Three big takeaways from Round 1 of the 2023 NHL Draft
Three big takeaways from Round 1 of the 2023 NHL Draft
The 2023 NHL Draft kicked off with a big selection for the Chicago Blackhawks with the first overall pick. The Blackhawks drafted generational talent Connor Bedard, instantly changing the landscape of the Hawks roster for years to come.
The first round of the draft did not go as expected in the sense that it was so quiet. There were no trades during the first round, something that has been a staple in years past as teams juggle positioning to land the player they want most.
That might have something to do with how busy of a week led up to the draft. The Bruins already made some deals clearing up cap space, as did the Lightning, Avalanche and Golden Knights. The first day of the 2023 NHL Draft was relatively smooth sailing, but things could pick up on the second day.
Here is what the first round of the 2023 NHL Draft ended up looking like:
- Chicago Blackhawks – Connor Bedard
- Anaheim Ducks – Leo Carlsson
- Columbus Blue Jackets – Adam Fantilli
- San Jose Sharks – Will Smith
- Montreal Canadiens – David Reinbacher
- Arizona Coyotes – Dmitriy Simashev
- Philadelphia Flyers – Matvei Michkov
- Washington Capitals – Ryan Leonard
- Detroit Red Wings – Nate Danielson
- St. Louis Blues – Dalibor Dvorsky
- Vancouver Canucks – Tom Willander
- Arizona Coyotes (via Senators) – Daniil But
- Buffalo Sabres – Zack Benson
- Pittsburgh Penguins – Brayden Yager
- Nashville Predators – Matthew Wood
- Calgary Flames – Samuel Honzek
- Detroit Red Wings (via Islanders) – Axel Sandin Pellikka
- Winnipeg Jets – Colby Barlow
- Chicago Blackhawks (via Lightning) – Oliver Moore
- Seattle Kraken – Eduard Sale
- Minnesota Wild – Charlie Stramel
- Philadelphia Flyers (via Kings) – Oliver Bonk
- New York Rangers – Gabriel Perreault
- Nashville Predators (via Oilers) – Tanner Molendyk
- St. Louis Blues (via Maple Leafs) – Otto Stenberg
- San Jose Sharks (via Devils) – Quentin Musty
- Colorado Avalanche – Calum Ritchie
- Toronto Maple Leafs (via Bruins) – Easton Cowan
- St. Louis Blues (via Stars) – Theo Lindstein
- Carolina Hurricanes – Bradly Nadeau
- Colorado Avalanche (from Canadiens, via Panthers) – Mikhail Gulyayev
- Vegas Golden Knights – David Edstrom
Before Round 2 of the draft gets underway in a few hours, let’s talk about a few takeaways from the first round of the draft.
1. The centers are flying off the board at the 2023 NHL Draft.
The first round of the draft featured 32 players get drafted into the NHL. Of those 32 players, 12 of them were centers. It seemed like every team was desperate to get their organization someone who can play down the middle for years to come, and a lot of teams found centers who could be part of their future plans.
The top four players taken in the draft are all listed as centers. Bedard, Carlsson, Fantilli and Smith all could very well be first line centers on their respective teams in the future. In some seasons, teams value some component more than in other years.
We saw that this year with the Montreal Canadiens shocking a lot of fans when they drafted defenseman David Reinbacher fifth overall when he was not projected to go that high. The Canadiens needed a defenseman, and they got one in Reinbacher, even if he was not projected to go in that position.
Now entering day two of the draft, it will be interesting to see what different teams value going forward. Teams like Chicago have added a lot of skill and speed in years past and in Round 1 yesterday, but now they might want to adjust and start adding a little more size into their organization. Others might still focus on taking players that match into a playoff type mold, guys who play physical and can thrive in a best of seven series.
2. Teams are overthinking it more than normal.
At the end of the day, the draft should just be about taking the best player available. While I understand every team is in a different stage of development and some teams need to address different needs then others, the draft should just be about taking the best player available.
The Anaheim Ducks seemed to be the first major over thinker of the draft when they took Leo Carlsson over Adam Fantilli with the second overall pick. Most scouts and media members had projected Fantilli to go second overall, and sure, maybe they all were wrong and Carlsson is the better player, but it does look like the Ducks just overthought the pick and ended up making a mistake.
Fantilli and Carlsson are two players who will always be grouped together now, as will everyone else out of the 2023 NHL Draft class, but these two players could have been drafted in any order. It will be interesting to see what a redraft of the first round could potentially look like in three to five seasons.
3. If Round 1 was any indication, we are in for a long day today.
Today is going to be a long day, especially if the NHL phone lines are as calm as they were yesterday. Right before every team goes on radio silence for the next three months, the draft is usually the place to see some fire works with teams getting deals done. That was not the case to kick things off on Wednesday.
It took the NHL over three hours to get 32 players selected through the NHL Draft. Now we have to do another six rounds of that on Thursday. Obviously I know things speed up a bit in the later rounds, but overall I think the draft was a bit dragged out longer than it needed to be.
I did enjoy watching the interviews of the draftees during the broadcast. It was cool hearing Will Smith sing “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” during his interview, but overall the draft ran a bit long on Wednesday night.
https://twitter.com/SanJoseSharks/status/1674204472455872513?s=20
Heading into Round 2, I think things will heat up. We have not seen a handful of teams draft yet, and there are a lot of teams with a very few amount of draft picks in the next six rounds. Overall, teams might be more open to making deals now than they were to start things off when they had a certain player in mind to draft.
The 2023 NHL Draft starts back up again at 11 a.m. ET.