2023 NHL Draft Thread

[Tbull8]

Originally Posted by Tkachukwagon

https://twitter.com/user/status/1674148524999471106

If Oliver Moore is available at 16, oh my

[Icon]

Annual thanks-in-advance to Sureloss and everyone else breaking news through the draft!

Happy Draftmas

[Monahammer]

Originally Posted by Ziggy Lidstrom

The moment has arrived. All the great discussion and contributions really got me through this underwhelming season. Even though the flames don’t have a top pick we are gonna get some good talent to refill our cupboards.

Thanks to all for the awesome thread. Especially you sandman for sharing all the profiles.

Sandman for president

[activeStick]

Hahaha Bettman is great!

[Moneyhands23]

Originally Posted by activeStick

Hahaha Bettman is great!

Yup..he wears it well for a guy in his high powered position.

[cral12]

Originally Posted by cral12

Added to the Upside's Prospect Profile page - Sandman, we must be close to 180 - not really sure - keeping me working to the end - think I might have 3 more that I missed earlier for our Watchlist section - I'll check on my lunch break if I can - 3 of these were well into E-Mac's rankings and some of them moved up in his Final Rankings. (Unfortunately, went on a series of mountain bike rides so didn't get a chance to update the profile page to match the Final Rankings, but there's not a ton of changes since the Lottery Edition rankings I based the order on.

Phew.

We can almost sit back and enjoy Draftmas!
(not really - I'm going to be tense as hell to see how this pans out for our Flames! lol)

ICYMI, some direct links:

Our Final Mock Draft:
https://bit.ly/upsidenhlmockdrafts

Prospect Profiles (featuring Sandman's super work)
https://bit.ly/upsidenhldraftprofiles

Final Rankings Mega Details Spreadsheet (with tons of features to check out on the bottom)
https://bit.ly/upside2023draftrankings

Thanks for any and all support, fellow CP Draft geeks! Upside has been a fun side project.

Dang really wanted Zach Benson to keep dropping. Oh well. I knew better...Nice pick Sabres.

[Ziggy Lidstrom]

Honzek… I’m happy with him. Really interesting fwd. size, hands, iq and maturity. It was a deep skate cut that truncated his season. No wonder why Connie was beaming. Hopefully he plays center for us.

[Moneyhands23]

Originally Posted by Tbull8

If Oliver Moore is available at 16, oh my

May be available at 20...

[Yoho]

https://twitter.com/user/status/1674237650834956288

[Sandman]

Originally Posted by Ziggy Lidstrom

The moment has arrived. All the great discussion and contributions really got me through this underwhelming season. Even though the flames don’t have a top pick we are gonna get some good talent to refill our cupboards.

Thanks to all for the awesome thread. Especially you sandman for sharing all the profiles.

Originally Posted by Monahammer

Sandman for president

Thanks so much guys, it was fun!

[Royle9]

2nd round aspirations now:

Cristall LHS LW - 5'10
Heidt RHS C - 5'11
Sawchyn LHS C - 5'10

Super high skill/high reward guys but considered undersized.

[dammage79]

Originally Posted by Royle9

2nd round aspirations now:

Cristall LHS LW - 5'10
Heidt RHS C - 5'11
Sawchyn LHS C - 5'10

Super high skill/high reward guys but considered undersized.

Detroit has 3 consecutive picks in round 2 I bet they take 2 of them if they're there.

[Royle9]

Originally Posted by dammage79

Detroit has 3 consecutive picks in round 2 I bet they take 2 of them if they're there.

Yea I feel like they'll move one but I thought STL would too!
I definitely feel like Heidt and Cristall go in the first few picks in the 2nd likely well before 48.

[cral12]

Originally Posted by cral12

Added to the Upside's Prospect Profile page - Sandman, we must be close to 180 - not really sure - keeping me working to the end - think I might have 3 more that I missed earlier for our Watchlist section - I'll check on my lunch break if I can - 3 of these were well into E-Mac's rankings and some of them moved up in his Final Rankings. (Unfortunately, went on a series of mountain bike rides so didn't get a chance to update the profile page to match the Final Rankings, but there's not a ton of changes since the Lottery Edition rankings I based the order on.

Phew.

We can almost sit back and enjoy Draftmas!
(not really - I'm going to be tense as hell to see how this pans out for our Flames! lol)

ICYMI, some direct links:

Our Final Mock Draft:
https://bit.ly/upsidenhlmockdrafts

Prospect Profiles (featuring Sandman's super work)
https://bit.ly/upsidenhldraftprofiles

Final Rankings Mega Details Spreadsheet (with tons of features to check out on the bottom)
https://bit.ly/upside2023draftrankings

Thanks for any and all support, fellow CP Draft geeks! Upside has been a fun side project.

Discovered 2 prospect profiles by the prolific Sandman and got Upside updated. Phew, yet again.

