The 2024 NHL Draft season is almost over. The final hockey of the season was played at the Memorial Cup. Final draft meetings have concluded or are scheduled. The combine is in full swing. And to follow my final top 100 ranking, I decided to do one last mailbag of the year.
You submitted 200-plus questions (if you submitted a question and I didn’t answer it here, I’ll circle back and answer the rest of the submissions in the coming days). I’ve answered half a dozen of the big ones in depth here.
Note: Questions have been lightly edited for clarity and length, and similar questions have been grouped together.
Could you compare the games (strengths and weaknesses) of Zeev Buium and Zayne Parekh? — Josh
This has been a common question and it’s one I understand because they’re both the same size and that contrasts them against the length of Artyom Levshunov, Anton Silayev, Sam Dickinson and Carter Yakemchuk. They’re also viewed as power-play, offensive types.
But their games are very different in tools/makeup and how they use them. Buium is a stronger skater and uses his skating to create the bulk of his offence and defend at a higher level than Parekh. His offensive game is primarily about shaking past coverage into a play and he uses his eyes and shoulders to misdirect opposing players to that end. His active feet also create an active defensive style that tries to constantly disrupt and he does it very, very well.
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Parekh’s game is about the finishing quality of his skills. He’s a better shooter and his posture is actually quite inactive. Where Buium is always hunched over and on his toes both offensively and defensively, Parekh is always loose and laid back. Instead of trying to make other guys miss, he more often waits for them to make a mistake and then exploits it with his high-end skills and execution. I think that’s because he just sees it at a different level than even a player like Buium. He picks coverage apart instead of making his own. And don’t get me wrong, he creates plenty of his own looks, but he does it much more casually/patiently. And it’s the same defensively. Whereas Buium will glue himself to opposing players, Parekh will settle into a dance with them and then poke a puck loose only when an opportunity presents itself.
Both are top-five prospects on my list, so I’m high on each (I think they both have star upside). There are more players closer in style/makeup to Buium in the NHL than there are Parekhs, though.
How many “true” first-round picks are there this year? How many guys this year would be bona fide first-round picks in any year? — Rob
Let’s list them out. Macklin Celebrini, Ivan Demidov, Artyom Levshunov, Zeev Buium, Zayne Parekh, Sam Dickinson, Cole Eiserman, Berkly Catton, Anton Silayev, Konsta Helenius, Cayden Lindstrom, Tij Iginla, Carter Yakemchuk, Michael Brandsegg-Nygard, Beckett Sennecke, Trevor Connelly. That’s 16 easy ones. I think you can probably add Michael Hage, Adam Jiricek, Stian Solberg and Liam Greentree (though Greentree does have some skeptics, it’s hard to imagine him as a second-rounder with his size, production, the “C” in Windsor, etc.) to that list as well. So that’s 20. Some might push it to 21 or 22 by arguing for a player like Sacha Boisvert or Jett Luchanko, but I think that’s where you’d start to lose a consensus in an “any year” categorization.
What’s the “catch” with Michael Hage? I know you still have him ranked quite highly, but why is he likely to get picked after a player like Michael Brandsegg-Nygard even when he seemingly has all the tools of a top center prospect? — Brian
Well, I think it’s important to start by acknowledging a lot has worked against Hage that’s out of his control. He lost valuable development time last year to shoulder surgery, not just in game action but in training. Scouts are working with a smaller sample size because he didn’t play much in one of the two seasons most players get between minor hockey and the draft. And while there’s no telling what impact the loss of his father last summer had on his start, it took him some time this season to get back to his best self on the ice and figure things out with a Steel team that also got off to a slow start around him. He also wasn’t invited to play for Canada at U18 worlds, which creates questions (fair or unfair, though I’d argue the latter) as to what Hockey Canada didn’t like enough to leave him off of a team that iced a 2025 kid they wouldn’t play (Caleb Desnoyers) and a 2024 mid-rounder they wouldn’t play down the middle (Ollie Josephson).
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All that is part of why some scouts are a little more reserved on him than I am. If I were playing devil’s advocate against myself, some scouts want to see his play off of the puck improve as well.
I actually think he has a real competitive spirit and find he’s engaged physically (I’ve seen him knock his fair share of guys over) on top of those other tools you hinted at (range, speed, playmaking, scoring, position, etc.).
I think he’s going to have a great summer of steady training and then surprise some people at Michigan and into the NHL. It’s worth noting it’s not as if he doesn’t have other supporters, though. Plenty of NHL scouts and others around the USHL believe he has top-15 merits. So I can assure you I’m not alone in my analysis.
