TOP 16 MOCK w/ @Scouching

TOP 16 MOCK w/ @Scouching

what is up YouTube today I had Will Scouching on and he is an incredible source i love his content you should check him out links are in the description but for some reason our video kind of got distorted there was just our cameras were on the entire time but it didn’t really record at all so it’s just the mock draft it’s a top 16 so please enjoy the Islanders e so I mean to me this is going to be Matthew Schaefer if I’m the Islanders like I look at their prospect pipeline and I don’t they don’t have a ton really there to really like say as a cornerstone i know they’ve got Cole Eisermanman and and some of their better defensemen are still pretty young so you know I don’t I think the Islanders got extremely lucky obviously with the lottery results and they’re going to get a chance to add I think a really really special defenseman i mean Schaefer is insanely dynamic insanely creative but plays an offensive brand of hockey that I think projects really really well to the NHL where it’s not all speed and skating and skill it’s a combination of all of those things and and awareness and creating passing lanes and creating opportunities in ways that he makes just really good reads of the opponent and just drives really really great results everywhere not a perfect player but definitely a player I could see playing a lot of minutes in the NHL quarterbacking a power play and being defensively capable enough to to do a really good chop good job chipping in there and for the for the Islanders I think he’s the best player available the youth the style of play I can’t really argue with anything there i mean it’s just really really good and I mean yeah he’s he’s a pretty clear number one for me so for the Islanders that’s the guy who it’s going to be matthew Schaefer’s player caught for himself he said was Mir Hiskinnan as well as Kale Mar his assistant coach at Eerie Otter also said Kale Mar i think this guy’s an elite top pairing defenseman in the future so I think the Islanders run up to the podium or actually to their phone to call it in true yeah and then for number two I think the Sharks are going to go with Michael Misa here i just feel like this is going to be the pick i really like Michael Mesa as a Hawks fan I’m really sad because I really wanted him i think he’d be a perfect Jonathan Taes-esque player i asked him at the combine who his center comps were because his winger comps were Cooerov and Carell Capri off so his center comps was Sydney Crosby and Patrice Berseron i think Jonathan Ta as well Captain Sirius a little bit too i think that he’s versatile he’s going to be a great one-two punch with Celibbrini something that goes overlooked in his game I think is his two-way game his defense and he’s incredible at point production obviously seeing that OHL uh historic season mis is one of those guys that I think the Sharks are going to love to have on their team i I have no words i have no disagreement there it’s This is what I would do if I were them too at this point for sure then at number three who do you think the Blackhawks are going to take well this is where it’s going to get very interesting um there are a lot of options here i know a lot of people might be very you know clearly looking at guys like Martone or Hagens i’m not convinced that that’s what’s going to go down on draft day and thinking about how Chicago has drafted in the past and and oh man it’s really hard but I think I think that a guy like uh we’ll go with we’ll go with Caleb Dane i think I think the Chicago Blackhawks really love him i think the Chicago Blackhawks really love these you know he’s got a lot of physical development to go i think he’s 6’2 but I don’t think he quite has filled out as much as he could he’s a really smart and gifted playmaker you know he’s a player who I’m not sure is a huge line driver at the NHL level but you know you play him I mean heck if you wanted to put him at center and put like a Connor Bard on his wing he’s going to score goals dane will find a way to get him the puck and it kind of alleviates that offensive responsibility and maybe then Dane is your first line center i think in terms of his own capabilities I wouldn’t put him that high but at the end of the day I think he’s just a really really really really really solid player that NHL teams seem to adore and there’s especially I think once you hear that both of his wrists were injured all year i think teams will look at that and go “Okay he was still this good with those injuries and we’ll buy the we’ll buy the upside here and and see what he can do next year.” He’s younger uh than a lot of the other guys in this cohort he’s an 07 so a lot of these guys are 06s uh and for me it’s maybe not the direction I would go if I’m Chicago but I do think that Dane is is there’s a lot of there’s a lot of talk about him potentially being the guy here at three but there’s going to there’s three or four guys I could easily see going here to Chicago but Duo seems to make the most sense based on what they look for in a player i completely agree dorier is a true center i those two bum wrists I think are really going to help him out just specifically with uh what happened in the Memorial Cup because he