Scouts Survey: The biggest questions leading into the 2024 NHL Draft
There are plenty of questions leading into the 2024 NHL Draft.
Not a lot of answers. Not at this point, at least.
So we enlisted the help of nine of our scouts — Joel Henderson (Western Canada), Mike Kennedy (Ontario), Joey Fortin Boulay (Quebec), Kyle Pereira (United States), Erik Sjolund (Sweden), Arttu Myllymaki (Finland), Jake Janso (Russia), Samuel Tirpak (Central Europe), and David Phillips (Goaltending) — to answer some burning questions ahead of the 2024 draft.
Welcome to our 2024 draft scouts survey.
Who was your favorite player to scout from your region this season?
HENDERSON: I’d say it would be Tij Iginla. This is a player who folks really punished in preseason rankings because of the depth of the Seattle Thunderbirds roster for 2022-23. Iginla got a chance to prove he could be a difference-maker with the Kelowna Rockets and he worked hard every night to see that through.
KENNEDY: The player that sticks out in my mind is defenseman Sam Dickinson. I absolutely love the style of play he brings to the table and his multidimensional skillset. He seems poised to have a long, fruitful NHL career.
FORTIN BOULAY: There’s a few players I’ve really enjoyed watching this season, but my favorite was Maxim Masse. He’s been dynamite, especially in the second half of the season, displaying great offensive proficiency and two-way effort. The fact that he’s been playing with an exciting and offensively talented Chicoutimi Sagueneens squad this season also helped his cause.
PEREIRA: James Reeder. He’s such a good playmaker and has such a high end ability of reading the play. He’s underrated for his size, and that’s the biggest reason he isn’t highly rated. Despite his size, his vision and passing skills still shine bright. I do think the size element is a bit overblown, and in this case it truly is.
SJOLUND: I enjoyed watching Alfons Freij this season. I think his style of play is fun to watch with the combination of great skating and good hands. He continuously tries to move the puck up the ice and can create offense on his own.
MYLLYMAKI: My favorite player to scout was definitely Konsta Helenius. First of all, it’s not every year when you get to see such a talent coming from Finland whose ceiling is so high and has such good hockey skills. In my opinion, the biggest thing in his game this year and most enjoyable to watch was to see his defensive game develop into the next level. Now I see a skilled forward who can play a full 200-foot game responsibly.
JANSO: I’ll go with the most thrilling player, outside of Macklin Celebrini, in Ivan Demidov. Combine the best hands in the class with elusive edge work and cerebral playmaking and you get a truly special player. Demidov has the ability to make players of all ages look silly which never gets old.
TIRPAK: I enjoyed quite a few of the defensive prospects, but the nod here goes to forward Miroslav Holinka from Trinec. He plays a very smart and mature game in all three zones, reads plays very well, and is also a great skater. While not a stable piece of the first team yet, in games he played he looked very much the part.
PHILLIPS: My favorite goaltender to watch this season was Ivan Yunin. Yunin’s play immediately caught my attention because of his incredible athleticism. He is quick around the crease and shows incredible flexibility to make sure every puck is challenged.
Who was the most difficult prospect to get a read on?
HENDERSON: It is not often you find a player who has the projectable complexities to weigh like Terik Parascak. For a rookie in the WHL, Parascak got to join a high octane top-six forward group with the Prince George Cougars and show that he could be an effective complimentary winger. He was a bit of a jack-of-all-trades by moving around lines and roles on the power play. I think folks know who he is at this point, but it doesn’t make guessing the long-term projection any easier.
KENNEDY: Mississauga Steelheads forward Jack Van Volsen is a player I had some difficulty getting a read on this season. While he did pick up his offensive production more in the second half of the year, I was still left wanting more. It currently is tough to determine his potential and where he might fit on a good team at the next level.
FORTIN BOULAY: I would say Alexandre Blais from the Rimouski Oceanic. He’s been one of the most productive players of the league in his draft year, but I thought his showings were inconsistent. I was sometimes impressed by his play-driving skills, vision and skating, but at other times, he just seemed too small and made less of an impact, which makes me doubt that his playing style is translatable to the professional levels.