Nine months ago, Michael Hage’s father, Alain, tragically died in a pool accident at a backyard barbecue.
Today, the #2024NHLDraft prospect carries on in pursuit of he and his dad’s shared dream.
My story on a kid, a family, a hockey player, and a loss:https://t.co/gQahUyeQ6K pic.twitter.com/pSkmEOjscY
— Scott Wheeler (@scottcwheeler) April 4, 2024
A lot of focus is on the risers. Who would you say could be this draft’s Joshua Roy, where they had high expectations in junior and fell? Or could be a first-round pick in a re-draft but will drop? — Leland
I think, to varying degrees, Cole Eiserman, Aron Kiviharju, Henry Mews, Maxim Masse and Tanner Howe have been over-scouted/scrutinized. And I think, frankly, that players who are on the radar for a long time (Eiserman and Kiviharju) are often worse off than kids who become the shiny new toy in a draft year or have a big late push (like a Beckett Sennecke or a Terik Parascak or a Stian Solberg). If you’re an Eiserman or a Kiviharju, you can’t just set the bar high and then live up to it, you’re expected to raise the bar or be viewed as stagnant. Once scouts get really familiar with a player’s game, it’s also natural they begin to look for different things to nitpick. To a lesser degree, I think Masse winning CHL Rookie of the Year and Mews playing at a higher level for Canada and the Ottawa 67’s last year than he did to start this year actually worked against them to a certain degree. Howe playing two seasons with Bedard also created a certain perception about him.
The same stories played out with Roy, Brad Lambert, Shane Wright, Jakob Chychrun, Timothy Liljegren, Aatu Raty, the list goes on. Now, sometimes there’s truth to it and some of those kids did plateau in their development. But you have to be careful not to rule out the tools that made them standouts in the first place, and you should look for ways their games can still be developed no less than you should look for those things in other players you’re less familiar with.
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Who are the biggest risers from last draft? — Jeff
These picks look like potentially good value:
23. F Gabe Perreault (New York Rangers)
27. F Calum Ritchie (Colorado Avalanche)
28. F Easton Cowan (Toronto Maple Leafs)
50. F Carson Rehkopf (Seattle Kraken)
69. G Jacob Fowler (Montreal Canadiens)
75. D Hunter Brzustewicz (Calgary Flames via Vancouver Canucks)
123. D Luca Cagnoni (San Jose Sharks)
Honorable mentions:
62. F Felix Unger Sorum (Carolina Hurricanes)
64. F Riley Heidt (Minnesota Wild)
77. F Mathieu Cataford (Vegas Golden Knights)
You hear a lot about red flags in prospects but I was wondering, what is the biggest red flag in your opinion? The flag that should be most concerning for teams. — Ryan
The big thing for me — and it sounds vague and cliche but you’ll have to allow me to explain — is that they just have toget it. There are very few NHL players left who don’t process, read and understand the game at a passable average, at the very least. You need some level of problem-solving skills on the ice. You need to be able to think plays through, and not after it’s too late but before the play needs to be made. There are rare exceptions where a player’s physical gifts can supersede struggles thinking the game.
It’s easier to get away with it as a forward (players like Patrik Laine and Kasperi Kapanen always had utility despite having little idea how to actually play hockey at the NHL level). It used to be that defencemen could get by on brute strength/presence alone but those guys are fewer and further between now (part of the reason I didn’t rank Gabriel Eliasson — this draft’s biggest, baddest, meanest D — in my top 100 is because I just don’t think he has it between the ears and I’m not convinced he won’t always be a net negative because of the way he thinks the game/his behaviour). Even the guys in today’s NHL who look more like how players used to look — guys like Brandon Carlo and Erik Cernak, for example — are successful because they understand the plays they need to make and they can manage the speed of the game, even if the execution is simpler.
If guys are constantly making mistakes on defensive reads, losing guys in coverage, waiting too long to get rid of pucks, or choosing the wrong play to make when they have time, those are bigger red flags to me than if they’re slow, or small, or not super talented.
(Top photo of Zeev Buium: Brace Hemmelgarn / USA Today)
Scott Wheeler covers the NHL draft and prospects nationally for The Athletic. Scott has written for the Toronto Star, the Globe and Mail, The Toronto Sun, the National Post, SB Nation and several other outlets in the past. Follow Scott on Twitter @scottcwheeler