played pretty good in the first two games in the MEM cup and he obviously had an incredible playoff in the queue and I just feel like this would be the kind of pick the Blackhawks would want get a one-two punch with Bernard and Dorier as well as Dorier could be a taselike player i mean that was his player comp at the combine as well so getting a tase where you have that offensive upside as well as one of the best defensive forwards in the entire draft I think it would just be really good and I also think Anton Frenell would also fit here for the Blackhawks i don’t think it’s going to be Haggins or Porter Martone so for Utah at four I think this is also an interesting one because a lot of players have fallen we’ve heard Brady Martin a lot recently or just what could they possibly do it for and I think a tradeown would be necessary to try to take a player like Brady Martin but right here I’m gonna actually take Anton Fondell i know that they’ve liked Day a lot and obviously he gets picked up right before them so I feel like they would want a player like Dorier to get drafted here but I think Fondell has one of the best shots in the entire draft he was great this season um and obviously Victor Eklan was the play driver with him but Anton Frenell probably has the best shot as well as slap shot in this entire draft he possesses a lot of what I think could succeed as a forward or a center so you have versatility there i think Utah is just looking they they’ve liked Fondell for a very long time in this class and they locked out getting 14 or from 14 to four so I think just take who they see as best player available i don’t think that they go for Martone or Haggins so I think it’s going to be a surprise pick and Haggins and Martone both fall so fair enough yeah i mean I I I could see something like this happening to Utah doesn’t seem like the type of team that looks at a guy like Hagens especially that as as maybe as desirable but you know I’ve been I’ve been surprised in the past by what Utah does so who knows but uh I guess we can throw it back to me here for uh Nashville right um so Nashville at four i mean if it’s me and this is how things go I’m I’m I’m like you said running to my cell phone and calling in James Haggins um I think Hagens is being sold up the river a little bit these days i mean I uh I saw him at the combine i wasn’t there you were but I wasn’t and I saw him say things along the lines that he was saying things along the lines of like people forget how good I was at the under 18s last year and how good I was at the World Juniors and like I’ve won a gold medal at the World Juniors and and I’ve already done all of these things in my career so like I also have a perfectly reasonable uh path to being drafted high in this draft as well and I think he’s right i think some people see that as potentially a certain level of entitlement or something but I personally see that as a absolutely fair assessment i look at James Haggin and I see a player who has huge growth this season he started the year I think a timid college player who was learning how to deal with that kind of pressure and that kind of a situation physical pressure I should say not like emotional pressure uh and was really kind of struggling to create separation off the puck you know play physical when he needed to there were just a lot of things with his game that I was sort of sitting back and going “Uh like this is a bit of a question mark.” But I’d say the World Juniors for him were a turning point he went back to junior competition looked more than comfortable there and then down the stretch of the season he really turned a corner he was way more physically engaged way more active off the puck making plays way quicker and has had some really impressive moments in the offensive zone as a playmaker i think that you can genuinely look at his game and go I would love for him to be able to create more shooting opportunities for himself he’s got a great shot but I didn’t see it nearly enough but I think in terms of just dynamic skill and skating ability and and just upside especially cuz Nashville drafted a guy he has played historically extraordinarily well with and Teddy Stigga last year every time I saw those two play together this year they looked great and every time I saw Hagens play with Leonard and Bau I felt like it wasn’t a really great mashup of talent but at the end of the day uh James Haggins is the guy here for me i I I think he’s a great player i think Hagens is a player who is the best player available on my list at this point and in Nashville I think he’s exactly what they need and a a great great fit who can help enable the guys he plays with to to score goals which they’re going to need really like James Haggins i got to talk to him in person for about 25 minutes uh he had a water out of coffee so it it was just really cool he’s a really cool guy he likes deep dish pizza too so I’d love him in Chicago he said his player comp was Jack Hughes and also he loves Teddy Stigga i asked him to take me through that play because a couple plays before we actually talked about this he had a chance to put the game away but the goalie made a pad save that if he would have lifted the puck I think his draft season would have