PEREIRA: There’s a couple, but I’d say John McNelis. He is used in a specialty role in the USHL which makes it incredibly hard to project at all. Generally speaking, he is an impressive playmaker who doesn’t really force plays if it’s not there. He’s also highly intelligent away from the puck. But he also showed moments of slow decision making, which hurts that strong playmaking.
SJOLUND: Freij might be my answer for this question too. I struggled with determining his floor. It is very apparent that he is talented and has a lot of good tools to build around, but I also think he can combine great performances with some really poor ones, especially defensively. At the end of the day, he is a high upside player, and that is why he is ranked where he is in this draft.
MYLLYMAKI: For this one, I have to go with Tuomas Suoniemi. After shining at Hlinka Gretzky Cup, I thought he could have a promising draft year. That’s not what happened. During the season, you could see glimpses of his offensive potential in his game, but too often you couldn’t see that on the scoreboard. He seemed a little frustrated, and that also affected his overall performance. The gap between his best and worst nights was too big, but there’s definitely some offensive tools and awareness and that’s why it was quite difficult to get a proper read on him.
JANSO: I would say Fyodor Avramov. His shot is likely the best in his region and his game is shaped to maximize its effectiveness. However, concerns about consistency and versatility make it difficult to truly read his potential.
TIRPAK: This has to be Adam Jiricek. In games with Plzen, he was not playing that much and when he finally got the opportunity to be up in minutes and get more used to pro level, he got a season-ending injury. He is a great skater and a pretty smart two-way defender, but he played so little and then had half of the season lost due to serious injury and never got the chance to show his skillset properly.
PHILLIPS: There is no doubting the fact that Kirill Zarubin was downright dominant at the MHL level. And the play can sort of back it up at times when you see a 6-foot-4 goaltender move around the crease with the ease that Zarubin does. He’s athletic and swift in his movement, but I can’t help but worry about his playstyle translatability. Zarubin often plays far out of his crease, and it leads to goals for his opposition when he has a bigger distance to cover to his next shot location. Additionally, he doesn’t read plays at a high enough level to suit his aggressive play style.
Who is the prospect you feel you’re higher on than the consensus?
HENDERSON: It depends on who you mean when you say consensus, but, at this point, it might be Tanner Howe. He has seemingly done a slow slide down boards from a potential first-round candidate to in the later half of the second round. As for me, I started the season with him in a potential third-round slot and he’s risen to the top-half of the second round.
KENNEDY: Ben Danford is a player that I am very high on. I feel he is one of the more underrated prospects in this year’s draft class. He possesses many of the important tools required to succeed in pro hockey and could find himself selected a bit earlier than projected.
FORTIN BOULAY: Definitely Justin Poirier. Some don’t think he’s a quality prospect because of his size and flawed defensive abilities, but I don’t see it as bad as others. I think his shooting arsenal is elite, his offensive abilities are also great and his sturdy lower body will help him get through at the next level. He’ll need to work on his defensive play, but I think he has the output to score 25 or 30 goals at the pro level with a couple years of maturing.
PEREIRA: Definitely Tory Pitner. I’ve been super high on him for a while, having him as a late second rounder, around the No. 50 pick. But hardly anyone I’ve seen has him that high. Pitner’s defensive abilities, in my eyes, are amongst the top in the class. Just an intelligent player with translatable skills.
SJOLUND: Probably Linus Eriksson. I have seen him play many times this season and his development has been impressive to follow. He started out as a third line center in the juniors and ended the season as the second line center and an important player for a strong Djurgarden team who made it to the final in Hockeyallsvenskan. His offensive ceiling is probably not as high as some of the highly-ranked prospects, which might deter some organizations from picking him early, but I believe he will become a mainstay third line center in the NHL.
MYLLYMAKI: I rank Jesse Pulkkinen way higher than many others do. During the World Juniors his name was more on the table but after that there’s not been lots of talk about him. His season ended quite early because his team didn’t find success in Liiga playoffs and he wasn’t eligible for the Under-18s. Some scouts might doubt him because of his skating but I think it’s not that big of a deal and he’s actually quite fast and good on his edges for his size. His puck movement and ability to play under pressure are things that I think NHL organizations shouldn’t pass over on early in the second round.
