2024 NHL Draft Preview with Steven Ellis of Daily Faceoff

2024 NHL Draft Preview with Steven Ellis of Daily Faceoff

[Music] join Winnipeg sports talk live from the NHL draft in Las Vegas presented by Kolb beginning on June 26th we are just a couple weeks away from heading down to Las Vegas another year of Winnipeg sports talk at the NHL draft presented by our great sponsors at Kolb Canada and one of our favorites that we always like to catch up in person but a nice little preview for what to come as we welcome in Stephen Ellis draft expert from DFO what’s going on Stephen how are you not much you know it’s uh it’s getting pretty hot here but uh I’m looking forward to Vegas and my first time out there and uh the sphere is probably the coolest draft location will ever have Macklin celebrini will go number one to the San Jose Sharks in your perspect from your perspective Stephen how huge of a victory was this for San Jose to hear their name going number one um how big is the drop off how clear of a number one pick is he for you and maybe in comparison to some other years he’s definitely number like clear number one no one really came close you know some Scouts have suggested maybe Anton CIA the defense mon artm love shof were very close I just don’t see it what happens with cini going out there and and winning the the um the Hobie Baker award as the top NCAA player that’s never happened by a 17-year-old he was one of the top scorers in the league he was such a CL driver of the world juniors like he was putting up MVP style Advanced analytics the four candle they got eliminated in that and you know you don’t get guys as well-rounded as him often in the draft like I hate comparing first overall picks to other first overall picks before the pick happens because you’re comparing guys who have now played in the NHL compared to a guy who’s still playing colge but with Solen brini it’s you know comparisons to Sydney Crosby and Jonathan taas are real like there’s a reason why you just see someone who’s so well-rounded who’s got that offensive skill the defensive skill who can hit like a tank out there and he plays at such a with such a big brain he’s so smart so that whole combination he’s a more rounded player than Conor Bard 100% he’s not a better player not a more skilled player but in terms of someone who can do a bit of everything celini is basically one of the best we’ve seen in a long time how for list and viewers put it into perspective how rare it is for a player of his age to go to the NCAA perform at the level he did not to mention winning the Hobie Baker yeah because you it’s difficult because you know most players will actually prefer having that extra year of of uh junior hockey and he basically skipped his sophomore season with the Chicago Steel in the USHL but by doing that he had to you know do advanced classes he was basically doing great grade 11 and grade 12 at the same time and um so that’s very difficult like you know we will always see a couple of college players that get drafted but it’s usually guys who were a later birthday the year before weren’t eligible the year before like Z Bo this year but then you get these rare instances when these guys will accelerate their school to be able to go earlier and Matt Wood actually some of the celebrini grew up uh kind of being neighbors with and knew him well um that was another guy that kind of did the same thing last year but when it comes to to celebrating like that’s there’s so much pressure as an NHL draft prospect but to Ado your school so early so you could focus on hockey and make that your priority yeah that’s not easy to do either but you know he’s he kind of kept saying at the combine like oh I don’t know if I’m going back to school my understanding he’s not enrolled in school he’s going to be in the NHL next year and that’s where he deserves to be he’s so talented but to see what he did this year I I’ve personally I’ve never seen a freshman season like that since I’ve started following the NCA BL well and and and to his credit I mean you mentioned all the schooling he had to do to get to that point I mean he was in the NCAA I mean you’ve got classes I mean there is a lot to it as well and he does seem to be incredibly well-rounded and obviously his father um for those that don’t know I believe the strength and conditioning coach for the Golden State Warriors so has had um an elite very high level of training and preparation for this as well throughout his life how big’s the drop off from one one to two for you and is there a next sort of tier if you will of uh this upcoming draft Stephen so I’m a big fan of Ivan demod the Russian Prospect but if you read online discourse we’re talking about a lot of people saying oh maybe he’s not even a top five Prospect but he’s the most skilled player in this draft and I’m always going to bank on skill because he finds ways to be so creative but I’d say him and then a couple of the defensemen are in this like tier two of like would it be RM love shooting off the best defenseman Anton cilia the 6 foot7 guy bringing they drawing comparisons to zandan oara Sam Dickenson the all-around Master Steve boam 50 points in the NCAA as a defenseman this year and uh oh who’s the other one um Zane perek who just scored like almost 40 goals and almost 100 points as a defenseman too I’d say those guys are kind of all in their own group uh maybe a throw Kaden winstrom a 6’4 power forward there but then it