The fifth mock Hockey Buzz mock draft driven by the readers and a few special guests is underway. Zach Jarom did not go off the board with the Blackhawks pick, selecting Connor Bedard first overall, WHILE Ryan Armstrong, climbdenali12, selected Adam Fantilli with Anaheim's pick, Zak McMillian, HB Blue Jackets blogger, went with Leo Carlsson's with Columbus' selection. Ken Peterson, Hockeygm. made the pick for San Jose with Karine Hains now up for Montreal and.TJ Reilly on deck for Arizona. Below is the selection and voting poll, please weigh in with your view.
First, some logistical information just for this blog: Thanks to all who have agreed to participate. All teams are spoken for, meaning we have a full complement of General Managers. As a reminder, when you have your pick, rationale for the selection, who else you considered and if you weighed a trade, please send that to me via email to jan.levine@gmail.com. As said previously, for those who agree to participate, please make sure I have your real name to go with your Hockey Buzz ID.
In terms of trades, I am happy to have them proposed, but for ease of purpose of the draft, I would prefer not to slow down the making of picks and the voting by waiting for a vote on if the deal is fair. Due to the late start for the draft, my view for this year's iteration is no trades.
The draft is June 28 and we are starting the draft Thursday, June 15 in the morning. That will give us 13 days or so to complete the draft, even factoring in the Sabbath. For weekdays and Sunday, I will post a pick in the morning, then a second in the evening with voting in between, for at least the first half or so of the draft. The second half or so, we can run three per day if needed so we get all 32 picks by or on the morning of June 28.
As a reminder, for each pick, included should be: a) Selection and reasoning/scouting report, and b) Alternatives considered(both players and trades). Please provide me via email your pick with the aforementioned information following the posting of the prior pick on the site. If I become aware of a pick or a few picks in a row, I will email you to help facilitate moving the mock draft along. I will post the blog with the pick and the voting poll within each blog.
Overall Rules and Process
As mentioned previously, there is a little kicker. After the pick or trade is made, a poll will be posted to rate the selection or deal. If the majority of people like the pick or trade, that selection stands and it moves on to the next team’s picks. If not, the majority rules and that’s what happens with that team and pick. I have the last right of refusal to keep everything on the up and up and avoid ballot box stuffing. My request to you is that you take this seriously and not make a mockery of the mock draft, because that would be an insult to the others who are participating and makes the whole process a sham. But by playing this out, we get to have healthy debate and conversation to remain engaged up and possibly beyond the draft. If teams make deals and they occur before a team’s selection is due, that deal will play a part as to when each person’s selection occurs.Here how this will work: each evening (for now, one pick per day, but we will go to two when we get to second half of the mock draft and possibly even before that, so that we complete on time) the team’s selector will email me at jan.levine@gmail.com their pick and their rationale for that selection. If making a trade, the same applies, and all the selectors have been listed below along with their screen name if from this site or their twitter handle if external to help facilitate making trades. I will post that pick and rationale on the site and create a voting poll. For now, I was thinking solely just a yes or no vote for the poll, but if people want me to list other options for the selection at that pick number in cases of a no vote, I am happy to do so, to help make it more robust.
With the fourth overall draft selection in the 2023 NHL Entry Draft, the San Jose Sharks, represented by Ken Peterson, are honored to select Matvei Michkov, RW, SKA, KHL
The Sharks are in need of an upgrade at all positions to be a Cup Contender and it won't happen overnight or even 2 years from now so they can afford to wait for his KHL contract to run out and then come over as a more mature player ala Kaprizov of the Wild. The Athletic describes him thusly:
Analysis: Michkov is one of the very best first-year draft eligibles I’ve ever seen from inside the offensive blue line. He has a truly special offensive skill and hockey sense. His mind operates differently from other players in how he sees the play develop and always seems to find ways to figure into scoring chances despite not being the biggest or fastest. His mind is special, but he’s freakishly skilled with the puck too, and can make elite stickhandling plays seem routine. He can make plays at a high level, but Michkov is a finisher who will score a lot of goals as a pro. His skating is more elusive than fast and I wouldn’t call him a high-compete type either. He’s signed in the KHL through the 2025-26 season, but he projects as a game-breaking elite scoring winger in the NHL.