been a lot different he would have been the gold medal winning player so I don’t think a lot of people talk about that yes and and then he said that he actually um he was very cool with me he was open and he was just like “Yeah.” Uh he said Teddy got got the game winner so he was really excited for him too and they’re really good friends but you know he did have an opportunity to put it away but obviously it didn’t things didn’t happen the way that he specifically wanted at that moment but then Teddy helped him and they played incredible so they won gold medal and that’s kind of what they were doing and looking forward there porter Martone you know he only played 10 minutes a game for three games and he scored a goal and Michael Misa didn’t even get invited i know that wasn’t based on hockey but it’s still something that we should talk about so James Haggins was the most productive player even though Schaefer played a game in four minutes uh in the Worlds but if we’re talking about top five picks he actually was the most productive player in the worlds so I think that I would like him to go anywhere from three to five i think that Nashville is going to be where he gets picked up and I think it’s going to be an absolute steal because this guy’s going to be a absolute dog i see Logan Culie I see Frank Nazar I see Jack Hughesesque type of player and I just want Haggins on my team incredible vision incredible playmaker i think that he played the Will Smith role but he was put in a position that was very hard from him obviously but I will go to six because I don’t want to talk your guys ear off on Haggin because I can forever i think I think six for Philly they are actually going to go with Jake O’Brien based on everything that I’ve heard at the combine and how much they love this kid jake O’Brien is one of the best passers I’ve ever seen i mean every puck is flat that man i asked him at the combine he’s just like “Yeah you’re born with it.” I was like “Damn Jake holy crap.” Like “Thank you.” Um honestly it was just one of those things where he is incredible of vision he was the best player in Brford and Nick Lardes scored 72 goals so just think about that for a minute people call him a power play merchant and I’m like “No he’s just a he’s a very special player on the power play as well it’s just an added bonus for him.” He has a lot of skill a lot of raw upside though but I think that he is just one of those players that could go a lot higher than we think i think he was this year’s Beckett Senica before and then the cat got out of the bag but I think people would have been very surprised if there wasn’t all these clips and everything in the internet because he was just kind of a late riser and then throughout the season he just proved time and time again of how elite he was with his playmaking and his vision and his passing so I really think him and Mitchkov on a power play would be fantastic um I think Philly is going to go center so I think that getting a right-handed center with Jake O’Brien is going to be exactly who they go for fair enough i mean I uh Jake O’Brien crossed my mind for Chicago i I think there’s a decent chance that a guy like O’Brien goes really really high this year i agree really good passer really intriguing playmaker who I think brings a lot to the game um for Boston at seven this is going to be tough too boston hasn’t had a high draft pick in a in quite a long time um I can’t remember the last time they had a top 10 pick honestly and I I don’t know if they there’s part of me that thinks they trade it there’s part of me that thinks they might look at something that could make their team better right now but I do think there’s a big chance that Boston is entering a bit of this like retool/rebuild era and I’m gonna I think knowing what I know about the Boston Bruins and how they think I think a guy like Redeem MKA goes here uh it’s been a while well it’s it’s you don’t see defenseman not get drafted in the top 10 very often at all mertka is big and he skates pretty well for a big guy right-hand shot defenseman relatively young as well you know born in June you know he doesn’t he’s just turned 18 and he’s already just a just a I don’t even know what word I would use to describe him he’s a he’s a a boulder on skates and I think that the Boston Bruins are still the Boston Bruins right they love their guys who are big and play good defensive hockey and I think MKA could become a really really intriguing player for them there’s going to be lots of opportunity they have almost nothing in the prospect covered is Murka the best player available for me here i don’t think so but I think I think Boston they love these sort of physically intense guys who can erase guys along the boards and skate well and I know Portoone is still available but I look at Porter Marone and I see a player that I think NHL teams are a little spooked about uh a little bit you know going well is he gonna be a really high-end NHL player based on the lack of pace in his game and maybe some physicality notes that are missing and I get the feeling that teams might get a little bit of cold feet and MKA i think there’s a lot more safety so to speak in a guy like MKA projecting to uh to the NHL as a pretty solid middle