kind of drops off again that’s when you start to see a lot variant you know of those guys I mentioned they’re all going to go early it’s just which like who goes second who goes third who goes fourth that’s a big question there’s no real consensus this time so um I think that’s going to make it exciting but I’d say again celra is in his own group those other guys are in maybe group two and then it’s go group three group four and just kind of fall off I’d say about 15 16 that’s where you’re not talking about a Surefire you know top six forward top four defenseman and you start to look for more guys who could maybe be more sparkk plug style guys or more you know maybe they start growing up and being these better players down the line but you know this is a good draft not a great draft that’s kind of how I’m putting it you know we’ll uh we’ll uh connect hopefully again in a couple weeks either in Vegas in person I know at that point you’ll kind of have your final official list out with your rankings a mock which is always so much fun to talk to you about but I I right now when you look at it you mentioned this a good draft not a great draft um we’re particularly interested in sort of the late first round early second round because the Jets have traded their pick but they do have Montreal second rounder thank you plld um it has been described to some people that I’ve talked to on this program that once you get through sort of the first 15 to 20 picks there is a group a tier of players if you will that teams lists will have one guy at 40 on one and one guy at 20 on the other I mean are you of the opinion that it is sort of wide open for that next group whether you’re picking at 25 or whether you’re where the Jets are I think at like 38 or so yeah like the you know it’s so so V like just varying all over the place kind of the way you look at it here you know guys that I might think are 50th overall some might think are 25 and others might think it’s 75 it’s it’s a really big question there then you’ve got goalies that can really spice things up where there’s no consensus on who the top goalie is our team’s going to try and take a run at one at the second and Bank on that Talent or are they going to wait till much later I’m leaning on that you know there’s some with so many good defensemen it’s kind of like it really depends on what teams are prioritizing size you know maybe you go get Adam Cleber at number 37 maybe you go get Henry Muse one of the more skilled offensive defenseman who just struggles at playing defense maybe you want a potential second third line Setter and you’re going to lineus Erikson and there’s just so many options in that and it’s so jumbled which is both a good thing and a bad thing you know there’s a lot of question like if everyone’s got completely different lists you got to wonder how good these players really are but at the same time you know they the every team looks at the draft so differently their priorities are different and I think that kind of just makes it a lot of fun Stephen Ellis the daily face up with this getting ready for the draft in Vegas we’ll be broadcasting live beginning on the 26 Hope you join us throughout the week I do want to ask you about one player in particular and he is a household name not for himself but for his father um I obviously don’t follow this anywhere as closely as you and some of the other guys that make your living in and around the draft but it seemed like the spawn of Jerome T jinna Jerome’s son has been a big time Riser this year tell us a little bit about te uh about the season that he had and what he’s done to his draft stock heading into Vegas at the end of the month well first off I saw one comment from Jay Miller asking if s bini makes the foreign Asians team no but the Olympics I wouldn’t rule it out uh when it comes to TJ ginla uh I think you know if he goes number nine in the Calgary Flames it won’t be because of nepotism it’ll be because actually deserves to be there and I think that’s what makes it really exciting you know he last year he barely played much of a role uh the Seattle Thunderbirds he got traded let’s see what he could do on a new team where he was going to be one of those guys counted on to be a big Point producer he started as a center moved to the wing and that was huge for him because he put up a ton of goals unbelievable shot plays of so much energy I’m thinking he’s more of a 10 11 Prospect but I know some teams have him as high as number too and if that’s the case whoa like that would be pretty interesting because that energy the way he fights for the puck he’s got some of that tenacity his dad does I don’t think he’s gonna be someone who’s gonna be dropping the gloves like Jerome did but he’s going to go out there and just what he’s going to put the full effort out every single night if he’s not in a scoring role he’s going to be your best back Checker he’s going to be your most aggressive bottom six player you could find so that type of Versatility is good he’s also got a brother coming in a couple years who some say is better at the same age so I don’t know we could see a couple of AAS in the NHL at one point and then we could see an Aila in the pwhl too you know the you mentioned Calgary picking at nine and I mean Pat Steinberg is a good buddy of mine uh from doing shows in the past and it just seems like there is an incredible debate about ainla when it comes to the Flames for obvious reasons