2024 NHL Draft winners and losers: Scott Wheeler ranks all 32 teams’ selections
June 30, 2024
2024 NHL Draft winners and losers: Scott Wheeler ranks all 32 teams’ selections
2 comments
Scott Wheeler:
The Wild killed it.
I thought the Zeev Buium pick at No. 12 was one of the best of the draft, and I liked the Ryder Ritchie pick with their first selection of Day 2.
Buium was my No. 4-ranked prospect and No. 2-ranked defenseman, and I gave Ritchie a late-first rating. Ritchie is a crafty, nimble-skating winger who I think has an opportunity to post 90 to 100 points in the WHL next season. We all know the Wild dropped the ball on the Charlie Stramel pick a year ago, but their staff does a good job by and large.
There wasn’t a better player left on the board than Aron Kiviharju when they took him at No. 122. His lost season to knee surgery, his height (5-foot-9) and his little-slow profile resulted in his precipitous fall, but Kiviharju is still one of the smartest hockey players in this age group and there were guys taken in front of him in the fourth round who have no chance to play at the top of their age group, let alone in the NHL. Kiviharju, whether he makes it or not, might be Finland’s No. 1 defenseman at the upcoming world juniors.
Even Sebastian Soini at No. 140 felt like one of the better players left, and he was a kid I would have considered there. Soini’s an interesting one, as a teenager who played a lot of pro hockey this year but surprisingly was cut by the Finnish U18 team (there were lots of folks around Finland who thought he should have been on that team, including some of his teammates).
Is stramel supposed to be considered a bust already? I would think given the situation he was in that’s a bit premature
2 comments
Scott Wheeler:
The Wild killed it.
I thought the Zeev Buium pick at No. 12 was one of the best of the draft, and I liked the Ryder Ritchie pick with their first selection of Day 2.
Buium was my No. 4-ranked prospect and No. 2-ranked defenseman, and I gave Ritchie a late-first rating. Ritchie is a crafty, nimble-skating winger who I think has an opportunity to post 90 to 100 points in the WHL next season. We all know the Wild dropped the ball on the Charlie Stramel pick a year ago, but their staff does a good job by and large.
There wasn’t a better player left on the board than Aron Kiviharju when they took him at No. 122. His lost season to knee surgery, his height (5-foot-9) and his little-slow profile resulted in his precipitous fall, but Kiviharju is still one of the smartest hockey players in this age group and there were guys taken in front of him in the fourth round who have no chance to play at the top of their age group, let alone in the NHL. Kiviharju, whether he makes it or not, might be Finland’s No. 1 defenseman at the upcoming world juniors.
Even Sebastian Soini at No. 140 felt like one of the better players left, and he was a kid I would have considered there. Soini’s an interesting one, as a teenager who played a lot of pro hockey this year but surprisingly was cut by the Finnish U18 team (there were lots of folks around Finland who thought he should have been on that team, including some of his teammates).
Is stramel supposed to be considered a bust already? I would think given the situation he was in that’s a bit premature