pair guy who you know might have some offensive ability but you really get him for the size this the right-hand shot and the and the edge work that he has at a guy that size that’s pretty good you know the reason that I made that in awe was because Murka was my pick at Seattle and I really just wanted to talk your ear off on him sure because Murka is my guy i love this guy um he is hilarious he opens up when you give him the right questions in my honest opinion I’ve got to talk to him multiple times this year and his pro conf for himself is Maurice Cider so I love that for him you know he’s playing he’s been playing professionally since he was 16 in the Czech league even had an opportunity to play against Joerger and tried to hit him but he was so evasive and he was so slippery right that he couldn’t do it you know he doesn’t actually have hair on one of his arms because of an injury so I think that if if if that’s your index if you have a hair index you know mark that one down for Murka he doesn’t know why it happened but he thinks it’s hilarious he is just one of those guys that lives and breathes hockey on the chart here I actually have not seen Murka go seven it’s usually player like Roger McQueen and Brady Martin so I love that you brought that in there because he could be a Zidane Chararaesque person in their eyes i mean he’s also right-handed uh obviously it’s different but he is 66 right-handed defenseman he is going to go a lot higher and in the last 15 years there’s always been two defenseman gone in the top 10 i don’t know when the last time there wasn’t so Murka or Jackson Smith I don’t know which one will be in the top 10 um and here’s the board of who we’ve picked and Murka at seven is a really great pick so now it’s my turn at Seattle at eight and man I really wanted Murka but I think they’re going to they’re going to pick Porter Martone here i think Porter Martone is just a guy that’s falling i think they should take best player available martone is not really a um it’s not ideal like perfect fit like Dorier you know to Chicago I could see or Michael or say Schaefer to San Jose like that would be a perfect fit i think Martone would just be best player available i think his skating moves are a little bit overblown i kind of compare him to like an oldtimey car where it takes a little bit for him to get going but once he’s going he can get you to point A to point B it’s his first three strides he’s a great shooter i think he’s an incredible passer and it’s underrated his vision is great and he’s a great playmaker so I feel like this guy is star upside and you know his pro comps were Cory Perry and Matthew Dechuk you see what they’re doing in the playoffs so this was even before the playoffs had happened and now he reiterated that at the combine so I really like Porter Meron i do i hate that he has to go eight in our mock draft and I hate that he might slide during the draft because he is just such a good person i agree i mean I’ve met Porter i’ve been watching him since he was 16 great guy where’s a letter you know where’s the C for his team for many reasons uh I would I think that this is a bit of an overcorrection but I mean when you’ve got a winger who is more playmaker oriented and not the most physical guy in the world in a way that I think NHL teams want it could happen like something like this could happen you know and and unfortunately it’s just a reality of the way things go but Seattle never seems to mind they always seem to find a way to land really really talented players and just see where it goes uh Buffalo at nine um now I’m going to go a little bit off the board here but I’ve talked to some folks uh and there’s a nonzero chance this happens i would say I this is a guy who I think they do really really like i’m going to go Justin Carbono uh wow carbono is a player that I don’t have as high at all as this but I mean he’s a guy who has I think a really really high level of upside i think Buffalo is interested in him buffalo if they don’t draft him they will not get a chance to pick him so maybe they trade down from here if they do really want him but Carbono in isolated moments like if the NHL draft were about finding the best highlights and drafting the guy who has the best highlights he might be a top five pick like his ability to protect the puck his shooting ability his you know he has some really good playmaking moments as well sometimes he’s an extremely frustrating player to watch but the but the strong moments are really really strong with Carbono and I know for a fact that there are teams out there with him in their top 10 like he is he is no stranger to the really really high end of the board i think teams look at him as a player who is comfortable under pressure a guy who has dual threat offensive potential and if you put him in the right scenario he could be a really lethal scoring forward that you just deal with the downside of him i obviously am not saying this is guaranteed to happen but I have a growing hunch you know that Carbono is a guy that’s on Buffalo’s radar and might be a surprise top 10 pick to the public but based on reading through tea leaves and reading through the reading through the vines here it’s it’s possible and I think that s and I