JANSO: A few players could fit here but I’ll say Igor Chernyshov. Chernyshov has been very impressive in the KHL with limited minutes, displaying powerful physicality, good speed, and a nose for the net. I’d consider taking a shot on him in the top-10.
TIRPAK: I’m generally really excited for smart players and Tomas Galvas is that. Galvas is more of a late second rounder in consensus, but he is really smart. He’s going to have a hard time making the NHL with his size, but I believe he has more of a shot than your usual 5-foot-10 offensive defender because of his IQ.
PHILLIPS: Evan Gardner is someone who I just can’t believe people don’t have locked into their top-5. He is an impeccably precise technical goaltender, and goaltends at a robotic level. His footwork is exceptional, maximizing his push strength with strong edges. Gardner also utilizes pristine c-cuts to change his depth at a high level.
Who do you feel is the prospect you’re less excited about than the consensus?
HENDERSON: I think as a whole, I’m a bit more tentative on the projection of a lot of WHL players into the NHL. I’ve seen many lists that are riddled with players from late first round into the second round and I’m more of a third-round projection on a lot of them. For me that includes Parascak, Miguel Marques, Harrison Brunicke, and Charlie Elick.
KENNEDY: I am a little less high on Guelph Storm forward Jett Luchanko compared to the consensus. While I do like the player and his high level of hockey sense and puck skills, I feel he may take longer to get acclimated to the rigors of the pro game. Time will tell how he develops and adjusts at the next level.
FORTIN BOULAY: A prospect that I constantly see higher on most ranks than mine is Eriks Mateiko. People seem to be thrilled by his mix of size at 6-foot-5, play around the net, and defensive prowess. I’m not a big fan of his skating, his reads, and his play with and without the puck. I’m not so sure he’ll be anything more than a bottom-six player at the next level.
PEREIRA: Teddy Stiga for me. I like his game quite a bit, lots of energy and has offensive skill. But I also have concerns about whether he can translate that skill to the NHL due to how unorganized his game can be. It’s very chaotic at times. That landed him just outside of the second round range on my board, which is a lot lower than most.
SJOLUND: I think I will mention Gabriel Eliasson. He is a towering defender who skates like a much smaller guy and that combination is of course intriguing. My concern is that he isn’t modeling his game around his best assets as much as he could. I would like to see him be more physical off the puck and more confident with it. If he manages to get more out of his tools and physical features, he can develop into a great defenseman.
MYLLYMAKI: This got to be Veeti Vaisanen. This season he already played his first year in a pro league in Liiga and he handled that challenge pretty well. But I think that he is way closer to his max potential than his peers and he misses the ability that would make him an NHLer at some point of his career. As a two-way defenseman he should take huge steps to make it and I just don’t see it being so obvious. He needs to develop a feature that separates him from the others.
JANSO: For me, this has been Anton Silayev all year. Don’t get me wrong, he’s an incredible defensive prospect, but I don’t see the offensive potential that some believe he has. He’s absolutely a first round pick but more top-15 for me than top-5.
TIRPAK: I’m going to say defender Daniil Ustinkov. Ustinkov is good everywhere, really a rather smart two-way defender, but I don’t see anything that would stand out to me as a thing to propel him into the NHL. There might be one, but I just haven’t seen it yet.
PHILLIPS: Pavel Moysevich seems to be locked into a top-7 goalie for the 2024 draft, and I don’t completely see it. At his best, Moysevich is a well-rounded tall goaltender who smothers the net with his width. At his worst, I see Moysevich as a goaltender with no standout trait to push him above the rest of the pack, and someone who struggles with opening holes through his movement leaving him prone to back-door goals.
Who in your region is the biggest boom-or-bust option?
HENDERSON: I think those honors go to either Carter Yakemchuk or Parascak. Both have the ability to outthink opponents and adapt to create offensively but provide question marks when it comes to other elements of their games.
KENNEDY: I believe Luke Misa is a prime example of a boom-or-bust candidate. There’s no denying his speed, skill, and two-way play are all outstanding. The question is can he put it all together and add more layers to his game to thrive as a pro?
FORTIN BOULAY: I was considering Blais a lot here, but I’ll go with Poirier once again. Poirier could go from scoring 30 goals and being a power-play weapon in the NHL, to struggling and developing as an AHL player.
