a potential future Stanley Cup team. Chris, we'll put a pin in yours. We'll come to it because the flames have made their pick. and it is Jack Hextall, Corey.

Yeah, and Hextall was one of the very best centers in the U.S.HL last season. You know, Chris talked about how Nikita Klepoff, who went nearly 12 picks higher than this, was one of the leading reasons why the U.S. won the Holinka Gretzky. I would argue Hextall was better than Klepov in that playing all situations, playing, you know, the matchup minutes down the middle. And that's kind of what he is. He's not, you look at this point totals, they're good, they're not great, but there is offense there.

He's a competitive player. He's a two-way centerman. I think he has the tools to become a legitimate, you know, third-line center in the NHL. Well, and for Calgary, that might be all they need him to be, right? Calgary has needed talent injections. They add Cole Reschney. I think you're probably hoping he's like a second line, whether it's a center or a wing. But if Jack Hextall comes out to be a third-line center at the 30th pick for the flames, this is a really good outcome.

Yeah, absolutely it is. And, I mean, I think, you know, you look at the USHL. It is still a really difficult league to score, and he was near a point per game player. he was a talented player last year at 16. So, you know, I really like the way that he's developed, you know, and Youngstown can feel really happy about the way that they've developed this player. The fact that it's another Michigan State guy, it's another opportunity for them to continue to build.

And I think he's going to play down their lineup, what, next year, Scott? So, like, he's going to be right there in the mix and playing at a pretty important level. I think there's maturity in his game. There's versatility in his game. And when you're at 30, what do we talk about? We said you need to find NHL players. I think this guy's got an NHL future. He'll start down that lineup too.

Like this is going to be like if he has 15 points, 12, 13, 14, 14, 15 points next year, don't be surprised. Like this isn't going to be a kid who's necessarily going to point in college hockey next year. Like how what Eric Nilsson was from them last year. Yes. But he's up and under sticks. He's strong on pucks. He'll be detail oriented.

And I think by the time he's a upperclassman, by the time he's a junior, you're expecting him to be an impact player in college hockey. All right, Chris, sorry I made you wait here. What's the one thing you'll be thinking about as you leave the studio tonight? I'll let you use anything from the first 30 picks. Yeah, I mean, I think honestly, this draft kind of lived up to our expectation of the little bit of uncertainty, the jumble, as Corey mentioned. But it goes with guys like Belchett's falling a bit further than we thought. Guys like, you know, Novotny may be going even lower compared to where he was kind of midseason.

Like this has been a year where, you know, it feels like it thins out faster and teams were making decisions all over the map. Like, and the fact is is that consensus is really a myth typically. You know, like there's what's public. There's what's. And that this draft continues to show that with a Daxon Rudolph going, you know, as high as he did, with a Nikita Klepov going in that range to, you know, to that. And also we've had all these different trades too. A lot of pick movement, guys that were moved, roster players that were moved. So it seems that finally, we talked about it for years.

There's going to be trades. There's going to be, there have finally been trades. And it's been all week. It'll continue to go after the draft. And then it gives us a really nice prelude to free agency. The other thing that really stood out to me is I thought and talking to any of people, I thought there was a really good chance that Thailand Lawrence was going to have a tough night. People are really, really critical of how we looked in the second half at the UA teams.

I talked to teams that didn't have them like as a first rounder. At the combine, too. right. I mean, that was a storyline coming out. Maybe he didn't interview as well. Yeah, no. Like, he had, like he was asked some hard questions about his draft, and he still goes to number 11. And he went number 11 because for the reasons

that Chris said earlier, this is a guy who did some really unique things in junior hockey, you know, maybe he made a bad decision to go to college that early. But it'll be a really fascinating to see what he does next year at BU if he bounces back and becomes a premier player again. Yeah. So that was one of the more fascinating ones.

You know, everyone I was talking to, in the lead up, thought he was going to slide. and didn't slide at all. I think he went exactly where he deserved to go. Yeah, I agree. And where Scott mocked him. Yeah.