think the Sabres are a team that’s that’s that’s at least kicking tires pretty hard on a guy like this it’s very surprising to see but I actually am with you because I’m I’m not somebody that has Carbono in my top 13 14 but he has the best shot in the entire draft he can shoot from anywhere shout out New Wave Hockey because he put me on to this very early in the season but this man can shoot from any angle and obviously it’s the shooting percentage and I mean he’s just going to shoot it’s like Russell Westbrook sometimes when he gets a little confidence and is in his head he just starts shooting from all angles going to the NCAA level which I you know they they obviously got Bills on and to try to make him stay but I I think that he’s going to you know I’ve heard from multiple people that he is going to go to NCAA or he has a very good offer and all of these things i think going there to the specific school that I have in mind I think it’s going to be a really good fit for him carbono is going to be able to play against 22 25 year old men it’s going to really help him out the Q he was the most productive player in their draft year in the queue he actually was more productive than Dorier but Dorier is obviously better defensively but Carbono can actually go to the Sabres here i think if they are if they are not into Ekkan size in my opinion they go for Carbono he he can he has an incredible shot please just watch Carbono’s highlights if you have not that dude he can make your jaw drop in so many ways the the shooting angles and it’s just remarkable so I really like that pick for for Sabres at nine and then Pat Verbique here at 10 will he make another surprise pick here is he going to go with somebody off the board that should be not here but I think that he is going to pick Victor Ecklund and I’ll tell you why victor Ecklund Victor Ecklund and Leo Carlson are going to now be on the exact same line and they are going to cook together i think that Leo Carlson would love somebody like Victor Ecklan victor Ecklan was play driving every game three four five times a game and setting up Anton Frenell perfectly this guy plays a lot a lot bigger than his what 16870 170 frame i know it says 161 on the spreadsheet but he is a lot a lot bigger than that frame i mean he plays a lot bigger he’s 5’11 so there’s obviously concern but he was putting up some numbers too in the lower league in Sweden and I just feel like th this guy is going to be a star he’s obviously the brother of William Ecklan i really like the game that William plays too it’s very different but Victor Ecklan’s not afraid to get to the middle of the ice he’s not afraid to work in the dirty areas he will take a hit to make a play and as well as he’s just a really good playmaker in my opinion and like I said he’s a play driver it’s kind of like he’s a he is kind of like a point guard yeah i mean Ekkund was gonna be my guy here for Pittsburgh so darn uh trying to trying to think of the right word there without you know being uh you know not PG but anyway I I I mean I’d be very pleasantly surprised to see that happen honestly with Eklund uh I love Victor Ecklund he’s top five for me i love him to death um I think he’s a fantastic player who projects to the NHL really really well i don’t know if he’ll be like a point a game guy in the NHL but he’s going to be a guy I think you win games with uh was going to be my guy for Pittsburgh and I know Pittsburgh’s kicking the tires on him pretty good but yeah they are i think if I’m Pittsburgh I I mean I live in Toronto i’ve seen how Kyle Dubis and I’ve seen how West Clark draft it’s a new era for Pittsburgh west Clark is not afraid to stick his neck out on a guy i think they’re going to go with Lynon Lakovic here i I love Lyndon Lakovich i think he is a fantastic person really great kid very studious really wants to understand everything he can know about the game really loves to pick apart his opponents and the size and the skill level are basically unmatched I think in this year’s drafting combination he’s 6’4 6’5 i know he compares himself to a guy like Taage Thompson even though he’s a winger and he said he was going to be a winger for his career I think he said and I think that’s totally reasonable i think that you’re going to need a good coach who can sort of get into his head a little bit and sort of get him to put in a little bit more off the puck and and close gaps a little quicker and and be a little bit more engaged because that’s I think a pretty major flaw in his game but I think he’s aware of that i think he knows that and I think that’s something he consciously wants to be more cognizant of he was a huge driver of offense on the ice for his team they did not have a great season but he was a huge part of that he took over the captaincy and it does not surprise me in the slightest having met him really really great kid i think Pittsburgh loves these sort of smart tactical chess player type hockey players and I think Lacovich is one of those and the upside is really really big and I think it’s entirely possible that we see him go to Pittsburgh in in this year’s draft i really like this Lyndon Leovich pick the reason that I was surprised is because you know Kyle Dubis has the Sue you know 2013 