By Tony Abbott -
The NHL Draft can offer a lot of uncertainty, particularly for teams drafting in the middle of the first round like the Minnesota Wild usually do. But when a pick falls into place, combining upside and long-term organizational needs, it's magical. Ask the 2015 Wild draft class, where Joel Eriksson Ek was the kind of big Mikko Koivu clone Minnesota needed and fell to Pick 20. That's a chef's kiss right there, even without mentioning some Russian kid who fell to them in the fifth round.
Nine years later, the Wild have a good shot at getting a long-term replacement for Jared Spurgeon, another franchise pillar. When healthy, Spurgeon's still at the top of his game, with Brock Faber on the right side able to ease him out of No. 1 Defenseman responsibilities. But while Spurgeon's boyish looks seem likely to last forever, his game won't. He turns 35 in November, making it the perfect time to start implementing a succession plan.
According to Elite Prospects' Consolidated Draft Board, six defensemen are ranked in the 2024 NHL Draft's top-13 players. That means there's a pretty decent chance the Wild will get a crack at an elite defenseman. That alone is cause for optimism for Minnesota. However, the really exciting thing is who comes out last in that shuffle: Carter Yakemchuk. The Calgary Hitmen (WHL) defenseman sits at No. 13 on the consensus ranking, meaning Yakemchuk could be there for the taking.
Yakemchuk had 30 goals as a defenseman last year, first among all WHL D-men, and he checks every box the Wild would want in a cornerstone blueliner. He's got explosive offensive capabilities, combining an elite shot with strong vision. With Bill Guerin trying to add size to his team, Yakemchuk's 6-foot-3 frame alone would intrigue Minnesota's GM. Perhaps even better, he uses that frame in a way that Elite Prospects calls "violent."
Minnesota went a decade with Spurgeon and Matt Dumba holding down the right side of their defense. Faber and Yakemchuk would set the team up to have a similar dynamic for the next 10 years or so. The order they'd replace those pieces is slightly backward, with Faber replicating Spurgeon's cool, calculated, defensive playstyle and Yakemchuk embracing Dumba's Hard Shots/Hard Hits philosophy. Whether you want to call Yakemchuk a Spurgeon replacement or a Dumba replacement is ultimately irrelevant -- it still works, and Yakemchuk still fills a major organizational void.
It's extremely difficult to get a defenseman who boasts extreme offense and that old-school combination of size and snarl. But that's exactly what is available to Minnesota in several mock drafts. Yakemchuk's season has no peer in the WHL over the last 20 years, not for a WHL defenseman, at least. He's the only player in that time to score 30 goals as a draft-eligible defenseman. Expand the field to all of Canadian Juniors, and only 2024 Draft classmate Zayne Parekh (33 OHL goals) joins him.
Take a moment to wrap your head around this. Think of the great defensemen who've come out of Canadian Juniors in the last two decades. From the WHL, players like Dumba (20 goals in his draft year), Shea Theodore (19), Bowen Byram (26), and even Spurgeon (12) didn't get to that level. The OHL churned out great defensemen like Evan Bouchard (25 goals in his draft year), Aaron Ekblad (23), P.K. Subban (15), and Alex Pietrangelo (13). None of those guys reached those heights.
But here's Yakemchuk, doing crazy stuff like this 30 times a year as an 18-year-old.
The Old Way of being an offensive defenseman was to stand at the point and fire off massive slap shots. Yakemchuk isn't an Al MacInnis cannon from 40 feet out. He's not even a Dumba-type who blasted one-timers from the top of the slot. Or at least, that's not where Yakemchuk does most of his scoring. He's a true offensive catalyst, a game-breaker from the back end.
"More puck dominant than most forwards, [he] has the skill to chain a series of dangles as he weaves in and out of traffic before sending an NHL-caliber release on goal," describes Elite Prospects in their Draft Guide before adding, "And he can make it look easy."
If you're Minnesota, you're saying "Shut Up And Take My Draft Card" if he's available at Pick 13, right? Legitimately, how is this guy projected to be on the board then?
There's a very good possibility that it's too good of a fit to be true for Minnesota's purposes. All it takes is one scouting staff to fall in love with Yakemchuk, and he's off the board. And if they agree with Corey Pronman of The Athletic, he'll be gone long before then.
Pronman ranks Yakemchuk as the second-best defenseman (and third overall player) on his draft board, with his usually conservative player comparisons pegging him as a Pietrangelo-type player. "He constantly breaks down opponents one-on-one and can pull off a lot of highlight-reel moments," Pronman raves, adding, "He can make stops due to his length, feet, and physicality."
Someone's gotta love the idea of a 6-foot-3 right-shot defenseman with that two-way capability.
What might make Yakemchuk fall to 13 overall besides a wealth of top-end defense talent? His skating draws mixed reviews. Elite Prospects quoted five scouts summing up their takes on Yakemchuk's game, and four mention his skating as a knock. As for the fifth one? "I'm not a fan. He's just soft," says a Western Conference scout. "I hope someone else takes him high."
But if you're the Wild and looking at drafting a player whose mobility needs fixing, that's why you've got skating guru Andy Ness working with your team. Concerns aside, Yakemchuk simply ticks too many boxes for the Wild for them to pass on him in that No. 13 slot. It's just a matter of whether one of the 12 teams ahead of him shares that assessment. Until he makes that tumble down the draft board, Yakemchuk seems too good to be true for the State of Hockey.
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