Byron Bader (Hockey Prospecting) just released his top 32 in the 2023 NHL draft. Some interesting rankings in here, including Gulyayev as the #1 D
and Cristall ranked at #7.
https://twitter.com/user/status/1669755158367174657
Quote:
7. Andrew Cristall, W, WHL
This is where you start to see my list really start to differ from most other lists. Cristall perhaps isn’t the greatest skater and has some things to work on but offensively he is elite. He has great hands and offensive vision and his profile in the model is that of a player who hits as a star about half the time and almost always makes the NHL. These guys often go in the top 5. In this draft there’s rumours that Cristall might not go until the late teens (hopefully 16th).
8. Mikhail Gulyayev, D, KHL/VHL/MHL
Gulyayev has an INCREDIBLE profile in the model and can skate like the wind. A crazy productive offensive dman who looks very similar to Evan Bouchard and Brandt Clarke but he’s of the younger variety too. But he’s 5’10”, Russian (given the current climate and hesitancy towards Russian prospects doesn’t help) and has some stuff to fix up.
For reference, if you look at all drafted dmen over the past 30+ years that played in a junior Euro league (and showed best there)… Gulyayev has by far the highest equivalency of any of them. And he had a 99th percentile equivalency in his pre-draft year.
Remember last year… there was a tiny dman that had crazy production that we suggested should go high in the 1st round. Didn’t go until nearly the 3rd round. And put together one of the best offensive seasons at the NCAA level that we’ve ever seen and now is on everybody’s radar. And the year before that a tiny dman was taken in the 2nd round out of the WHL because … he was small and didn’t play a lot in his draft year (but put up incredible numbers in the small game sample he did play in). By his D+1 it was very obvious he should have been a 1st ruond pick. Gulyayev could potentially be the next Lane Hutson, Olen Zellweger variety. He in fact profiles slightly ahead of where both were in their DYs. I am all in on this one!
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