2014 connection and I thought you were going to take Brady Martin there but Lynon Leovich is incredible when I I asked him about playing more physically and he said you know like to your point like he was trying to learn how to play in that bigger frame he actually didn’t know how to do it because he was such a skilled forward that just happened to be 6’4 and I think that it kind of gets knocked that he’s not more physical but he he’s basically a 510 forward that just happens to be 6’4 he has incredible hands great great skater in my opinion i think that it kind of goes overlooked a little bit his skating and I think it’s only going to get better as he gets more comfortable with his with his um his body when he first joined the WHL he said that he was just trying to dangle through three defenders every single time he didn’t understand how to play in that 200 foot game he kind of had to implement it as he got older obviously Moo Shaw didn’t have the best season this year but last year they were champions and he learned a lot about that after they got Seavoy they couldn’t lose a game i mean they were playing Fortnite for till 4:00 a.m he said and u they were just dominant i think that he had to learn a lot coming into the dub but he’s only gotten better so I really like this pick for Pittsburgh i think that the Pittsburgh could get backtoback picks here because we have no idea what the Rangers are going to do with that condition but right here I’m going to have the Rangers pick because we don’t know what’s going to happen i mean it’s a lottery pick but so for me I think the Rangers are just going to run up to the board and select Roger McQueen here not because like of anything other than best player available and he has the highest upside i think Roger McQueen would be fantastic to go to the Rangers they’re losing a lot of their forward depth a lot but a 65 right-handed centers don’t come come out often and somebody that has this much skill this much like he has really great hands you see the the mobility that he has at 652 i know the back injury is going to make him fall here cuz I think he’s a top eight potential player he had four goals in his first game and I think that people were kind of screaming top five top three pick after that game obviously that was reasonably biased after the first game but he was heating up in the WHL he had uh 20 points in 17 games i think that this guy in a full season without the back injury would have been a lot higher so I really like McQueen’s game fair enough i mean I think this is around the range he goes anyway uh there is upside there and he’s a wild card we’ll see i will make the uh admission that I have made the cardinal sin of doing mock drafts and totally forgot that Brady Martin was not picked yet uh so I kind of have to do it here i mean in reality I feel like Martin is going top five uh I mean personally I still feel like Nashville should go with Hagens i still feel like Chicago could very well go with Dane but at the end of the day uh Brady Martin to Detroit I think just makes a ton of sense as well i think he fits everything that the Red Wings are all about with their draft picks he is I would say a very intriguing uh echo of Marco Casper where the offensive upside is solid i think his offensive upside is a little more limited than Martin or than uh than than um Casper but I think Martin’s defensive game and energy and physicality will make up for that he’s a much better I’d say two-way force on the ice i think that his game is more like 4060 offense defense but I think that can improve with time he’s a guy who I think needs to battle to the net more but he has all the tools to do so so for me Martin here just makes sense it also doesn’t h it doesn’t hurt that when you look uh if Martin is facing away from you in his Sue Greyhounds jersey it looks an awful lot like a Detroit Red Wings jersey so that is a nice little sort of you know uh nice little continuity thing um and so yeah Martin here he should be he will be gone by now in reality I forgot he existed uh and I thought he was already gone in this draft but I’m gonna send Brady Martin to Detroit on this on this uh on this one here about a month ago this is exactly where he was going so this is definitely a Stevie Y pick in my opinion if you look at Brady Martin he’s only like 172 pounds but he’s farm tough if he hits you you’re going to feel it for a long time he was actually worried cuz he has 80,000 chickens I think uh like of a lot of cows and a lot of pigs on his farm he has 80,000 chickens on his farm and he was so so worried about the amount of chores that were piling up while he was at the combine he said his he hoped his brothers were going to help him out there but he doesn’t know for sure i thought that was pretty funny he was killing every interview as well i think he did meet um with Detroit as well i know he met with a lot of other teams but I’m pretty sure that Stevie Y Stevie So one thing is Stevie Y actually has seen Jake O’Brien three times live and nobody really goes to the O so there they could be a tradeup option for a player like Jake O’Brien but if Brady Martin is there at 13 they’re going to celebrate and probably go out to town that day cuz that would be absolutely nuts and