Michkov is supposed to be the closest in talent to Bedard of anyone in the draft and the Sharks can afford to wait the 2 years before bringing him over as a very elite talent. His comparable is Nikita Kucherov who isn't a shabby player.
Other players considered: Will Smith is a viable option as well. He's going to Boston College so again the Sharks can afford to let him marinate like Yzerman would for a couple of years before bringing up to the Pro level.
Scouting report is as follows: Analysis: Smith is a dynamic offensive player who stands out every game with his talent. He has tremendous puck skills, vision and overall offensive creativity and projects to be a major asset on an NHL power play. He skates well and makes so many high-difficulty plays at a strong pace, which lends well to his pro projection. Smith is a high-end passer who is also able to finish chances from the dots. The only real wart in his game is I wouldn’t call him an overly physical or high-energy player. I don’t think he lacks effort. He’s around the puck a ton whenever he’s on the ice and even at times killed penalties for the program. And:Elite skater who continues to impress with his offensive skill set A threat off the rush. Creative 1vs1. Very difficult to defend. Always in motion. When teams defend 'man vs man' in their zone he finds ways to spill off his check and get pucks to the net or slip passes through seams. His element is definitely offense. Fantastic release. Exceptionally dangerous on the power play working off the flank and into the middle of the ice. Top line NHL forward on projection. Trending up.
The Sharks will need elite centers to replace Couture and Hertl. If you go back to 2018, Doug Wilson tried to sign Tavares as he recognized the need to replace Thornton, Pavelski, and Marleau with younger elite #1C's. That didn't work out and it was really the Kane contract that resulted in no real chance of re-signing Pavs. So, here we are today and these are the best 2 choices after the Top 3..in that order. There is risk in Smith not signing and electing FA status as Henry Thrun did last year and as Adam Fox and Jimmy Vesey have done in years past ; so not unlike the risk of drafting a KHL Player
2023 NHL DRAFT ORDER 1 Chicago - Zach Jarom, HB Blackhawks blogger, Connor Bedard, C, Regina (WHL) 2 Anaheim - Ryan Armstrong - climbdenali12, Adam Fantilli, C, Univ. of Michigan 3 Columbus - Zak McMillian, HB Blue Jackets blogger, Leo Carlsson, C, Orebro HK, (SHL) 4 San Jose - Ken Peterson, Hockeygm, Matvei Michkov, RW, SKA, KHL 5 Montreal - Karine Hains, HB Canadiens blogger, Saturday, June 17, pm 6 Arizona - slimtj, TJ Reilly, Sunday, June 18, am 7 Philadelphia - Bill Meltzer, HB Flyers blogger, Sunday, June 18, pm 8 Washington - optimus-reim, Monday, June 19, am 9 Detroit - Feds91Stammer, Monday, June 19, pm 10 St. Louis - aecliptic, Tuesday, June 20, am
11 Vancouver - David Wong, OrcaBlue, Tuesday, June 20, pm 12 Arizona via OTT - slimtj, TJ Reilly, Wednesday, June 21, am 13 Buffalo - Paul Schott, lonsabres, Wednesday, June 21, pm 14 Pittsburgh - mkrisnosky, Matt Krisnosky 15 Nashville - eichiefs9 16 Calgary - Trevor Neufeld, HB Flames blogger 17 Detroit via NYI - Feds91stammer 18 Winnipeg - Jacob Billingham, HB Jets blogger 19 Chicago via TB - Zach Jarom, HB Blackhawks blogger 20 Seattle - NYRangers1124
21 Minnesota - TC88, Todd Piepho 22 Philadelphia via Columbus via LA - Bill Meltzer, HB Flyers blogger 23 NY Rangers - Jan Levine 24 Nashville via EDM - eichiefs9 25 St. Louis via TOR - aecliptic 26 San Jose via NJ - Russ Cohen 27 Colorado - John Ryan, jryan88 28 Toronto via BOS - Michael Augello, HB Maple Leafs blogger 29 St. Louis via DAL - aecliptic 30 Carolina - BINGO!, Chris Cole
31 Montreal via FLA - Karine Hains, HB Canadiens blogger 32 Vegas- Brendan Smith, tbsmith
Looking forward to running this again. We had a ton of fun the last few seasons. That should be the same again this year with New York having the 23rd pick in the first round.