Deep Thoughts Sudbury Star NHL Draft Preview
Deep Thoughts
With
Mark Seidel
The NHL Draft is
upon us this week so I thought I would discuss some of the players &
storylines that you will be hearing about on Thursday & Friday.
Is Shane the
“Wright” pick for the Habs?
Shane Wright was
only the fifth player ever to be granted “Exceptional Status” into the OHL
which allowed him to play in the League as a 15-year-old and thus he has been
projected to be the #1 pick in the 2022 NHL Draft for a couple of years, but
will the Montreal Canadians do it? In my opinion, there are three other players
with a higher upside and potential (Juraj Slafkovsky, Logan Cooley and Sion
Nemec) but they also have a much greater chance of being a bust. To complicate
matters even more, being the first overall pick in Montreal comes with its own
set of pressures and challenges so the mental toughness of the player must be
taken into consideration. Does the new Montreal GM, Kent Hughes select the
“safe” pick in Shane Wright, or does he swing for the fences with either
Slafkovsky or Cooley? I know two things about Kent Hughes. Firstly, he has a son
that is elite and is in this age group (potential first rounder Jack Hughes) so
he knows this age group as well as any Scout on the planet. Secondly, Kent and Executive
VP, Jeff Gordon are NOT afraid. The easy and safe choice would be for them to
step up to the microphone in Montreal, in front of a packed Molson Centre, and
announce the popular Wright to kick off the Draft but I have a feeling that they
may go in another direction and try to hit a home run. For me, this Draft is
eerily reminiscent of the 2014 NHL Draft where the “OHL Exceptional Status”
player Aaron Ekblad (Shane Wright) was projected to be the top pick for 2 years
but as the Draft approached, a high scoring forward, Sam Reinhart (Logan
Cooley) & the big unknown European, Leon Draisaitl (Juraj Slafkovsky) made
it a 3 horse race with the popular choice Ekblad being taken 1st. In
hindsight, the European is clearly the best player in that Draft & I think
we will look back on this Draft & Slafkovsky will be that guy.
Will there be
a lot of Trades?
With a number of high-profile
players such as Jacob Chychrun, Alex Debrincat, JT Miller, Mark Scheifele,
Tyler Bertuzzi and John Gibson being involved in trade talks since April, we
could see a wild 2 days at the Draft. Teams have been discussing these type of
big trades for months and some would involve 2022 Draft picks, so the Draft is a
suitable place to consummate these deals. I expect to see a couple big deals
over the week and even more smaller deals during the Draft so buckle up because
it could be an interesting week.
Local
Connections for the Draft
There are a number
of local connections with the 2022 NHL Draft including:
Cutter Gauthier;
The USA National Team member is the son of Sean Gauthier, the Sudbury native
who had himself a long professional career as a Goaltender. Cutter will be selected
in the Top 10 and is a classic Power Forward with a lot of offensive potential
David Goyette; The
Sudbury Wolves Centreman has a chance to be a first-round pick on Thursday, but
it is more likely that he goes early on Day 2 in the 2nd round. The
skilled forward was an offensive catalyst for the Wolves and some Teams are
privately hoping he falls but I cannot see it happening.
Michael Buchinger;
The young blueliner for the Guelph Storm burst onto the hockey scene this year
by putting up forty-four points in his rookie year. Buchinger is a proud member
of the Wikwemikong First Nation & returns back to the Island every summer
with family to spend time with relatives. The talented Buchinger should be a 2nd
or 3rd round pick on Friday.
Jake Karabela;
Karabela had a tremendous rookie season for the Guelph Storm this past year
& was arguably the MVP of the CHL Top Prospects game in Kitchener this
year. His Stepfather, Brian Murphy is an Espanola resident that moved to Guelph
to pursue a law enforcement career, but he still has many friends and family in
the area.
Mitchell Martin; Having
been bypassed last year, Mitchell is an ’03 birthdate that possesses a lot of
the skills that you want in a Prospect including size, pro shot, willingness to
go into the dirty areas & huge improvement from the beginning of the year
until the end. Martin was exceptional for Kitchener with 12 points in 12 games
as they upset the London Knights & battled the League Finalists, the
Windsor Spitfires in the Western Conference Semi Finals.
Zach Giroux; What
more could the feisty ’03 Sudbury native have done than end up Centering the
Flint Firebirds top line with Brendan Othmann riding shotgun. Between the
playoffs and the regular season, Zach accumulated 20 goals and 59 points while
playing more than 18 minutes a night as a true rookie. Being a smaller Centerman,
the compete level has to be extraordinary & Giroux has followed in his
older brother Damian’s shoes in exhibiting that & just to prove it, he was
2nd on his team in the playoffs in penalty minutes.
Zander Veccia; A
personal favorite of mine, Veccia is the Son of Copper Cliff/Sudbury boy, Rob
Veccia. Rob had a good OHL career, and his son is following in his footsteps
and has a chance to be selected on Friday. The feisty winger is not the biggest
kid, but he plays incredibly hard & carved out a very valuable role on a
good Mississauga Steelheads team this year.
Evan Konyen, Kocha
Delic & Nolan Collins; The Sudbury Wolves trio have all had some interest
during the year from NHL teams and each has the potential to hear their name
called on Friday. My personal favorite of the three is Konyen because of his
overall talent, sneaky offensive abilities & willingness to compete but the
short seven round Draft & worldwide talent makes it tough to be sure if
they will get selected.
Sports. Stories. Honesty. Unbiased.
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