obviously there’s just so many good players i mean the only one I would like think like every single player could go in this order in my opinion i think it’s more of a deeper draft than people have been on to i mean I’ve been watching these kids for years so I really it’s it’s we it’s interesting to always see who rises and then who’s the faller like Hler was always a top eight player for me the before his draft year as well as Ivan Riabkin and now all of these guys it’s like you can’t put those guys even near this range so I think Brady Martin would be fantastic and then Columbus at 14 I really like this pick for Columbus because I think you know you have a guy in Jackson Smith here that I think is just falling i know that there there’s talk that he’s going to go to a state school in the NCAA and you know that actually is not confirmed yet um but he definitely could do that i think that his production level in the end uh in the WHL this year was not the greatest from what kind of ceiling we can see from Jackson Smith i think he’s more of an offensive defenseman than he let on he didn’t put up those insane point totals but this guy’s like 63 and a quarter and when you look at somebody with that much size and then he does have more defensive awareness than a guy like Kevin Kchinsky that when I watch the dub they kind of look similar i think that Jackson Smith could potentially run a power play too in my opinion and maybe a a quarterback power play when he does have that kind of upside so I just think that this would be best player available for Columbus here makes sense to me i could see that happening and it seems right up their alley just bet on tools and try to develop them vancouver who you taking here i have no intel on this at all honestly with Vancouver i thought maybe if McQueen were there he might be the guy uh but I I am going to go with Logan Hensler here nice i think Hensler I think Hensler is a guy who went kind of undervalued i thought the first half of his season was really tough he I thought looked underwhelming at the World Junior relative to the other draft eligible guys that were there he didn’t play a ton I don’t think and I think that at the end of the day Hensler is a guy who I think had a much better second half of the NCAA season with Wisconsin and I think that in terms of on ice play he brings a lot of things that I think Vancouver values i want to say like he’s very mobile a really good skater he has a little bit of that offensive ability you know they went out and got a Victor Mancini earlier this season in the JT Miller trade and not saying that Hensler is similar to that guy but they’re both pretty big and pretty mobile and a little bit more offensive leaning at times but they’re not slouches defensively either i don’t think Hensler’s perfect i think he does have some development to go from here we’ll see what happens at Wisconsin over the next little while but I think at this range like you take your defenseman he’s a right-hand shot bet on his development over the next three years and you might have a good sort of middle pair two-way guy who can chip in offensively and just get around the ice well and just play smart efficient hockey and I think that’s the type of defenseman that NHL teams seem to really really like you know Hensler is higher on my board than probably consensus or where where he’ll be drafted i think that here’s a couple things he’s a Minnesota kid love Midwest players because they just have a different kind of grit to him in my opinion i’m from the Midwest so it’s probably not that but I think that his player comp was a right-handed Jake Sanderson i really did like that he has a lot more offensive upside than he showed at Wisconsin this year he was the youngest player on his team and the second youngest most productive player you 19 as a defenseman in the entire NCAA he was actually better than people thought i mean if you look up Jake Sanderson’s points per game he he Logan Hensler played 10 more games and had three less points but I mean he Logan Hensler was a a set of duck out there at sometimes he was just not acting like Logan Hensler after he gets comfortable it’s like being in anything once you get more comfortable you’re going to be a lot better and I think that’s going to be exactly what Logan Hensler is going to be as soon as he gets more comfortable this guy’s going to show his offensive prowess if you look whenever he did not think and wasn’t overthinking this guy was making incredible plays you can see that wraparound I think against Notre Dame where he wrapped around the entire defense and then passed it off to his his center right in front of the net for a goal he has that potential i’ve actually talked to him about this exact spot where Vancouver is he would say it would be a dream to go there because they have players like Quinn Hughes that can help him offensively right-handed defensive players are going to go a lot higher it’s just like any like it’s not like a quarterback cuz it’s different but are valued higher on draft boards so I think Logan Hunter would be fantastic here and then for Montreal at 16 I think that they’re going to run up and take Carter Bear and I really like Carter Bear because he is skating already he said