The 5 Biggest Steals and Reaches of the 2024 NHL Draft

The 5 Biggest Steals and Reaches of the 2024 NHL Draft

the NHL draft has come and gone giving us fans all the Time in the World to relax and reflect on the picks our teams made before free agency begins at about 6 hours but before all that money gets thrown around we should take a moment to look at the picks that teams made in the NHL draft particularly those who got good deals and those who overpaid that’s right going off of the trade value chart I’m once again going to be giving my five biggest reaches and five biggest steals of the 2024 NHL entry draft based on the consensus ranking by Scouts ahead of the draft and this year I’m throwing in a new wrinkle giving the value a team gained or lost by taking a player in the certain slot meaning I’ll be giving what the trade chart says is the equivalent of value that they would have had to either give up to move up and take this Prospect or what they could have got to move back and take this Prospect at a slot that’s more compensate to where they were ranked ahead of the draft and we’ll go with the good side first starting with the fifth best value pick by any team in the 2024 entry draft that being Andrew basa going to the Calgary Flames at pick 41 now the consensus ranking by Scouts had Andrew bascia as a mid 20s pick and based on the trade value chart that means that the Calgary Flames avoided having to give up basically a high second round pick if they had had to move up and take Andrew basa at the spot where he was slated to go instead they waited he fell to them at pick 41 and in the Judgment of a lot of Scouts they got incredible value at this slot Calgary overall had a really solid draft and taking Andrew Bas in the second round was one of their savier moves but on the flip side a team that reached at their selection is the Philadelphia Flyers who took jet luchenko at pick 13 luchenko was ironically slated to go just just one spot ahead of Andrew basa but while basa fell into the second round the Flyers had to have lenko at pick 13 meaning that they sacrificed about a high second round picks worth of value by staying there and not trading back and taking him in the 20s with players like Cole Eiserman Costa helenius Michael ha and Trevor Connelly all sitting there it’s pretty puzzling that the Flyers locked on to luchenko and in that spot I think that you could have found a few teams who would have been willing to come up from the low 20s like the Kings or the Islanders who eventually took Eiserman and take one of those coveted guys sitting there the Flyers also in my opinion reached their second round pick Jack Bergland who they took a 51 but the consensus ranking had him going towards the end of the third round so all in all a very shaky draft for Danny Brier and the Flyers but there was another young GM having his first NHL draft who I think actually killed it in Eric toski of the Carolina Hurricanes who got an absolute steal by getting Nikita artamonov at pick 50 in the middle of the second round aranov was widely considered to be a late first round pick by most Scouts right around where Basha and luchenko were projected to go so getting him at 50 gave them basically an early second rounds pick worth of value that they didn’t have to give up to get this player the Hurricane’s other early picks like Dominic badinka and Noah fransen were both picked right around the slot that they rejected to go so s like they had an incredible draft but getting this good value in the middle of the second round with artamonov is a very solid star for the new regime now on the other hand we have the Boston Bruins who used the first round pick that they got in exchange for lenus Omar take the fourth biggest reach of the entire draft in Dean Lorna now this one’s a little bit controversial because going by my mock draft which is just based on the mock drafts that I saw at there this would be a pretty similar value to where he was rejected to go 27 versus 25th but in terms of the Scout rankings his average ranking among all the players was 44th and he was taken 25th overall by the Boston Bruins meaning that they gave up the same value the Flyers gave up to take luchenko at 13 an early second round pick so I don’t really hate this pick but what I do not like is the fact that they passed up on the guy taken right after that pick Liam Green Tree a guy who was ranked to be a middle the first round pick who taken by the Kings at pick 26 that would have been incredible value for the Bruins to take there a better pick in my opinion and spoiler green tree is not one of my three biggest steals of the draft still to come but it was very good value pick for the Kings at that spot and it would have also been a very good value pick for the Bruins instead of reaching for Loro now in terms of teams who just absolutely won this draft walking away you have to talk about the San Jose Sharks who got mlin celebrini at number one that was an expected chalk pick they also got Sam Dickinson at pick 11 which is good value there a little bit lower than he was expected to go kind of surprising to see him fall out of the top 10 but not completely out of the rumble possibility but one guy that they did manage to get for incredible value was their first pick of the second round eigor shern shov now shern shov was expected to be a middle of the first round pick I had him in my final mock draft going 20th overall and the Sharks instead of having to move up and give up another second round pick to go into the middle of the first round and take him got a really good player to fall into the laugh at the top of the second round and then later on at pick 53 they also got another great value by in Leo Seline wenus a guy who was expected to go middle of the second round around the 40s at pick 53 again not a massive steal but that’s still really good value by the Sharks and if that was enough they also got another great value pick at the start of the fifth round picking Colton Roberts there when he was projected to go in the middle of the third round just all in all an outstanding draft by the San Jose Sharks who really jump started their rebuild this weekend on the other hand though my Washington Capitals had the third biggest reach of the 2024 NHL Draft when they took trick Paras at pick 17 of the first round and I know that there are a lot of Scouts who were very high on parasa coming into the draft a couple even had him as a top 15 pick but most all Scouts that I saw had him as a late first early second round pick and the Caps taking him at number 17 is just egregious practice they could have traded back gotten the equivalent of a second round pick and still managed to get pric like towards the