You had to get that in wheels. But I think, like with Tanya Lawrence in particular, he made a decision that impacted his draft stock. I do think it sets him up better for next year. That's the thing is getting that taste of college hockey in the same way when we've seen guys come in at the end of the NHL, they get a little bit of taste. Now they know what they're getting into. He has a source.

summer to prepare for that. And that's why I think that potentially he could play ahead of Caleb Malhotra in the early goings of the season. That's one of the things that for all these kids, I mean, and for for Tyden Lawrence, it was going from the USHL to NCAA midseason. But I think it applies to the CHL and NCAA kids too. There's what's best for you in your draft year and in your stock. And you can argue that both ways. I'm pretty open to both sides of that argument. But I do think playing like when you advance a level, you do something positive for your development. Yeah. And Keaton-Varehoff can say that and McGahnman. McKenna can say that. Adam Valentini who's going to go tomorrow probably can say that.

So, you know, like, that's, there's a lot of different things. But the thing is, it is a hard level. Yeah. And, but, but Corey said something on one of the podcasts recently that I thought was astute is that it does give us better information. Yeah. It gives us a better sample of where they're at right now because Keaton Verhoff probably could have had 80 points in the dub last year.

Yeah. You know. They're all big leagues. I mean, you could, you can be a great player coming out of any of those. Yeah. The CHL leagues, the NCAA, the USHL, you can be a great player coming out of a league. I didn't mention. there, right? But there's all these different paths and these are the factors you're weighing in

I had scouts say the same thing about Tyne and Lawrence too. If he's in the queue this year and the queue was an option for Tynan. Yeah. Oh yeah. If he's in the queue this year, he's a 90 point player in that league. So here's the thing. If they hurt their draft stock other than their ego is being hurt, it doesn't really maturely change anything. No, it does not matter. There used to be a time and place where there were slot bonuses tied to where you were drafted and you actually, there was actually a clear financial impact, whether you went one or five or 10 or 20. But now, there was a slot bonuses. But now, Nowadays, other than, yes, if you're a top five pick versus 25, the team's going to look on you more favorably when it comes to opportunity. But if you go Lawrence, if you go 11 instead of going six, it doesn't really change that much for your future other than you hope you just you learned and develop the right things when things when you were struggling.

Yeah. And you go to a team that's probably, you know, statistically, depending on draft picks move around. But usually you get picked later, you're going to a better team. Does look like Carolina's trained to pick, by the way. Imagine that. The most predictable thing of the night. Maybe I don't know where they're going with this one. There was one pick that a guarantee is not getting traded.

32 is not allowed to get trained for the Ottawa senators. Can't trade it. Can't trade it. And if you're wondering why this is, by the way, Carolina Hurricanes already won the Stanley Cup. Usually that is the 32nd pick. So Ottawa had initially forfeit its pick this year. It was a long process to get it back.

And the NHL did it and they didn't give it all the way back. They said, all right, you can have the pickback, but it's 32 no matter what, and you cannot trade it. Yeah. And that was a gift to Michael And lower, their current owner who was not the owner when the transgressions happened. When that happens, like the Danoff's penalty and when the Arizona got penalized with the combine, I feel like both of those management groups were gone when the penalty comes around. Like, you're really just penalizing the fans at that point. Nashville. Yeah.

Nashville, and it's 42 and 57. Yeah. I would have liked to see this be the Pittsburgh Penguins to come up and get Marcus. And get my draft night, right? Yeah. Pittsburgh, get on the phone right now. Let's do this. Get on the phone with Nashville.

Let's go. All right. So we'll see what the Nashville Predators and Chris McFarlane want to do with this pick. You know, looking ahead to tomorrow, who are the big names that you expect to see come off the board early tomorrow, Scott? I think we'll see Zavie Villeneuve go a little bit earlier. I think people's appetite for the risk reward there is just a little bit more comfortable. in that range.

I think we'll see guys like Ryan Rubrik going the second round. I mean goalies coming here. Tobias Treyball will go in the 30s would be my guess. Yeah, same. Yeah, I think so. I mean, and really,

we still have these two picks to go here. We've mentioned Tommy Blyle's name a million times already. I thought Blyle was going to be, based off all the conversations I've had in the last few weeks, I thought Blyle was going to be a wait first. On a lot of the polling,

he was 20, you know, early 20s. And we had a good argument about that off, off camera. Yeah, yeah. I said that I don't think he's going to go the first. You thought that was preposterous. I did. Watch him go here now.

Yeah, exactly. He better go here. Nashville, do me a solid. I can't have Corey lord this over me for another year. Oh, yeah, I'm going to load that over you. You are a receipt-to-tavern-style pizzas calling our name. I know. We're pretty excited about it.