and it is important the note that you made if he goes there it won’t be because he’s going to help them sell some tickets because people love his old men it’s that he has worked himself into a spot of a top 10 pick when you think about the ceiling of a player like that both on the ice and potentially off the ice I mean it’s couldn’t be an incredible decision for Calgary and I mean you they’ll have to measure that with other players but if he does turn into be a really good national hockey leager playing in Calgary where his dad is an absolute Legend uh it could be huge for the franchise although at the same time if they pick him considering the season they just had everyone’s going to be like okay when’s Tage available to go and I think like most players in this draft not expect to contribute in the next couple years he’s a guy that I think with his work ethic that if he has another season like he did this year he could be in the NHL in two years but that would be more of again more of a bottom six roll trying to grind his way up the lineup and he’s had to you know just because he had the last name doesn’t mean he’s had an easy ride and he’ll tell you that like he’s had to grind his way through like people wrote him off last year and it was his draft minus one year so you know there was still he there was still a lot of development to do but the fact that he went from basically a depth guy on a competitive team to the guy on a on a mid-level team but like still one of the best players in the WHL it it says just how good of a player is and Calgary has a couple of other interesting options like maybe they go out there and get Carter yakam Chuck a defenseman who put up over 100 penalty minutes and 30 goals and over 70 points you know he plays with a Calgary Hitman too so they know him there quite well that’s another guy to look at but if they pick a ginla like there will be a lot of pressure but it’ll be at the same time it’s like Calgary is still a while away from being a truly competitive team they still have a lot of question marks about what this group’s going to look like long term and if they can go out there and make a b big piece of their team being this star player who teammates love and is a good leader you know I I feel like he’s got a perfect head on the shoulders and the right guidance that he’s going to be able to handle the pressure as well as anybody all right Stephen listen we’ll get into more of this hopefully you know draft week closer if we can grab you for a little bit but let me end with one question for you you can go on the record a couple weeks out of the draft um who is there a guy that is sort of your guy a guy that you are Maybe higher on than many of your other contemporaries that you’ve seen play his way into a higher spot on your board than others um and tell us a little bit about the big move I’m taking Cole Eiserman you know I know there’s the risk of a guy where if he’s a goal scorer and he’s not scoring like what type of role does he have but Cole Eiserman broke the US national team scoring record this year being at the likes of Machu Austin Matthews Jack Hughes Cole Coffield Patrick Kane Bill castle like those are some incredible names he had to go out there and beat you know there’s some questions about you know is he too cocky of a player can he understand his own weaknesses can he play strong defensively I’ll say this of all the players in terms of you know a commitment to physical play in the top end of this draft I’ve not seen a player improve as much as he has and that alone is a good start and I think when he goes to college and has J pandala who is very much wants all his players committed to playing defense having him as the coach next year in in college I think he’s going to benefit huge from that and he’s going to be a guy that if he slips outside of the top 10 there are going to be teams doing the same thing they did with Cole Coffield a few years ago and saying why do we skip them why do we skip them so uh you know the hardest thing to do in hockey is scoring goals he does it the best Stephen always great to have you on the program we’ll look forward to seeing you in person in a couple weeks just uh on the way out we’re actually going to be here from your colleague Frank selli who was in conversation with uh with our new head coach Scott arneal here and Winnipeg in a minute fill people in on the upcoming draft coverage that you have planned that’s going to be dropping a daily face off in the next couple of weeks y I’m doing a daily story every single day leading up to the draft I’ll be in Vegas obviously and to I got a draft ranking is coming out I think next Friday it’s my final one and today I just posted a story on Anton’s cly of the defenseman which if I’m correct might be one of the very first interviews he’s actually done with an English Outlet so uh very happy about that one and uh lots of coverage to come dude we’ll look forward to seeing you uh in a couple weeks thanks so much for doing this thanks so much [Music]

Andrew “Hustler” Paterson is joined by Steven Ellis of Daily Faceoff for a preview of the 2024 NHL Draft. Originally streamed June 12, 2024.

Topics:
Intro, Macklin Celebrini at number 1 (0:00)
Tier after Number 1: Ivan Demidov, Artyom Levshunov etc (4:29)
Wide open nature after pick 20 (6:17)
Tij Iginla, could the Flames select him? (8:36)
Big riser: Cole Eiserman (13:12)

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