2025 NHL Draft Thread

[Snuffleupagus]

Originally Posted by Sandman

To be fair, Mason West is still quite young, with an August birthday, and he did put a very respectable 9 points (1 goal) in 10 games for Fargo of the USHL.

Yup, I use a point system for prospects and one of them is age.

West gets:

Skating - 9/10
Passing skill and vision - 8/10
Shot - 8/10
Defense - 7/10
Size - 10/10
Physicality - 8/10
Age - 10/10

[Mephisto]

Originally Posted by Snuffleupagus

Yup, I use a point system for prospects and one of them is age.

West gets:

Skating - 9/10
Passing skill and vision - 8/10
Shot - 8/10
Defense - 7/10
Size - 10/10
Physicality - 8/10
Age - 10/10

I don't see the harm in taking a shot with our 31/32 1st round pick- this draft is average at best. Especially if Ryabkin is no-touch zone until round 2/3.

[The Original FFIV]

Rachel Dorris from espn has a good article which breaks down potential for the top 64 prospects. Outlines their projections/floor/strengths. Good and concise summation of what the prospects are projected to translate to at the nhl level and their baseline. I find this to be helpful (in addition to the contributions of the board members on the site).

https://www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id/...ions-strengths

[Jiri Hrdina]

Originally Posted by Mephisto

I don't see the harm in taking a shot with our 31/32 1st round pick- this draft is average at best. Especially if Ryabkin is no-touch zone until round 2/3.

I think there are several risks with him still playing football this season even though he says he’s committed to hockey
- injury risk playing football
- what if he had a great football season and stats to receive better recruiting attention
- I wouldn’t be a fan of my draft pick focusing his off season and half his critical d+1 season on football

[dissentowner]

Originally Posted by Snuffleupagus

Yup, I use a point system for prospects and one of them is age.

West gets:

Skating - 9/10
Passing skill and vision - 8/10
Shot - 8/10
Defense - 7/10
Size - 10/10
Physicality - 8/10
Age - 10/10

If this was accurate he would go 1st overall.

[Snuffleupagus]

Originally Posted by dissentowner

If this was accurate he would go 1st overall.

If teams like size and age as much as I do sure, he would be up there, I suspect they don't.

Look at it this way, If he tears up the USHL next season and was 6 weeks younger he might be talked about in the same breath as McKenna.

[Sandman]

Teams do like size, look at who rises and who falls each and every draft.

[dissentowner]

Originally Posted by Sandman

Teams do like size, look at who rises and who falls each and every draft.

I don't disagree but I don't think we have seen enough of West against better competition to give him those kinds of marks.

[ForeverFlameFan]

West would be a big project.

You probably wouldn’t see him get any kind of NHL time until 2030 if he ever panned out

[YyjFlames]

Originally Posted by Snuffleupagus

Yup, I use a point system for prospects and one of them is age.

West gets:

Skating - 9/10
Passing skill and vision - 8/10
Shot - 8/10
Defense - 7/10
Size - 10/10
Physicality - 8/10
Age - 10/10

This is interesting. Hopefully you don’t total it up and rank based on total points. If you do, you may want to scale down your size and age cats to being out of 3 or 4.

They are somewhat meaningful categories but they shouldn’t carry the same weight as skill, shot and skating… or you’d end up drafting like Sutter.

[Sandman]

Here's how two scouts on FC Hockey ranked him:

Jacob Roth (Sioux Falls vs. Fargo, Apr. 11th):

Skating: 6
Shooting: 3
Puckhandling: 5
Playmaking: 7
Offensive Awareness: 6
Defensive Awareness: 6
Compete: 5


Kyle Perreira (Fargo vs. Sioux City, Apr.16th):

Skating: 6
Shooting: 3
Puckhandling: 5
Playmaking: 7
Offensive Awareness: 6
Defensive Awareness: 5
Compete: 4


I often disagree with their assessments, and rating one of his best assets (shooting) as a 3 is WAY off base, but these ratings are more in line with how I see him.

[PepsiFree]

Yeah, not sure the Snuffleupagus Prospect Index is going to take off.

[The Original FFIV]

Looking at the draft and players that might be available around our pick, there's a couple of guys that stand out on the physical and skilled side and a couple that might be good sleepers. High risk - high reward.

Reading about Vaclav Nestrasil and Daniil Prokhorov gets me excited. Big, mean, violent. And skilled. You can't teach size and mentality. Yes, they are men playing against boys. But I like what I have read.

Higher risk/higher reward guys like Ryker Lee and Alexander Zharovsky gets me excited too. Skill skill skill. Raw but potential is there. The kind of guys we should be targeting in the later first or with our seconds if they are there.

These players are less vanilla than the other prospects around our 18th that we've been talking about. Would love to see Conroy swing for the fences with any of these guys. Would definitely generate buzz and excitement.

[Sandman]

Keep in mind, those ratings on West don't take into account his size, or his age- those assets are a big reason why he's getting so much buzz, and rightfully so.

[Sandman]

Originally Posted by The Original FFIV

Looking at the draft and players that might be available around our pick, there's a couple of guys that stand out on the physical and skilled side and a couple that might be good sleepers. High risk - high reward.

Reading about Vaclav Nestrasil and Daniil Prokhorov gets me excited. Big, mean, violent. And skilled. You can't teach size and mentality. Yes, they are men playing against boys. But I like what I have read.

Higher risk/higher reward guys like Ryker Lee and Alexander Zharovsky gets me excited too. Skill skill skill. Raw but potential is there. The kind of guys we should be targeting in the later first or with our seconds if they are there.

These players are less vanilla than the other prospects around our 18th that we've been talking about. Would love to see Conroy swing for the fences with any of these guys. Would definitely generate buzz and excitement.

Zharovsky has a fair amount of buzz going for him, and I've even seen him in the first-round in some mocks/lists. Lee is fantastic, but his skating will require plenty of work.

[ForeverFlameFan]

Originally Posted by Sandman

Keep in mind, those ratings on West don't take into account his size, or his age- those assets are a big reason why he's getting so much buzz, and rightfully so.

I think the Flyers with multiple 1sts would take him on as a gamble. It’s not like they’ll be contenders anytime soon.

[Sandman]

Originally Posted by ForeverFlameFan

I think the Flyers with multiple 1sts would take him on as a gamble. It’s not like they’ll be contenders anytime soon.

All it takes is one team to like him enough, and he's a first-rounder. With all the talk around West, I could see him going in the first-round, early-second.

[devo22]

he's an ideal pick for a team like Nashville or Philadelphia with three 1sts and extra 2nds. Could easily risk taking him at 35 or 36.

[Ba'alzamon]

Originally Posted by Snuffleupagus

Yup, I use a point system for prospects and one of them is age.

West gets:

Skating - 9/10
Passing skill and vision - 8/10
Shot - 8/10
Defense - 7/10
Size - 10/10
Physicality - 8/10
Age - 10/10

If he was even close to being this good he'd have finished higher than 87th in scoring in Minnesota High School

[Sandman]

In two weeks, we'll be watching the second day of the draft!!!!