Curt

Interestingly, Wahlberg said he has always played wing on the smaller ice surfaces and probably sees himself as a winger in the future.

Nice draft. Added a super high upside talent, a couple needed RD prospects, a couple big strapping raw forward prospects, a nice goalie prospect, and couple lottery ticket defensemen at the end of the draft. Yeah, pretty balanced. No crazy reaches. I’m very happy with it.

Buffalo actually picked two of these guys!

Average size at around 6’1” 185 Was Germany’s top defenseman at the most recent U-18’s, playing in all situations for them.

Don’t love this, but I don’t generally like picking guys out of high school. What do I know though.

In the 7th I want one of these guys: Two big, young LD Kristian Kostadinski, James Petrovski or Matthew Soto RW

Only 8 forwards were drafted in the 5th.

I think he measured slightly smaller than expected at the combine. I’m seeing him listed as 6’1” and 6’2” different places. Measured 6’0.5” at the combine.

Big rugged winger 6’4” 208 with some puck skills. Needs to work on his consistency and fine tuning the skating a bit.

I think I want Carter Sotheran with this 4th round pick.

Yeah, I don’t know either. I tend to give McKenzie’s list the benefit of the the doubt because it’s assembled by actual NHL scouts.

Or maybe it caught his living room window!

Super predictable, local kid. That said, I do like him at this spot in the draft. He can skate, has some size and physicality, passes well enough. Just kind of a solid complimentary guy. Oh, and he is young for the draft class, that’s always a bonus.

In the 3rd I want one of: McCarthy, Sotheran, Price, Pecarcik, Rykov

Not that it is anything definitive but McKenzie’s scout put him at 33 overall.

And there was much rejoicing.

If they weren’t going to take a defenseman, then this is a fine selection.

Nice quotes. I absolutely agree that he is a good and improving prospect. However, as a smaller offense first winger, his production alone tells me that he isn’t quite ready for the NHL. He needs to continue to gain muscle and work on his game. I don’t believe that his upside is as great as Savoie or Benson’s.

I think Riley Heidt might be the BPA too. Not big (surprise, surprise) at 5’10.5” 180, but he is a really good 2 way playmaker at C. Projects as a smart, fast middle 6 C who combines skill and competitiveness, and can play in all situations. Oh, and he put up 97 pts in 68 WHL games this season.

You know, I was reminded of something this morning. NHL GMs just flat out overthink the draft a lot of the time. If you just told a computer to select the highest scoring CHL forward available at every draft pick, it would find more players that go on to have successful NHL careers than a lot of GMs. Sometimes it’s as simple as picking the best junior players. Chances are that they will go on to have the best NHL careers.

I don’t understand this player evaluation. You are going to need to go into more detail to convince me.

He measured 5’9.75” 170 lbs at the draft combine.

I’d be good with that. He is all the way down at 61 on McKenzie’s board though.

Maxim Strbak? Cameron Allen?

Apparently 46 defensemen are going to get drafted in the 1st round and Buffalo will be left with all the 5’10” wingers, just like they planned it.