Welcome to the Prospect Ramblings or welcome back. Today I am going over some winners and losers for the NHL Draft, and the draft day(s) in general. I wanted to keep it more in the black and white winners and losers’ categories, despite me wanting to put a bunch of teams in some middle-ish cop-out category like “slightly winner”, so do not get too upset if your team is in the losing section. The draft days is just a couple trades from the days leading up to the draft and I used the 25th for a cut off date.

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Winners:

New York Islanders

The Islanders just fall in here as, honestly, I have them 50.00001%:49.99999% in the plus. Drafting Schaefer gives them a big bump, but trading Noah Dobson for arguably a worse return than what Buffalo got for JJ Peterka is a huge downgrade, yet the team gets saved by the two players who dropped to them.

Drafting Schaefer is great and they had first overall pick, so that is an easy win. Honestly, I like Buffalo’s return a whole heck of a lot more than the Islanders’ return. Two mystery boxes and a bottom to middle six player for a top pairing 60+ point defenseman? Come on. Buffalo at least got a bottom to middle six winger and a top four defenseman for a top six winger. Thankfully, the Islanders get saved having both Victor Eklund and Kashawn Aitcheson fall to them at 16 and 17.

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Montreal Canadiens

No picks in round 1 but get Noah Dobson and sign him for $9.5M x 8 years while losing no one really off the line up. Fantastic.

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Boston Bruins

James Hagens was ranked as the early #1 overall and slid to Boston at #7. There was even talk of him going all the way out of the top 10. If he can become the player he was projected to be then this is an easy win for Boston. Also, thankfully Boston decided not to draft a player with a “third-liner at best” ceiling they usually go for later in the draft.

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Carolina Hurricanes

They initially had no picks in round two (and I think round three but I may be recalling a different team) and turned their first-round pick into three second rounds picks, but for one of them they had to trade up. Carolina is king at throwing multiple darts in any draft. I enjoy it.

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Calgary Flames

Lots of talk about the Flames again getting great value with later picks in the draft, which appears to be a trend these last few drafts. Both Cole Reschny and Cullen Potter were great value picks where they were selected. (Thanks Emmanuel)

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Quick Notes

Have to give props to Nashville and Pittsburgh for having three picks each. I guess Chicago too but I would prefer they still be bad for at least as long as Buffalo – too many cups recently and the whole 2010 cover-up

Want to put Florida in more of a middle-ground as I love the Tarasov add, but his injury history during his development may have limited his potential to be a star starting netminder

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Losers:

Columbus Blue Jackets

Like the Islanders just fell in the winners, Columbus just falls in the losers, probably by the same metric. Jackson Smith and Pyotr Andreyanov were great picks, with Smith being ranked as the #2 defenseman (arguably) in the draft and Andreyanov being ranked as the top goalie in a majority of rankings.

I get that Brindley had a tough first AHL season but this seems to early to give up on him, plus a third (2025) and a second-round pick (2027) for one year of Charlie Coyle and years of Miles Wood. I get CBJ need to get to the cap floor but you don’t need to plug up your bottom-six when you have plenty of top flight forward prospects who could make the jump. They made it far too easy for the Avalanche to get $7M+ of cap room and out from under the Miles Wood contract (it is not the AAV it is the length).

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Seattle Kraken

Drafting Jake O’Brien is great as he falls into the range they drafted, moving Burakovsky for free (essentially) is a huge win, but acquiring Freddie Gaudreau and Mason Marchment (yes I cheated on my rule) just adds more middle-six players to the roster that is just middle-six players and will finish middle of the pack at best. It just seems like everything Seattle does is just to add middle of the line up players and hope to win that way.

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Vancouver Canucks

This is not about passing on Eklund for Braeden Cootes, so much of this draft was all over for many teams, but he seems to have a much lower ceiling than Eklund. Acquiring Evander Kane at full salary is my issue. They are essentially moving on from Boeser to one year of Kane and freely did not require Edmonton to have to pay to move him. I guess if they miss the playoffs they could flip him for a better asset at the deadline.

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Washington Capitals

Capitals also just fall in here because of the trade but by a larger margin. Washington has a history of just selecting draft fallers, and they did so again when they selected Lynden Lakovic at #27. However, how the heck can you give up a second-round pick for a player that does not have a high-end resume in the AHL. The Capitals obviously see something other teams do not, and I know Paul Maurice was a big fan of Justin Sourdif, but how on earth can you justify a second-round pick? Especially when Jordan Spence was traded the other night for a third-round pick.

Sourdif could make this look like a great trade for Washington, but based on everything how can this look good. Did they mistakenly mean Makie Samoskevich? The one positive note, where I will give the Capitals maybe a slightly not an F grade on that trade is that they would have seen a lot of Sourdif from Hershey and Charlotte facing off in the Calder Cup playoffs.

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Los Angeles Kings

Breaking my rule from above again because what was that Spence trade? I get he apparently wanted out, but did LA have to get zero real value back? Florida got more for Sourdif, but in reality, how do you not at least get a second-round selection for Spence, who was arguable more ahead than Clarke was last season. Obviously, many see Clarke as the better player in the long-term but right now Spence is better.

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The Fans Watching the Draft

This draaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagged on longer than the amount of a’s I just used. It was actually just over 30 minutes more than the previous years draft, but it just felt longer. Likely because of how cringy it could be, and all the technical issues. I get the GMs liked it, but why not make a more combined idea. GMs can have their war rooms back home, yet sit around in the areas below. I still like the previous versions more, I am guessing many fans also do.

Also, if you keep listening to the (actual) insiders, or those working their way up, that keep saying there is “so much trade chatter, it is going to be a crazy day” then you are Charlie Brown

Stop listening to them! In thinking of a crazy draft day with tons of action, however cynical I may come across, when was the last time we have a big player trade in the NHL draft? I swear the last few years, since the COVID Zoom drafts anyway, there has been no real player movement. Please let me know if I am incorrect! I think the last player traded at the draft was Romanov? That was so exciting and worth all the hype (zero sarcasm).

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Thanks for reading. Follow me on Twitter: @FHPQuinn

Pat Quinn