Nashville Predators 2024 NHL Draft Recap
the Nashville Predators are probably the first team in this series where I just had a lot of fun watching who they selected in the draft Barry trotz has been on the record about going after a lot of skill in the draft and they’re doing that the Nashville Predators were busy at sphere during draft weekend and the first selection they made was another one that surprised the audience in Jor Surin from yaroslav in Russia now jagor Surin was a player that really grew on me in the last few months of the season I love what he brings to the game it’s just I think he has a lot to put together and become a well-rounded sort of distributor of the puck but I do think that the tools are there for something really impressive in terms of players in the draft with a combination of power intensity skill level and wrist shot quality he is probably pretty close to the top he is a really intriguing player that has had some really impressive one-on-one moments in the games I’ve seen in the Russian Junior League now I do think there are some hockey sense issues as his passing can be a little bit Reckless and timing his passes is a little bit weird and he causes some turnovers here and there but in general his results just continue to be really really good he has had some great onliners since being drafted about how much he likes to throw his body around and in my track data that is absolutely true so for me jagor Surin interesting pick this high in the draft but I could see a lot of upside with him if you leave him in Russia for a few years then at 55 the Nashville Predators took one of my personal favorites in the draft in Teddy sta yes yes I know I had him ranked in the top 10 and he went towards the end of the second round frankly at this point I don’t really care I love teddy sta he’s great super high intensity just brings so much to the game that look watch the NHL playoffs look at the types of players that find a lot of success in the NHL playoffs is it the most skilled guys all the time is it the hardest Shooters all the time generally to me the answer is no it’s the guys who can move quickly move the puck quickly get into scoring areas and just make Havoc happen in scoring areas and put pucks on net from the perimeter Teddy sta does all of these things he’s got the speed to make it work he’s one of the best four Checkers I’ve tracked this season he drives tons of pucks to the middle of the ice there just wasn’t a whole lot that sta didn’t really bring and I get the feeling that over a couple of years people will look back on him as a late second round pick and go yeah okay he’s a good middle six Winger but why wasn’t he drafted in the first round that’s great value for the late second and frankly for me I think Stiga has a ton of potential and I think this was a great pick for the predators in this range and clearly indicative of what Barry Trot seems to be going after at 77th overall they drafted Vigo Gustafson from h71 in Sweden now gustafson’s a guy that I’ve liked all year but in a way where I’m not thinking he’s going to be a massive steal in this range just a really good skater who uses his Long Reach really effectively has some underrated skill as well and can sling pucks around with the best of them one of the youngest players in the draft as well so there’s great potential for his development filling out his frame and just getting more experience and maybe there were defensemen in this range that I would have have liked a little bit more than gustofson but I was really pleasantly surprised to see him drafted this high and I think it was a good pick from the Predators I had him on my watch list but I could easily see why teams would be willing to bet on him long term at 87th overall the Nashville Predators picked what likely is one of the highest pure talent players that was left on the board in Miguel Marquez of the Lethbridge hurricanes now if you ask a bunch of different people they will have varying beliefs on Miguel Marquez some absolutely love him others really question if he’s ever going to see NH ice I fall somewhere in the middle I think that he has all the talent in the world it’s indisputable but this is a player that really comes and goes you really wish you had more intensity out of him more often and I just felt that Marquez was a player that did things himself a lot and if he wasn’t doing things himself he just wasn’t super involved in the game all that much I know that there are people who have concerns about him as a person and that is a big reason why he fell to this range of the draft but in a pure upside swing of which Nashville has done quite often this is about as good a pick as you can make in that range so it just adds to the high skill High paac forwards that they’ve drafted in this class at 94th they went in a slightly different direction taking heroki goic of the Colona her rocket I’ve liked goich for the last two seasons now he’s big he’s got great speed for a big man I think there’s some skill there that he brings out once in a while he’s a pretty physical player and just all around I think brings a well-rounded offensive game that he can chip in defensively with as well I’m not sure how much offensive upside there is in the NHL however but I do think there’s enough to make something out of him at the bottom end of your lineup he’s got a lot of the tools you need out of big players in order to work at higher levels and I think with a couple of years in the WHL to just get more and more ice time and more and more confidence I think goic could be a really interesting pickup for the predators in this range at 99 the Predators took Jacob MDA and I don’t want to spend a whole lot of time on this because he’s a gold Contender that I honestly didn’t see a whole lot of this year but the analytics that I’ve pulled from my various sources are pretty decent on him so far this year the limited time I’ve seen him I’ve looked at him and went I don’t know he’s a goalie so who knows let’s see what happens but in the third round there might have been players I would have gone for here but he’s the sixth player you’ve drafted and considering who they swung on before him you can’t really complain at 127th the Nashville Predators went for a guy who I had never seen before in Victor ninger one of the youngest players in the draft himself and honestly I I think he was a really interesting pick I went and watched a couple of games of him with fund’s Junior Team didn’t play a tremendous amount but I do see why Nashville would go for him he’s big but he’s got really interesting speed in a straight line that he combines with really good body positioning and he just makes little gaps and seams for himself and can push Defenders off of him and he’s got a great wrist shot that he uses to score quite a few goals considering his ice time there’s not much more to his game in terms of a distributor or anything but as a powerful Winger that can and drive through pressure and play at a high pace of play I thought norer was a really interesting selection for the Predators and at 127th I mean he’s he’s pretty good 213th they went back to the world of Sweden but drafted a Swede playing in America and Eric pson playing for the debuk Fighting Saints one of the leading scores in the USHL this year I saw pson quite a bit while looking at other players on the Saints certainly one of the higher high-end players in the USHL this season albeit at almost 20 years old but he isn’t interesting skilled player that brings a lot to the game and you know you go to college a couple of seasons and maybe you get something here it’s 213th overall he definitely scored a lot and he definitely didn’t look bad in the USHL this season so it’s an interesting selection and I might have gone a different direction but you know he’s decent so all in all I thought the Nashville Predators did great I could nitpick here and there and say ah maybe I would have gone this direction or this direction or this direction but when push comes to shove I think they got a really great diverse well-rounded group of players and they’re going to get a one C from me one of the best classes of any team in the league I think jagor Surin is going to be a player that fans love when he eventually comes over I am a massive fan of Teddy Stiga and getting him at 55 uh I think is Larsen and then swinging on guys like Marquez and goic could pay off in the long term for a third round selection and vco gustaffson was also a really interesting selection in that range as well that could fill out the bottom of their lineup in time outside of that I mean norer was interesting pson isn’t on a bad development track and could become a thing and they drafted a goenda I thought the Predators did extremely well and only a few teams I thought did better Predators fans I think you’re in pretty good hands when it comes to drafting with Barry trotz running the show so that’s it for the Nashville Predators video if you liked it you could go to our description box and find our Fanatics affiliate link where we’ll get a small Kickback on anything you buy in the store or you can go to scouching doca and get access to exclusive data you won’t find anywhere else on both drafted and undrafted players an exclusive Discord server and plenty of other stuff you can check out there so with that we close out the Predators and our next subjects will be the Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers [Music]
In this NHL Draft recap, Will Scouch breaks down the crop of prospects the Nashville Predators added in 2024 NHL Draft.
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