Nashville's breaking the rule. They trade it up. They got to know who they're getting there sitting on the clock. Yeah, I know. Just go ahead and make the pick. Take it. Yeah, so. We're almost at the four-hour market.

The predators want to make sure we get there. The listeners can see us losing steam here a little bit. I will say, so real quick, shout out to the athletic for these chairs. They've only just started becoming uncomfortable and it's an hour four. So yeah, but so normally like the other thing too is normally in these draft situations, the three of us are feverishly typing. I will tell you right now, this is way better. The feverish typing doesn't go away.

It just gives delayed. It just a lot of work to do, buddy. I've got a couple hours left here. It is delayed, but I'm like, hey, this is not bad. I will take this. All right, Nashville's pick is in, which is good because if they took any more time, I was going to ask Chris to put that helmet on behind his head here. And I'll do it.

It won't fit. It really will not fit. Maybe I'll try on the goalie meant over my shoulder. The Nashville Predators are making their pick right now. Tommy Blyle. How about that? There you go. There you go.

He's a first round pick. All right. How many five, Tanner Mollandite, Cameron Reed, Tommy Blyleale, how How many 5-11, 6-foot defense can one organ? All great skaters. That's the theme there. Bluyl Mollendike Reed, excellent skaters. Yeah, Mollendike is probably going to need a bit of a reset here.

He's, you know, he's been, he's struggled. He's struggled a bit. Cameron Reed's going to Michigan, you know, an opportunity to kind of see where he goes. Tommy Blow is an electric skater. I mean, and that, to me, like, to me, his postseason was what sold me on his being a first-round pick. It's the guy that, you know, had an opportunity to go. he played prep school hockey last year, goes into QMJHL,

sets the record for most assists by a defenseman that had stood for whatever, since 1978 or something like that. They've been like 40-some years. And he also, in that postseason run for Moncton, which went all the way to the championship series, ended up losing to Shakutomi.

He was playing major minutes. There was a five-over-time game in that post-season. He looked like he hadn't skate, like he was still skating at the level that he's capable of in the fifth overtime. I mean, he's a good shooter. It's not an amazing shot, but he gets into the play. He is able to recover.

I think the defending is solid. Like the difference between, we came out of the season, Xavier Villeneuve was going to be the number one to QMJL defensemen taking it, felt like. Raining QMJL defenseman of the year. And then boom, here comes Tommy Blile. And he takes that away from him. And he also now goes in the first round.

CHL rookie of the year. Yeah. I mean, like so many. of words and yeah you were going to see more American players making that decision that Tommy Blal just did and there are you know guys that saw him in prep school

they said probably a mid round pick a guy that we would take like the like the skating like some of the tools he goes to the queue and lights it ablaze over 80 points I mean so I think this is to your point they've got a lot of this but that's another guy where I think the tools

you take that bet. Shouldn't he go to school though? I feel I feel like if you're the best defenseman in the queue, what more does you have to prove? And he was tested on that at the Combine, the decision to go back to Moncton. I think he said, I want to play for Gardner McDougal and Taylor McDougal and win a QMJL title, which we didn't get to do this year. And I think Chase Reed being at Michigan State is a part of it. There was also talk. That's not affecting Ryan Lynn's decision to go to Denver, though.

Yeah, and that was also the talk of kind of, you know, with Chase Reed. But Landon-Dupont was an option for me. Michigan State didn't end up getting them. Like, if I'm Michigan State, like, they've been, I think they've been pretty respectful of Blyle's decision and, and the rationale there. But I would also agree with you. I think that it's, why can't they both be on there? They're available.

It's the one roster spot they haven't filled. And I think, you know, giving your word, like, we're, we're in a new era here. And I understand giving your word. And I really, really, really respect that. I'm not trying to pry him away from Gardner McDougal here. It's just a simple, you just had 80 points. in the league. Your team is going to be a bit different from next season.

There's a lot of different guys. Like, I'm sure they'll still be good because it's Moncton. But you're losing Caleb Danoia. You're losing a lot of other players. I just think I have a hard time seeing how that ends up making the most sense. I don't think you can hurt yourself by staying behind. You can hurt yourself by going too early. But he's not going too early.

But he's not going too early. I agree with that. All right. So the Ottawa Senator is now on the clock with the last pick of the draft. We know they're not going to trade it, so we'll see what happens there. While they go, though, I want to ask, Scott, you do a piece every year, winners and losers. And I want to ask all three of you, give me one winner. You can't say San Jose tonight.