PEREIRA: Cole Eiserman, easily. He has 50-goal potential on the high end, but there’s also a chance he doesn’t make it at all. I think some of the concerns are overblown, but there could still be translation issues that could prevent him from making it.
SJOLUND: I believe that the player with the highest ceiling, aside from Michael Brandsegg-Nygard, is Lucas Pettersson. Pettersson could develop into a solid offensive threat at the NHL level with his strong playmaking ability and puck handling skills. I am not concerned about his lack of appearances in SHL this season, but he has still to show that he can bring his junior prominence to the senior level and for that reason I am picking him for this question. Alexander Zetterberg is a honorable mention too for similar reasons.
MYLLYMAKI: I really needed to think about this one and I ended up on Aron Kiviharju. There are elements where he possesses elite level potential of an offensive puck-moving defenseman like his offensive awareness and overall hockey IQ but there’s also some limits and doubts like his size and lack of explosiveness that could keep him out of NHL. Kiviharju may turn out to be the biggest steal in the 2024 draft, but it’s also possible that he won’t ever play a single game in the NHL.
JANSO: Definitely Yegor Surin. He’s a dynamic puckhandling playmaker that oozes creativity and is very fun to watch. He would greatly benefit from increased north-south speed and whether or not his skillful play translates successfully to higher levels will be a determining factor in his future.
TIRPAK: The answer to this, in my humble opinion, is defenceman Leon Muggli. He’s a smooth-skating offensive defenseman but is as prone to big mistakes as he is capable of a great chance creation and puck-moving. He is an almost perfect example of a long-term project as there is in this draft among defenders. I would really love to work with him on his development, just because there is so much potential, yet the current state of his game is as raw as you can have for a relatively highly touted prospect.
PHILLIPS: Kam Hendrickson was a later season phenomenon for me. Following his outstanding season with Chanhassen High School in Minnesota, Hendrickson moved to the Omaha Lancers in the USHL. Hendrickson showed incredible athleticism and a very potent no pucks off approach. Hendrickson challenges every shot with all his strength, but I just wonder if he is simply too small with the way he plays for it to translate to higher levels.
Who in your region would you be willing to take a big swing on?
HENDERSON: I don’t really think about it that way. I try my best to figure out the appropriate placement for players and see where I’d be comfortable in my assessments of risk/reward. When it comes down to how people have spoken about the top few prospects from the WHL though, it seems Berkly Catton slipped past a few names. If he is the one considered a big or risky swing, I’d be happy to take it.
KENNEDY: I’d be willing to take a big swing on London Knights forward Sam O’Reilly. He is the type of player that rises to the occasion and provides timely offensive production when it counts most. He’s a player worth reaching for in my mind.
FORTIN BOULAY: I could go with Poirier again here, but a dark horse player from my region that I would definitely use a lower round pick on would be Jiri Klima. He’s still pretty raw and hasn’t produced a ton in the QMJHL, but I really like his shooting/passing abilities, puck control/management and vision. He would be a project, but he could reveal himself as a gem in the rough.
PEREIRA: Pitner or Reeder. Reeder for the same reasons I mentioned earlier, and Pitner because he feels safe with his style, with untapped upside. He’s an excellent shutdown guy with puck moving upside, something that every team would love to have on their roster as a minute munching, tough matchup taker.
SJOLUND: Noel Fransen is a riser who appeared on the radar quite late this season, which is why he might be ranked lower than he should. He is a rare offensive defenseman who is a great scoring-threat with his lethal wrister, and he combines it with great puck-moving abilities. I believe that he could end up on the same level as some of the top-ranked Swedish players in this draft and I would probably feel confident picking him earlier than other people would.
MYLLYMAKI: Joona Saarelainen is a player I’ve been loving to watch. Bigger the stake, the better he performs. His competitiveness has made a big impression. His game near the blue paint is impressive and he owns a pair of some slick hands. In my opinion the biggest risk on him is that he won’t become a productive player for top lines and just plays in bottom lines. Still, in all scenarios I see a player that will play a career in NHL.