Plus, added some info on Easton Cowan to help with traffic given Leafs selection
Just for those interested as the Treliving connection, EMac had some good info on him and I posted on the tweeter:

Easton Cowan #LeafsForever, Treliving's 1st pick as Leafs GM:

47th ranked prospect at Upside, but:
1st/Top Competitor
2nd amongst sleepers
10th best skater

Hockey Prospect also him 29th OV

#2023NHLdraft #nhldraft
https://twitter.com/UpsideHockey/sta...43072908214273

[Flamesfan05]

Look like the wizard is off to a slow start in Hogtown

[cral12]

What a draft year. This thread has been awesome. Another huge thanks to the incomparable Sandman. Here's some tweets highlighting Flames picks & Sandmans's profiles to probably close off this thread or close to it:

(More I digest Honzek pick, the more I like as well, I should add)

https://twitter.com/user/status/1674229048086794240

https://twitter.com/user/status/1674442584993980416

https://twitter.com/user/status/1674452887861329926

https://twitter.com/user/status/1674461452856594432

https://twitter.com/user/status/1674487389845356545
^2nd last, that is

https://twitter.com/user/status/1674529576423411712

[RedHawk12]

Overall, I am very happy with how the draft turned out for Conroy and the Flames.

Like many others here, I wasn't initially thrilled with the Honzek pick given some of the other players available. But having slept on it, I'm starting to like it more and more. Honzek is a big guy that moves well and has offensive potential. The term "safe pick" has taken on a negative connotation, but I really don't think it should. I project Honzek to be a 40-50 pt player in his prime maybe with a 60-70 pt career year, but is someone that will end up playing 700-800 games fairly easily. Think of Mikael Backlund in terms of overall games played and ice time. That would be a win for a first round pick. I know it would be more exciting to get someone with higher upside, but based on where we were drafting, that upside will also come with high risk to bust. The more I think about it, the more I believe the priority on drafting in the first round is getting a sure-fire NHLer. When you take big swings in round 1 and they end up a bust, it leaves the team with gaps/voids in age, which the team will inevitably try to make up for by signing free agents. We have seen over and over again this is a recipe for disaster. Draft players you know will play. Pelletier, Zary, Coronato and now Honzek is a good start and ensures that there is no huge age gaps on our roster.

The other thing is listening to Conroy compare Honzek to Rantanen is exciting. If he is able to tap into some of that offensive potential, it would be a huge win.

Now, I do believe there is a time and place to take big swings on boom/bust players and that is in mid/later rounds. This is where I think the Flames did well this year. I'm very excited about Morin and Suniev in particular.

The other thing that I like about what I believe is the Flames draft philosophy is drafting forwards in the 1st round and defensemen in the 2nd round. Unless you are getting a sure-fire top pair D in the 1st, it's better to go with a forward. There are always TONS of defensemen in the 2nd round with top-4 potential and that's the right way to go imo. I love our recent history of Pelletier/Zary/Coronato/Honzek in the 1st and Andersson/Kylington/Kuznetsov/Morin in the 2nd. More of that in the future please.

The other thing that really stands out, especially with this draft but I've noticed in the past 2 drafts as well, is a return to an emphasis on size. I think there's definitely some PTSD among the fanbase with drafting big players, but the more I think about it, the more it seems like a sound approach. The important thing here is to not draft big players for the sake of them being big, but also combining that with hockey IQ, skating and vision. I think this is the key distinction and the Flames are aware of it. When I look at the "big" players we drafted the last few years, I don't see them as the Hunter Smiths and Keegan Kanzigs from before. I think they can legitimately play because they have many other great attributes.

Lastly, with respect to drafting size vs skill, I think we definitely had a bit of a shift in philosophy after hitting a home run with Gaudreau. After that draft, we started taking some swings on tiny skilled guys specifically in later rounds...Phillips, Zavgorodniy, Emilio Pettersen, Beck, Francis just off the top of my mind. The thing is NONE of these players are close to Johnny and they are really top 6 or bust guys, and almost all of them are trending towards bust. Which again leads to gaps in age range filled in by bad UFA signings etc. On top of that, even with Gaudreau, a 1 in a 1000 kind of lucky pick, we saw that his size is a big detriment come playoff time.

Moving forward, I don't mind drafting big guys in later rounds as long as they have those other attributes like hockey IQ and good shot. For example, Bell and Ciona are two recent big guy picks that have a better chance of making the NHL compared to the smaller ones I listed earlier.

Again, happy with the draft and looking forward to following their progress.

[Jiri Hrdina]

Pronman gave the Flames a B overall

[Jiri Hrdina]

And Wheeler ranked the Flames as an overtime winner after saying they were overtime losers after day 1. Liked what they did on day 2 a lot

[Sandman]

I’m happy they didn’t draft any Smurfs. We needed to get bigger as an organization. I truly believe that Honzek and Morin are both home runs. I didn’t dare dream that we would pick up Morin.