end of the first round or in the early second round and their other picks in the lers around like Cole Hudson Leon wle and Ilia protus were slotted about where they were expected to go so it’s not like they recouped any value towards the end of the draft all in all the Caps were pretty disappointing this weekend in terms of their picks but the trades that they made kind of made up for it now the second biggest steal of the entire NHL draft belongs to the Minnesota Wild who at pick number 12 were able to snag zeve buam out of the University of Denver this was an exceptional value pick I can’t believe boam fell out of the top 10 there wasn’t a single mock draft that I audited that had buam falling past eight to the Kraken and him being there at 13 for the wild that’s just too good of value to pass up they essentially got an extra late first round picks worth of value by not having to trade up to take boo him and just getting him at 13 and then on top of that with their second pick at number 45 they got another exceptional value grab when they got Ryder Richie who was projected to be a late first round pick in the middle of the second round he might not develop into a superstar but that’s just incredible value by the wild there who in my opinion had one of the best drafts that nobody is talking about on the other hand though a team who could have taken Z buam and didn’t and passed him up for another player in the top 10 had one of the worst drafts of all and that would be the Ottawa Senators who took Carter yakimchuk at pick seven Ironically in my consensus mock draft I had yakimchuk going to the wild at 13 and there were some people who had him as a top 10 Fringe top five pick the highest I saw was at six so s like this is a complete out ofth blue pick but the fact of the matter is most people thought that card yakam chup was more likely to fall outside of the top 10 Ben Z buam so if you’re an Ottawa Senators fans you really have to trust that your Scouts know something that everybody else does not when it comes to Carter yakimchuk and Z buam essentially you could have traded back and gotten another late first round pick to swap Spas with the Wild and get cter yakimchuk I know that they didn’t actually have like a 33d 34th overall pick but that’s about the value you were giving up by sitting there to take yakam chu but the Senators then compounded it with their 39th overall pick by taking defenseman Gabriel elas who was the consensus 100th rank player and they took him at the top of the second round ahead of guys like K and Hudson and brunii and Salin wenus just again Senators not reading the board very well and realizing that they could have moved back and gotten him at the end of the second round and gotten an extra pick and recoup some value now it will say they used their three fourth round picks on Lucas alenius Javin Moore and Blake Montgomery pretty well those picks are all fair value for where the prospects were slotted but man the Senators took some big risks with their two premium Assets in the draft and I do like Hur akchuk I think he could have turn out to be a pretty good defenseman but I really liked Z buum and I did not think he was going to get past OTA Utah or Seattle while the Senators made a risky reach it was their Canadian Brethren who got in my opinion the best value steel of the entire NHL draft the Montreal Canadians getting Ivan demidov at pick five demidov was a guy who was consensus number two or number three overall and I thought for sure he was going to be a Blackhawk but they the Ducks and the Blue Jackets all passed on him and unlike Matt mov last year Montreal did not pass up on an Uber talented Russian and got the consensus number two Prospect in the entire draft and save themselves a mid firstr picks worth of value by not having to trade up the Canadians also made a very solid picked move up from 26 to 21 and take Michael hay there that was a really good value pick and while I think that they did reach a bit on on Logan Sawyer at pick number 78 their other third round pick in OS kivu was appropriate value other than that I don’t really see any of the other later round picks as being particularly good or bad but Montreal excelled in this draft just by getting Demi do I think that pick is going to be one that pans out extremely well for them but on the other side it’s going to be no surprise that the team I think had the biggest reach of the entire draft is one who passed on Ivan demidov that’s the Anaheim Ducks who took Becket senica at number three overall now it’s not just the fact the Ducks passed on Demi doav the number two overall pick here at number three when he was available I mean the Blackhawks passed on Demi doav too and took lunov at at number two but that wasn’t as big of a reach because lunov was considered to be the number three Prospect so the Hawks were just kind of choosing between them but Becka senica was projected to be a midir round pick number 15 overall in this draft and only half of the drafts that I evaluated had him going even in the top 10 so to take him at third overall Pat verbi better freaking know what he is doing because this is also coming a year after the Ducks passed up on Anna finen Tilly for Leo Carlson and while that choice was a little bit more understandable Leo Carlson was at least considered to be a consensus top five pick this on the other hand taking senica essentially cost the Ducks an additional pick inside the top 15 by not trading back and taking senica around where he was projected to go and given that there were reports that a bunch of teams were looking to trade with Montreal to get demid you have you have to imagine that some of those teams would have swapped first round picks and given up a first round pick next year and the Ducks still still could have gotten senica later at like Pick 10 or 11 now I will say the duck’s second first round pick taking ston soberg at number 23 is good value that’s about where he was slated to go ditto for Lucas Pon at pick 35 and they actually got a really good value pick at the start of the third round with Max amassi so overall it was a decently strong draft for the Ducks but man it is not going to matter if senica does not develop into a star and worse any of Kaden lindström or TJ ginla Berkeley Ken Cole Eiserman Ivan Demi doer any of the defenseman manage to turn into Superstars if they do verb is going to be kicking himself for this pick for a while

Using the NHL trade value chart, I managed to calculate which picks were the biggest steal and the biggest reaches of the 2024 draft. The question is, which GMs deserve to get flamed for going off the board with their draft picks.

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