The 2022 draft has come to a close and 225 players and their families have a lot to celebrate by joining a National Hockey League franchise.
Montreal held the first pick, in their own building, and used it to select 6’4″ Slovakian winger Juraj Slafkovsky from TPS Turku (Liiga). While this surprised a lot of Canadiens fans, this shouldn’t be a shock given Slafkovsky’s strong play in 2022. His game has grown quite a lot since I first started watching him a few years ago and to see him go first overall to my favourite team is definitely a dream come true.
With the second pick in the first round, the New Jersey Devils selected Slafkovsky’s countryman as well as his teammate at the Olympics and World Championship, defenceman Simon Nemec.
Arizona opted to go with Logan Cooley with the third overall pick, a strong skating, two-way centerman with offensive upside.
With the first three picks of the draft gone, it was a bit of a shock to see Shane Wright still sitting there, but that didn’t last long as Seattle Kraken General Manager Ron Francis selected the Burlington, Ontario native.
Looking at the rest of the first round, there were couple of picks that felt like a bit of a reach, such as Noah Ostlund to Buffalo at sixteenth overall. But one name that dropped quite a bit that I can’t get over is Finnish forward Joakim Kemell. Many expected Kemell to be a top-ten pick, but he didn’t get selected until seventeenth overall by the Nashville Predators.
A feel-good story happened when the Washington Capitals used their first round pick (20th overall) to select Russian forward Ivan Miroshnichenko. Miroshnichenko was diagnosed with Hodgkin Lymphoma in March and following treatment in Germany, his cancer was in remission. In June, he began skating again in preparation for the 2022-23 season.
Before we look at the second round and beyond, I want to go back and see how many of my 32 picks in my mock draft.
- 3. Logan Cooley.
- 8. Marco Kasper.
- 9. Matthew Savoie.
- 11. Conor Geekie.
- 23. Jimmy Snuggerud.
When looking at the second round through the seventh round, there were several picks that may end up being steals in the future. There were also some players who didn’t get selected that will be looking to have strong 2022-23 campaigns to prove teams wrong and hopefully get drafted next summer.
Here are some players that may end up being steals of the draft:
- 63. Adam Sykora (New York Rangers)
- 96. Jordan Dumais (Columbus Blue Jackets)
- 105. Anton Johansson (Detroit Red Wings)
- 185. Servac Petrovsky (Minnesota Wild)
- 211. Linus Sjodin (Buffalo Sabres)
Meanwhile, these three names stand out as big shocks that didn’t get drafted:
- Pano Fimis (Niagara IceDogs – OHL)
- Beau Jelsma (Barrie Colts – OHL)
- Hugo Havelid (Linkoping HC Jr. – Swe-Jr)
It wasn’t all about the draft over the last 48 hours or so. The trade market took off and some recognizable names have been on the move. Let’s take a look at some of the most notable moves since Thursday morning.
- To Colorado: Alexandar Georgiev. To New York R: 2022 3rd, 2022 5th, 2023 3rd.
- To Ottawa: Alex DeBrincat. To Chicago: 2022 1st (7th overall), 2022 2nd, 2024 3rd.
- To New York I: Alexander Romanov, 2022 4th. To Montreal: 2022 1st (13th overall).
- To Chicago: 2022 1st (13th overall), 2022 3rd. To Montreal: Kirby Dach.
- To Chicago: 2022 1st (25th overall), Petr Mrazek. To Toronto: 2022 2nd.
- To Arizona: Zack Kassian, 2022 1st (29th overall), 2024 3rd, 2025 2nd. To Edmonton: 2022 1st (32nd overall).
- To Detroit: Ville Husso. To St. Louis: 2022 3rd.
- To New Jersey: Vitek Vanecek. To Washington: 2022 2nd, 2022 3rd.
- To Philadelphia: Tony DeAngelo, 2022 7th. To Carolina: 2022 4th, 2023 3rd (conditional), 2024 2nd.
- To San Jose: Luke Kunin. To Nashville: John Leonard, 2023 3rd.
That’s a wrap on the 2022 NHL Entry Draft. How do you think your favourite team did? Let me know in the comments below!
The next several days are likely to be filled with trade rumours, as well as rumours regarding pending free agents. The NHL’s free agent period opens at 12pm ET on July 13, while the deadline for a team to qualify an RFA is July 11th.
Enjoy the next week or so and the craziness free agency brings! Next you’ll hear from me will be for the World Juniors next month!
– Cooper.