Article: Minnesota's Center Of the Future Might Be A Winger In This Year's Draft

[Tony Abbott]

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[Imyourhuckleberry]

Honzek is definitely a guy I think should be on their radar for a 1st round pick.

Draft is less than a week away now, and it seems people move up and down draft boards pretty regularly, aside from the handful at the top. Honzek looks like a legit prospect that could help a team in a few years. We shall see if he goes top 20 or if he's available for the Wild.

[Up North Guy]

Interesting thought and one that could work. He will need development on face-offs for sure. Maybe Modano or Koivu could help there.

[Sviginak]

Corey Pronman and Scott Wheeler, the main draft analysts over at the Athletic have put out some lists of prospects; One has Oliver Moore at 9 and Nate Danielson at 20, the other has the same two just the opposite. Just goes to show once you are above about 7 or 8, things can move around substantially. We should get a good player at 21. I would love to move up, but I don’t like giving up what is necessary to do so. I will leave that up to Billy and Judd.

[TCMooch]

Draft BPA with highest upside. Done. Don’t over think it

 

 

[mnfaninnc]

I just can't see us taking a LW. We're just so heavy at the position. In this draft, I don't think BPA is the best route to take because so much of the talent is on par with the others. Outside of the top 5, you can probably make a case for about 20 guys to be as good as each other. 

I always liked the Spielman organizational model, where the board where his board took talent and position to factor into the BPA for the Vikings. And, that's just the thing, the BPA isn't for the hockey player, it's for the organization. For instance, for our organization, someone like Elias Lindholm probably is a better fit than JT Miller. 

For me, centers are a premium for this organization this year. Now, to be fair, Honzek on some sites is listed as C/LW. Perhaps he's a tweener we can develop as a C, but we have a real organizational depth problem at the position.

Now, in this piece, Tony makes the argument that we've experimented with the 3 forward concept and the jury is still out. Over the long haul of the regular season, I think this concept can work. However, when we face teams deep down the middle in the playoffs, it is obvious that it does not work there. We need more centers, and if they're like Ek, or Kopitar, that will do.

Therefore, I think we really need to focus on centers. Picking up 2 of Moore, Danielson or Ritchie, I think, propels this franchise forward to a contender in 3 years. We've got the ammo to do it, now we just have to make the moves and draft the Cs.

[Mateo3xm]

On 6/23/2023 at 11:13 AM, TCMooch said:

Draft BPA with highest upside. Done. Don’t over think it

 

 

You keep doing that and we continue to have the issue this team has had from the start which was a lack of good quality centers.

Centers are a much harder position to find so if there’s a C who’s reasonably similar in talent to the other positions available, you take the Center.

[Protec]

^^^

This is where I was a little confused about last Summer. I thought the WIld would take one of these two guys depending on who was left. Both guys were available and the Wild went with two wingers which surprised me. Who knows, I'm no draft guru but Beck has already got a crack at NHL hockey. Gaucher & Beck both have the perfect profile fitting the Wild's needs. Brackett weirds me out big-time. It makes no sense that he could've taken either guy at 19th. Coulda still got Beck at 24th if Yurov or Ohgren were gone. Bystedt, Kasper, and Kulich were players we thought might be there but two of those three went earlier.

Gaucher went 22nd to Ahahiem.

https://thehockeywriters.com/nathan-gaucher-2022-nhl-draft-prospect-profile/

Beck went 33rd to MTL. The first center they took and first pick of the 2nd.

https://thehockeywriters.com/owen-beck-2022-nhl-draft-prospect-profile/

[Tony Abbott]

3 hours ago, Protec said:

^^^

This is where I was a little confused about last Summer. I thought the WIld would take one of these two guys depending on who was left. Both guys were available and the Wild went with two wingers which surprised me. Who knows, I'm no draft guru but Beck has already got a crack at NHL hockey. Gaucher & Beck both have the perfect profile fitting the Wild's needs. Brackett weirds me out big-time. It makes no sense that he could've taken either guy at 19th. Coulda still got Beck at 24th if Yurov or Ohgren were gone. Bystedt, Kasper, and Kulich were players we thought might be there but two of those three went earlier.

Gaucher went 22nd to Ahahiem.

https://thehockeywriters.com/nathan-gaucher-2022-nhl-draft-prospect-profile/

Beck went 33rd to MTL. The first center they took and first pick of the 2nd.

https://thehockeywriters.com/owen-beck-2022-nhl-draft-prospect-profile/

Neither Gaucher or Beck had particularly impressive years last season. Both those guys are mid-floor/low-ceiling types. That's not really Brackett. 

[TCMooch]

I still say BPA but if you have a bunch of guys around the same internal ranking then obviously go by need.

i just don’t want to reach at center if they have a winger rated much higher. It’s not a terrible thing to have a bunch of awesome prospects as then you can trade from a place of strength to get players or assets you need to fill needs.

[Dango]

Looks like the Wild will have about 16 million next season from players they dont need to resign , i suppose they could re sign Hartman and Foligno if they chose to .William Nylander could be a FA if Toronto dont extend him but they have a bunch of other guys to re sign and Mathews is due in a few years .   Maybe we could nab him with 7.5- 8 mill . throw 3 at hartman . Everyone else is set or on ELC' S   and then the 14 mill frees up the year after that.   Im probably overlooking something though ,

[Quebec1648]

On 6/22/2023 at 12:28 PM, Imyourhuckleberry said:

Honzek is definitely a guy I think should be on their radar for a 1st round pick.

Draft is less than a week away now, and it seems people move up and down draft boards pretty regularly, aside from the handful at the top. Honzek looks like a legit prospect that could help a team in a few years. We shall see if he goes top 20 or if he's available for the Wild.

Calgary ended up drafting him, but there are still some good choices left on the board.

[Imyourhuckleberry]

A lot of the guys I liked at #21 were selected before the Wild drafted.  At that point, I had hoped they could trade back with St. Louis and maybe get two 1st round picks instead of selecting someone at #21.

I'd love it if the Wild got it right with their selection, but hard to believe based upon the numbers he posted. He has good size, speed, and shot. Hopefully Stramel can develop and become a top 20 player from this draft.