Ooh. You can't say San Jose. They're the obvious. We've already given San Jose their flowers. Give me one other team that you think they had a great night. Let me think on it. All right, I'll start then. I think St. Louis had a great night.

They get Tyne and Lawrence. They get Mason McTavish. That's a really good night when you add those two to your center pipeline. I like Calgary getting Carls and Hextall to premium position guys. I know there's been some, you know, talk about where they get the center, they pass on Bjork for Carl's. But Hextall's a really good center prospect. And, you know, I think that those two there, that's a big injection there to their system. This could be recency bias, but I'm going to go with Nashville.

And it's actually more about Wyatt Cullen than it is Tommy Blyle. I think that Wyatt Cullen does have a chance to be one of those guys that we look back on and say, this guy, that's the guy. And there's a theme to that, right? I mean, they're a team that probably needed some upside, some skill, and they get it in this class. And I like that. Just one pick, but I think Seattle finally getting read and getting read is. Big time.

Montreal poaching Buchachev in the 20s, I think, was just a really good use of asset management by them, too. That could age really well. All right. The pick that could not move is in. That's right. Gary Bettman up at the podium for the last one. Real quick, thank you all for being with us throughout this one. This has been awesome.

Seeing the number be as high as it is the whole night. We are so grateful to you guys spending your draft night with us here on the athletic and flow hockey NHL draft live. The last pick of the 26 draft, it's Jackson cover. Scott tells you all about this kid. The story of the draft for me. I know the rucks have sort of been that for a lot of people, but Jackson is, I'm so happy to see him go in the first round here. This is a kid who until five years ago had never played organized ice hockey, grew up on the Cayman Islands. His dad's from Atobico and works at the local CIBC there, the Canadian Bank.

Cayman Islands are a big banking institution in the Caribbean, played roller hockey because his dad started a roller hockey club at a little local gym and became a star at playing roller hockey. And you can see it in his game now that he's still extremely raw. He came over during that pandemic, played a year of AA hockey. then played a second year of double a hockey, played one year of AAA hockey, got drafted in the OHL, was a rookie in the OHL this year in his draft year, led an uncharacteristically poor London Knights team from an offensive standpoint, from a star power standpoint, led them in scoring, very, very skilled on the puck. That comes from the roller hockey.

It's a lot of one-on-one. It's a lot of natural puck skill. He's got an NHL release. It's just the learning of the game, the decision-making. that's a big, big area that needs to improve. The story is great. The tools are great. How we actually looked on the ice this season was very inconsistent.

You're betting on the skill. I like it for, I mean, he wasn't in the first round on my list, but I like, if you're the Ottawa senators, I like that they've taken two swings on skill here. How different than Sokolowski?

I mean, we're in this range of the draft. You could make a similar case. It had unreal that the London Knights were like, you know, more of an average year for them. They still get two first rounds. Two first round picks.

It's unbelievable. And he's going back there next year. So he's instead of jumping into college, he's committed to Penn State, but he's going back there next year. I think that'll be big for him. They'll be a better team next year. Good environment to be in development-wise. So Scott's point, and there's a lot of learning the game at that level that still needs to be done. The fact that he was as productive this season without that level of experience, he is a real outlier in this class in terms of

of his developmental experience being what it was. I'm fascinated by that because if you were that good there, where does that say you can go? What kind of room do you have to grow? The ceiling on cover is high because of that. There is a gigantic risk profile. Is it cover or a cover? It's cover.

Cover. Cover, my bad. Well, I said cover because I just- I said cover. That's not me. That is on you. But either way, we're, I think the fact that we're what, four years of like legitimate higher, at least high-ish level of hockey.

These kids have been playing 365 ridiculous hours clock. Like his hours on ice relative to every other player that we saw get picked tonight. It's not even close. Right. So that's a big factor. But it's also you're betting on a lot. You're counting on there being catch up. That doesn't always come.

There's a lot of hope there. There's a lot of hope there. All right. Well, a great story to finish out the 2026 NHL draft. That is going to do. it for us. Thanks for joining us for the athletic and flow hockey NHL draft lies. Make sure you join us back here tomorrow after the draft ends for our full recap. We'll be going live here again then. Make sure you subscribe to the athletic hockey show on YouTube so you can be with us. And thanks so much for

joining us.