MJ's top 44

Poirier would be top 5 easy if he could add 3 to 4” in height. But 5’7” is being generous honestly.

Bold take at #1.

Trevor Connelly does not play for US NDTP. He plays for Tri-City (the USHL one).

Levshunov is everything but not flashy. He is built for the limelight.

Greentree laid an egg at U18s. Combined with his star performance at prospects game, it reaffirmed the notion that he plays to score, not to win. (Stars game=no system, no coaching, recess rules; u18=lots of role playing, structure).

Good list. I like the bold takes…especially on all the ‘littles’

He will still be in the board at #1.

Who is in your top-14?

Yeah thank you for the correction on Connelly... their U18 was a lot of their development program, so confusion occurred there.

U18s and other international tournaments is a mixed bag... a person can boost their stock at these tournaments, but they should be used as a reason to lower their stock unless a pattern is emerging. If I'm a coach and I assemble lines that win, well you could be a really good player stuck on the third or fourth line just because I'm having success leaning on other very good players.

Nate MacKinnon, for example, didn't show that well at the world juniors when he went... didn't mean he sucked.

My top 15 is hard to gauge, because my top 15 is no where close to the top 15 that will be drafted. I’m posting 2 soon my top 32 and then my mock.

Seeing Boisvert fall to my Jets is awesome

EDIT: I just realized this is a ranking, but still Boisvert to the Jets would be awesome. Stiga is clearly a top 10 player in the draft. Pretty much has everything down apart from using his size. Biggest sleeper player of the draft.

I’ve seen Buium and Parekh mocked in so many different spots, id love to see one of them drop to 14th for the sharks, but i doubt it’ll happen. this draft seems to have the upsides of 2023, but not the floors, from what I’ve seen being said.

And Nygard and Kontas laid eggs at world champ, and those 2 are overhype and i thought Kontas was NHL ready but dude cant crack the line at worlds. Also why do ppl want the devils to be small and not physical Kontas doesnt nothing to help their second biggest need in size and physical. But i bet you think Sennecke is good and will be a top 10-15 YIKES

Honestly at 14 I think sharks will have Nygard, Eiserman and Jiricek as the best available options.

Im ngl, id like to see them trade up that 14th pick if they can to snag one of parekh or buium, but I’m not familiar with how trade ups work when looking at a top 10 pick, would assume it would be like 14th and 33rd overall and a prospect to snag a pick between 5th-7th. But from what I’ve seen it might really be worth it just because it seems like there’s a pretty distinct drop off after the top 10.

To get to top 5 I would assume 14 33 and 42 and that still might not be enough, and we’re still too early in the rebuild to give up 3 assets for 1 prospect. But yea I would love to grab one of them! If all it took was say 14 Bordeleau and 42 I would to move up to 7/8 to grab one of them

I get that, i guess in my mind the consensus is that there’s a distinct drop off in quality right around where that 14th pick is, so it might be better to package those later picks that might be B prospects to get a premium A+ prospect with huge upside.

The problem is in this draft there is 1 A+ prospect 2 B+ and then a larg swath of B-/c+ with upside. At 14 sharks may not get the D they need but there is a few forwards with intrigue I would consider. I’m really like Nygard he doesn’t have elite upside but his floor is high and he would provide good grit and support for either Smith or Celebrini

Eklund Celebrini Nygard
Musty Smith Zetterlund

Has a nice mix of grit play making and goal scoring on each line.

And while I want to go all in now and be better tomorrow it’s smart to be patient.

Plus the guys we get at 33 & 42 arnt that huge a drop from those in the early 20’s anyways

My hope is
Celebrini
Nygard
Badinka
pulkkinen
Now sharks have tons of 3-7 D depth and a solid top 6 and can focus FA money and trades getting a top LD a d RD

We will see how things shake out, be interesting, already planning on getting a celebrini jersey lol. I have a feeling we might see some reaches with this draft, not as loaded as last year, but still very interesting, excited to watch it. Smith was a very good pick last year, but still kinda bummed they didnt take michkov.

Michkov flat out said no to sharks! He would have been our Gauthier forcing trade or not coming over from Russia. I’m thrilled we didn’t

I had heard he had some interesting interviews with certain teams where he had a disinterest in playing for said teams, didnt know the sharks were one of them, couldn’t find anything but ill take your word for it. Smith is very promising so i guess no harm no foul there.

I heard his Agent told Sharks don’t bother.

Yup, would need to give up an asset/prospect that sharks wouldn’t want to part with(ex Musty) and #14 most likely. Think 7/8 is highest to move at a reasonable price and 10/11 as well on draft day depending who falls

I’ve heard rumors but nothing public to substantiate this. I wonder if this had something to do with Russian scout getting fired despite not being mentioned in GMMG announcement on said firing. This was also before Sharks won lotto and Demidov/Silayev would’ve been at play @#3

What are the odds of Seattle moving back one or two picks if both d-men are there are 8? Seems like both the Devils and Flames would be fighting for Iginla.

I can't imagine Seattle trading too far back but I can see that as a scenario if someone really wants Iginla.

It hasn't really happened for years... mostly now teams move picks from 7 - 14 to get a guy who is really good, like top 6 forward or 2-3 D who they can put into their line-ups now, and feel like they're getting a missing piece of big importance. Trade ups or downs tend to happen later in the first round nowadays. Dubas took a trade down to get rid of a contract, for instance.

A trade up/down happens if the two conditions are met: the team trading down is getting a player as good as the one they're drafting at their current position (they have their eyes on someone who may not be consensus ranking where they're picking, like they like a guy ranked 40 and they're picking 20); the second condition is that the team trading up sees a player they really think has hidden value that the rest of the draft doesn't detect.

Philadelphia, last year, wanted to trade up to 5 with Montreal to draft Michkov. Montreal did not accept a trade down to 7 because they felt like Arizona was looking at Reinbacher and they wanted Reinbacher. So it didn't happen. But let's say that Montreal were sure that Arizona wasn't picking Reinbacher if they traded down... they probably would have taken the free asset.