Three big takeaways from Round 1 of the 2023 NHL Draft

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.