that he is going to start participating in offseason activities and I think that means that the lacerated Achilles he dodged a bullet with his I asked him what his biggest strength was in player comp he said his biggest strength is his hard skill as well as his drive and intensity and tenacity i think that is what kind of brings players to play an elevated game to the playoffs he said his player comp was Brandon Hegel i think Brandon Hegel is a fantastic player comp for him i just think that that’s like a player that you know any team would kind of want to have especially in the playoffs i I just I’m really high on Bear i think he’s a very humble player grounded he is the injury right before the playoffs forever it really hurt them but I mean he’s just a really good person so I think besides all of that the hockey I think he’s just going to be a really good player and for Montreal I think that that’s somebody that they would need and it’s very high upside yeah I could easily see that as well and I think with Montreal with back-to-back picks if they’re not going to trade one or both of these for help now I mean Bayer is a little bit further along I’d say in sort of the physical development and kind of what you want out of a guy like that and you can afford to take on some risk i think you you’ve drafted a ton of times in the last few years and if Bear is the guy you really love and you feel like there might be a little bit of risk to him I feel like you can still just go for it and see how it goes cuz I think at the end of the day you get a guy who has a pretty solid floor really good skill really good talent and physicality i don’t know i think there’s a lot to like about Carter Bear so at 16 yeah I could see it happening it’s lower than I have him ranked so yeah I think it’s it would be good value in that range for sure and Carter Bear is a multiplier you know if you draft this guy he’s going to be able to narrate all the team documentaries like it’s just going to happen so I feel like that is also something the deep voice that he has it’s just I think that would be something that would definitely happen but that I’m going to go to the spreadsheet here and this is the top 16 that we did uh comment down below like who you think would the uh who would be too low or who you disagree with but I think that we did a pretty good job and this was a a pretty awesome list yeah i mean the only thing I think I would swap is uh I forgot that Brady Martin was available and if he’s there for Boston at seven they’re gonna do it i feel like that it’s just gonna happen um but you know MKA is still a guy who might go there right like the idea that a defenseman would go six picks after the first pick overall you know it’s it’s been done before but usually like you said defenseman go in the top 10 multiple defenseman go in the top 10 almost all the time and a big right-hand shot defenseman i mean like you said MKOA was your guy for Seattle so maybe that bumps him down then but that’s the only one other than that a lot of this I can absolutely see breaking out the way that it broke down here so so really quick but Boston goes with Martin and then M could go Seattle and then Sabres probably go uh like Yeah i I think it would just be really interesting um you know this draft is going to be one of those weird ones where you I don’t think anyone’s prediction is going to be correct nope or everyone’s prediction is going to be correct it’s just going to be one of those Yeah yeah i mean honestly if you just like if you took Mkamone Carbono and just shifted them down a pick and Ecklund I feel like that’s how it could break down and then Lacovich is the one that goes maybe to Columbus or Vancouver or Montreal then I think you know you have something that might be a little more realistic but I mean based on what’s out there I would say I wouldn’t be surprised if the top six break out in some way like this in reality you never know though there’s still two more weeks for people to uh change their minds and go crazy so I’m excited it’s going to be a good time and I am just so glad that we got to collab before the draft this was absolutely awesome you are a great great informational piece for any person i mean you could you could talk to this guy or comment anything and he will just know everything about hockey i mean all prospects so thank you so much for coming on and every description below that he is doing will be in the comments or the description yeah so thank you so much again for coming on anytime man thank you very much for having me it’s uh it was a pleasure

Where to find Will Scouching
X https://x.com/Scouching
https://www.scouching.ca/
https://www.youtube.com/@UCyjPQqkQ7hiGw7qG4_Esjpg
Chapters
00:00 Mock Draft Begins: Analyzing Top Picks
00:02 Evaluating the Blackhawks’ Draft Strategy
02:57 Prospects and Comparisons: Who’s the Best Fit?
05:49 Nashville’s Draft Decisions and Player Profiles
08:42 Exploring the Top 10 Picks and Surprises
11:41 Boston’s Rebuild and Draft Strategy
14:35 Seattle’s Best Player Available Strategy
17:33 Buffalo’s Draft Choices and Player Potential
20:36 Pittsburgh’s Future and Draft Predictions
23:26 Final Thoughts on the Draft and Player Rankings

#NHL #NHLDraft #2025nhldraft #nhldraft2025