NEUGSIE’S AROUND THE RINKS: NHL DRAFT PREVIEW!

By: Jamie Neugebauer
Voice of the ND Hounds/DUBNetwork MJ Warriors Beat Writer

• LOVE IT!: I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: I love drafts. The NHL Draft is coming this Thursday and Friday, and it’s always a big highlight for me! It was so cool for me to cover the SJHL Draft with Daniella Ponticelli and IKS Media last month, and I love all the coverage, the stories, and the intrigue around this year’s NHL edition!
• How about those Broncos? I’m going to skip the top of the draft for a second here. My pal Devan Praught, the head coach of the Swift Current Broncos, is doing an incredible job, and the Broncs might have as many as six guys taken! Pretty amazing, especially for a club that was really in the dumps not that long ago. Big, steady-eddie Dman Owen Pickering will be the first Swift kid taken, and probably the only first-rounder, but forwards Josh Filmon, Josh Davies, Connor Hvidston, Mathew Ward, defenceman Rayan Bettahar, and goaltender Reid Dyck could all go! So much reason for optimism in the southwest of Sask! I know Praughter from his time and great work at Notre Dame, winning the Telus back in 2018, and he’s always got a minute to chat or help anyone – a lot of respect for that man.
• The SJ boys?: Well, there were two SJHLers on the final Central Scouting list, as the Humboldt boys Connor McGrath and Matthew Perkins were the last two to make the cut. ND’s Kevin Anderson was on there earlier, and to this day I have no idea what he could have done to fall off (believe me, I watched every second of his work, and he’s the real deal). Will any of them go? I am not sure! Definitely hope so, for all three! Would look good on all of us if any of them do! All my fingers and toes will be crossed for my good pal Kev! I can tell you he’s not worried about it, with all his focus on getting ready to go to Princeton next year. Hard to think of a kid with his head on more straight than Kev.
• Are the Habs joking? OKAY, to the talk you’re all having: whom is Montreal taking first overall? I think they’re BS’ing everyone with this talk of “we have a couple guys in the mix”…I’m with Rod’s buddy Craig Button, they’re just going to take Shane Wright from the Kingston Frontenacs and get over it. You don’t pass on an NHL-ready centreman, especially when the other options are wingers or longer projects like Logan Cooley. I think Juraj Slafkofsky is the best player in the draft, but more on that later. The Habs are just having a laugh here, they are taking Wright.
• Lambert: Turned some heads when the Saskatoon Blades traded the rights of Brad Lambert, the Finnish son of alumnus and local boy Ross Lambert, to Seattle recently, but maybe they’re betting on Brad’s NHL team wanting him to stay in pro hockey in Finland next year, and that he won’t step foot in the WHL. There was a time when Lambert was challenging Wright and company at the top of this draft, but it’s got to be so hard for a draft-eligible kid to make a really big impact against men trying to put food on their family’s table in these European leagues. Brad is a great skater, an electric offensive talent, and can very easily be an NHL Top 6 forward one day, so while I’ve seen some people say he’s going to fall out of the first round, I think that’s insanity. Someone like the New York Islanders, who need as much creativity as they can find, would be a great fit, or even Columbus at 12 to fire up Patrik Laine to have a talented young Finn to run with! We’ll see.
• PG goalies: Where do the Prince George Cougars keep finding these goalies?! They felt good enough in net to send Pittsburgh Penguins signee and potential Canadian World Junior tender Taylor Gauthier to the Portland Winterhawks this past year, yet there is a great chance that both of their goalies – Ty Brennan and Ty Young – will get their name called this week. Brennan is going for sure, Young isn’t for sure, but either way, pretty impressive goalie scouting in northern B.C.!
• Here come the Slovaks: I predict nobody in this draft will have more NHL points in his life than Juraj Slafkovsky, and he is SUCH a weapon, but it isn’t just he that is coming out of Slovakia to excite Pavol Demitra watching down from Heaven. Defenceman Simon Nemec is an electric kid that I think can jump into the NHL right away, and should be another Top 5 pick out of Slovakia, and there is a stable full of kids from that small nation that expect to be called in the next six rounds. Filip Mesar looked great with Slafkovsky in the short World Juniors, and there are others. Earn some street cred with your friends at the draft by wearing one of those beautiful Slovakian sweaters!
• The Moose Jaw two: I did cover the Moose Jaw Warriors for Dubnetwork during the Regina Hub, but then my wife and I had another baby and the SJHL was giving me all I could handle, so it kind of fell off for me. BUT, I definitely kept paying attention to the two most-high-flying Warriors, Jagger Firkus up front and Denton Mateychuk on the back end, and they both just keep getting better and better. I really think they’re both going to be first rounders, and I truly hope Coach Mark O’Leary and his staff in the Friendly City can figure it out with all those weapons over there. Firkus is a deadly sniper, Mateychuk is an elite puck-rushing defenceman that has more defence than people give him credit for…so much potential for both. If my Maple Leafs end up with either one in Round 1, to join fellow Warriors alum Morgan Reilly, I’d be thrilled! Get out to Mosaic or the Brandt Centre when MJ is in town next year: it’s going to be a FUN season down here in southcentral Sask!
• Hello Seattle: Are you a Seattle Kraken fan? Of course, you are. They have the fourth overall pick, with which they will take an incredible player that falls to them from the first three teams, but they’re chalk-a-block with picks in this draft, highlighted by four (YES, 4!!) second-rounders! Five picks in the first two rounds…not bad at all. How cool is it that there is an NHL team in Seattle? I think it’s great.
• Any direction: You’ve heard this before, but really there are so many directions this draft can go. Is it because it isn’t expected to be the best, most stacked draft ever? Probably, but still! Drama! So get yourself a snack and a beverage, and tune in Thursday and Friday for some real madness!

(Follow Jamie on Twitter at @Neugsie)