JANSO: I’d swing early on Alexander Siryatsky. There’s a group of defensemen from Russia that all fall into a similar tier; good but not great. Siryatsky is the one in this group that I believe can take another step towards being great. Solid two way play with a smothering defensive presence that’s shown to be successful in the KHL.
TIRPAK: Depends on what is considered a big swing. There are two that would really satisfy this answer. Neither of them is a highly touted player, at least in public consensus. First one is already mentioned in Holinka. A second is goaltender Jakub Smolka. Holinka for the smarts, two-way game and a mature and responsible game. Smolka for the goaltending upside. His numbers have been excellent on a junior level and while likely not being selected, I feel like he could be a sneaky late round option for a team.
PHILLIPS: Nikolai Nikulshin rose meteorically up my rankings in just the past month. Starting as a goalie I ranked in my 30’s in April, I came back to Nikulshin in June and was blown away. His play style is very unorthodox, but it is something that I think can work at higher levels. The DY+1 overager plays an aggressive and smart style of goaltending, using all of his crease to challenge shooters and constantly scanning the ice. Nikulshin has been playing for Yaroslavl’s second junior team in the MHL’s Silver Division, and he hasn’t been seeing a lot of games either. Nikulshin is someone who I would be banging my fist on the table for with a seventh round pick, if he was still available.
Who in your region do you think a team is going to make the mistake of reaching too high for?
HENDERSON: While the discussion around Cayden Lindstrom has been sky high all season, it took until later in the year for folks to begin addressing what could be things that hold him back rather than simply focusing on the outstanding strength and potential he has. He does have that, but I wondered if people were not giving appropriate consideration to the hurdles to his growth at the NHL level too. I have him in the range of player potential of past WHL top-10 picks including Kirby Dach and Dylan Cozens. Both of them did not rocket to stardom right away and have experienced recent struggles in their young careers. I could see some ups and downs along the way for Lindstrom too.
KENNEDY: Henry Mews is potentially a candidate for a team to reach too high for. He’s a solid defenseman with some nice attributes and well-rounded play. However, he does have some inconsistencies to work on that may frustrate a team reaching into the early stages of the draft to select him.
FORTIN BOULAY: Once again, Mateiko. I think there’s a chance that a team uses a top-75 pick on him mostly because of his size, but I don’t think he’s talented enough offensively to select him with a high pick.
PEREIRA: Will Skahan. He’s a big defenseman, who plays well against the rush and in his own end. However, he struggles as a puck mover, and that’s an aspect that has grown over the years. That could limit his overall potential deployment and whether or not he’s trusted at the NHL level.
SJOLUND: This one is difficult to answer because there are not many top prospects coming out of Sweden this year and the value of draft picks even out after the first 45 or 50 picks. One player who I can see organizations looking at quite early is Jack Berglund. His build and scoring threat will be enticing but unfortunately, I believe that he is benefiting from being physically developed early rather than having a high ceiling. His skating needs to be improved to not harm his effectiveness at the senior level.
MYLLYMAKI: It could be Daniel Nieminen. He is an offensive defenseman whose defensive game is not so good. He takes too many risks with the puck in high-danger areas and doesn’t understand his limits on puck play. I think his hockey IQ might not be sufficient for NHL and he hasn’t shown he can adapt in different situations. If an NHL organization is going to value Nieminen purely on his offensive potential, the pick might happen way too early.
JANSO: I think Maxim Velikov may go earlier than I’d like. He’s a two-way forward who’s shown some playmaking potential but struggles to make it a consistent tool. He has a tendency to fall to the perimeter a bit too much but could still become an effective bottom-six forward.
TIRPAK: I can see a team really reaching on Jiricek in the middle of the first round. That would be too high for him, for sure, since he is a player that is a really safe bottom-four option on defense, likely panning out as a great-skating high-end two-way third pairing defender in the NHL. And it’s not even really about the player himself, but that would be too high.
PHILLIPS: Kim Saarinen to me is a goalie who’s draft stock doesn’t really match the output. While Saarinen’s game doesn’t have any holes in it, he also isn’t far above average at anything. He plays a well rounded game and showed strong progression throughout the season in the footwork department, but I don’t think Saarinen is a goalie I would draft among the first three rounds.
-
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE: