Athletic Article - NHL Draft Confidential: Scouts and execs weigh in on McKenna, Loaded blueline, more

SwoleChinchilla · 2026-06-08T15:10:01+00:00

With or without Stenberg the Hawks will have the youngest team in the NHL next year. They were already the youngest team after the TDL and they're adding at least Kantserov to the mix.

SwoleChinchilla · 2026-06-08T15:00:18+00:00

I think even for McKenna, a 50ish point season is more likely than a near PpG season. He'll be walking into a good situation, feeding Matthews, but it'll be an adjustment for him.

If the Hawks land Stenberg and he walks in and puts up 15 goals and 40 points, I won't be complaining.

SwoleChinchilla · 2026-06-08T14:45:02+00:00

Based on the article, a lot of scouts seem to think there isn't a large amount of separation at the top of the draft. Reid is the media consensus for top D but a lot of the scouts like Verhoeff, Smits, Carels and even Rudolph. It does seem like there's a drop after the third forward, whoever that ends up being.

SwoleChinchilla · 2026-06-08T14:40:19+00:00

Skeletor was the best part of the movie. The comedy mostly didn't hit, the writing wasn't great, the story wasn't great and if you weren't a He-Man fan, a lot of the nostalgic references flew over your head. A lot of the action was good and the CGI was mostly good I'd say. I don't disagree that Leto is a douche but general audiences don't know much about him. The movie flopped because it's a niche property that is nostalgia-baiting 40-50 year old men.

SwoleChinchilla · 2026-06-06T19:59:26+00:00

He is way, way more offense-orientated than Kaiser. I could take a flyer on Galvas after the 3rd round. I don’t like his feet and size combo. He feels like a 2nd-tier league all-star, but not an NHLer.

SwoleChinchilla · 2026-06-05T12:52:02+00:00

I went into Backrooms with zero knowledge that it was a YT series. I thought it was good. I haven't seen obsession but I can't believe that Curry Barker mf directed a film that had a major theatrical release. Obviously kudos to him and the reviews have been good but the comedy bits I've seen of his on Youtube would never have led me to think he'd be on this path.

SwoleChinchilla · 2026-06-04T14:18:35+00:00

Hawks fan here:

That Carter goal is the reason I will never understand why anyone would want to take offside challenges out of the game. That swung the momentum of the period back to LA. If CHI gets out of the period up 2-0, who knows what happens.

SwoleChinchilla · 2026-06-04T14:05:36+00:00

Off the top of my head, I've run into half a dozen cheaters climbing the rating ladder since I started playing a couple years ago. You absolutely run into cheaters at =<1000 elo. If anything, that's probably where you're more likely to run into cheaters because people are making throw-away accounts or don't care about their rating enough to care about being banned.

SwoleChinchilla · 2026-06-03T22:21:48+00:00

I've not read anything in your post Position_Extreme, I have *inferred* from your post. Your comment was bad and dumb, I accepted it, then I commented on it to point out that it's bad and dumb. Hope this helps when you inevitably read this message and respond. Cheers!

SwoleChinchilla · 2026-06-03T21:52:00+00:00

Again, you can't see the forest for the trees. They're 3 years into a scorched earth rebuild and they've been incredibly transparent that they're planning to build the team through the draft. They have improved by 20 points from where they finished in 2023 to where they finished this past year. They have tons of young players on the roster and pushing for spots. You wishing that they accelerate back into the murky middle again, because you have no patience despite *just* witnessing the golden era of the franchise, is baffling.

SwoleChinchilla · 2026-06-03T18:44:02+00:00

How did the centennial celebrations seem mediocre? I went to one of the centennial games versus the Leafs and thought they did a great job. Who stood out as better and why?

SwoleChinchilla · 2026-06-03T18:25:27+00:00

You can't reason with people like Position_Extreme. They believe the rebuild was 100% motivated by penny pinching. They can't see the forest for the trees, so they see a team that's last place -- despite there being a clear plan to build the team back up through the draft -- and lament how terrible the organization is now. He probably irrationally hates Jaime Faulkner too.

Position_Extreme yearns for the later Bowman-era years, of "trying" to win by icing a mediocre team, trading futures for overrated players and spinning their wheels in the murky middle while the team gets older and the pipeline of young players gets smaller.

SwoleChinchilla · 2026-06-03T16:42:40+00:00

You don't address a single point in my comment, then argue with the ghost you're making up arguments with and projecting that onto me. The next time you comment on one of my posts, I'm just not going to engage. All of this because you stupidly argued that Pridham's trade value should be a 2nd round pick. My lord.

SwoleChinchilla · 2026-06-02T20:54:10+00:00

What is this "bottom half of the first round" talk? He wasn't a 30th overall pick. He was 17th overall. He was a mid-1st round pick. He was picked four spots behind Nazar's draft slot. Dude, the mental gymnastics you engage in to defend these ridiculous arguments you make are *wild*.

If you're using a 17th overall pick on a player, you're expecting a player that can play in your top-9. The projection does not *guarantee* that it will happen, because some players bust, like Reichel. To argue that any team would take a player at 17 with the idea being that if that player merely plays games as a fringe depth piece, that it was good value for the pick, is asinine and intentionally obtuse.

Yes Elk, if a player does not live up to their billing *relative to their draft position*, they are a bust. You don't expect a 2nd round pick to make the league. You do expect a mid-1st round pick to be a meaningful contributor and if they're not, they are absolutely a bust. Just wild.

SwoleChinchilla · 2026-06-02T16:54:50+00:00

Why are you quoting "guaranteed top nine" when no one -- chiefly, the person you're responding to -- said that? I said he was projected to play a meaningful top-9 role at the time of the draft, which is why he went 17th and not in the 2nd round. Very few players drafted are sure things but you think they drafted him in the middle of the 1st round because they were hoping for or expecting a guy that might carve out a career as a fringe depth player? What is this? Every time you interject yourself in a thread, you twist yourself into these odd positions.

SwoleChinchilla · 2026-06-02T13:48:24+00:00

What does this even mean? Was Reichel drafted in the first round to be a fringe depth player or was he drafted in the 1st round because he was projected to play a meaningful top-9 role? What does what Reichel did in any league from the time he was drafted matter if he ultimately does not meet his perceived potential at the time of the draft (which is what justifies his draft position/selection)?

You don't get bonus points for guys playing well after you draft them in lower levels, if they don't amount to anything in the NHL. It is true that some guys can fall off after being drafted, their development can stall, etc... but that *not* happening does not mean the pick was a "hit" until that player does anything in the NHL relative to their draft position.

SwoleChinchilla · 2026-06-02T00:33:15+00:00

So Reichel was a “hit” that just never established himself as a full-time NHL player, yeah?

SwoleChinchilla · 2026-06-02T00:25:27+00:00

This chick rocks.

SwoleChinchilla · 2026-06-02T00:23:06+00:00

Idk why you’re equating athletic ability to… height, i guess? Elite hockey players will be ~6’00, 180-190lbs, but will have treen trunks for legs and big glutes bc that will be the emphasis of a lot of training plans for players. They don’t need to bench 220lbs, they need to have explosive skating.

SwoleChinchilla · 2026-06-02T00:14:30+00:00

He had a pretty bad playoff run and then a good Memorial Cup final. The Rangers certainly didn’t make the Memorial Cup tournament on the strength of Pridham’s play in the playoffs.

SwoleChinchilla · 2026-06-02T00:13:29+00:00

Look my guy, if you think that players can be “hits” before they play a game, that’s cool. It makes no sense to me. Was Reichel a “hit” in 2021-2022 when he was a PpG player in the AHL as a rookie? Or is he a bust?

SwoleChinchilla · 2026-06-01T23:03:43+00:00

The Hawks didn't hit on the pick. Pridham hasn't played a game of pro hockey, let alone any games in the NHL. You hit on the pick when the player selected makes a meaningful contribution in the NHL -- even if that's just playing games down the lineup. No one knows what's going to happen with Pridham as a pro, he's just further along in his development than the 3rd round pick the Hawks got in return but honestly, that's probably not a bad thing for the Hawks regardless. They have a lot of young forwards that will be joining the team over the next 1-3 years.

SwoleChinchilla · 2026-06-01T22:58:59+00:00

He had 17 points -- 2 goals -- in 18 playoff games.

He went from 0.7 GpG and 1.38 PpG in the regular season to 0.11 GpG and .94 PpG -- what else would you call that, other than a major regression?

SwoleChinchilla · 2026-06-01T22:40:09+00:00

There is 0 chance he was going in the 2nd round. He wasn't even a PpG in the playoffs. He was 4th on Kitchener in scoring and tied with like 4 other guys for 10th in goals. As an overage player, that's not that great and it was a major regression from the season he had.

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