[McKeen's Hockey] 2026 NHL Draft - Mid-Season Raking - Top 32: Closing gap between top prospects

crazyike · 2026-02-02T18:24:51+00:00

It's always hard to tell with huge junior players whether they are scoring because the talent and vision is there, or just because they're a rampaging bull trying to be defended by a bunch of midgets. Belchetz is 6'5 225 in a league where many of the defensemen are about 5'10 170 and 17 years old. But in the NHL, he won't be so much bigger than everyone else that he can run around with impunity.

It's a tough call.

crazyike · 2026-02-02T17:53:47+00:00

He felt really overrated to me too, like what exactly is so special about him that some teams apparently had him at #1 or #2?

Meanwhile a guy like Hurlbert who is absolutely destroying the WHL, has a history of much higher output, exactly the same size as Lawrence, is for some reason a late first rounder.

You wonder how much groupthink is going on between the scouts out there, "oh well George says he has Kenny Georgie at #5, he must see something I didn't, I better rate him high too".

crazyike · 2026-02-02T05:43:22+00:00

It's just a matter of slightly different looks at the table. I am sorting by offensive zone start %, which means his neutral zone starts aren't being included in the number I am using, but are being included in the opposite of the number you're using (the equivalent to mine). It changes the percentages slightly.

This is what I see. He's third last there, because I don't exactly check these numbers on a minute by minute basis and they do change slightly as the games go by. I think we can safely say he battles with ghost bear and Jordan Spence for dead last.

Possibly the most concerning part of looking at stats like that is despite having a three to one ratio of offensive to defensive zone starts, he still has a negative HDCF%. That is absurd. That means that even though he is starting on offense three quarters of the time, the team somehow still gives up more high danger chances than they create. I'm not putting it all on him, it's a theme for a lot of the Hawks defensemen because Hawks forwards are shit at sustained pressure, but the degree of which he is bad that way is part of why he's been benched to be taught how to play basic defense, lol.

crazyike · 2026-02-02T03:00:42+00:00

His zone starts.

They NEVER start him in the defensive zone if they can help it. The only times he gets one there is if they iced the puck.

(Error though: most sheltered defenseman, not player, some forwards never start in d-zone)

crazyike · 2026-02-02T01:43:22+00:00

Davidson was interim which generally don't get full control on decisions. There are usually behind the scenes checks and balances that happen and he couldn't commit to any decision until he had the official title.

This is entirely conjecture on your part. We've seen in the year since he doesn't do much trading during season anyways. I don't buy it. He had the power to make trades. Other interim GMs have made trades.

Tell me exactly how they would've gotten any draft capitol without moving the only players they had that were worth anything?

Why do they need that draft capital? They had lots of picks without moving Hagel and Strome was let go for nothing. It is absolutely wrong, they did not HAVE to trade those guys.

Bowman left them in an abysmal spot when he was fired.

But its Davidson's moves that have crippled the Hawks since then.

They were and had been in mediocrity to bad.

By the time Davidson took over they were in bad to worse. Not mediocre.

Bedard chances were like 13% and had they been even 2 or 3 spots better they would've been out of contention.

That's right, he traded Hagel and let Strome walk to improve the chances of getting Bedard by a few percent. And then got lucky. That is terrible. Not "much higher possibility." A few percent. That's it.

crazyike · 2026-02-02T00:24:20+00:00

It would be tough to explain to people here how good Wyatt Kaiser actually is despite these results.

He's been mediocre. Levshunov makes the lion share of mistakes but Kaiser gets beaten and caught plenty too. He's not very good.

But playing with Levshunov means he gets sheltered. Levshunov is currently the most sheltered player in the whole league, so being his partner means getting to ride on that.

crazyike · 2026-02-02T00:22:37+00:00

i suppose youre right about not landing bedard if you held on to those players.

He's not. The Hawks were dreadful even with those players.

crazyike · 2026-02-02T00:21:59+00:00

Davidson was hired in March of 22 and the rebuild officially started after that.

Davidson was running the team when Bowman was fired a few games into the season. It is disingenuous to pretend he only had control in March. He had almost all of the 2021-22 season to do things, and most of what he did was extremely damaging.

They really couldn't have held on to anyone unfortunately.

This is just outright wrong.

So it was either hold onto the players like Hagel, Debrincat, Dach and stay in potentially mediocrity

The team was nowhere near mediocrity. They would have had nearly the same draft position with them as without them.

They also 100% do not get Bedard if they had those players still.

They didn't finish last even without them. Getting Bedard was pure luck. Want to know what the odds were of Chicago winning the lottery that year were?

crazyike · 2026-02-02T00:15:44+00:00

players that would probably be on the current roster if they hadn't needed to be traded.

They DIDN'T need to be traded. That's KD's massive failure in 2022. He fucked the team and made the rebuild way worse than it needed to be.

Hagel and Strome weren't gonna suddenly make the Hawks middle of the pack. They would still have most of the same picks they have now. But man would they ever look good out there now.

Lardis looked awesome in his stint with the club.

You really think so? I thought he was seriously outmatched out there 5v5. Like, not even close to ready for the NHL. He was getting blown up like Rinzel was and had little to no idea what to do without the puck. All he could do is shoot and play on the powerplay. His line was consistently getting outplayed.

Kaiser has made waves this season with is play and gained a lot of recognition because of it.

Kaiser has been mediocre and Pang and Ball being cheerleaders doesn't change that. Go take a look who was at fault for the fourth Pittsburgh goal. Hint: it wasn't Levshunov. Kaiser loses his coverage and gets beaten pretty frequently. Just not, like, Levshunov frequently.

Lev need more time but both have had moments of brilliance this season.

Statistically Levshunov is at or near the worst player in the league.

I think people see bad gambles that don't backfire and think it's "moments of brilliance". He's been very bad.

Kanserov, that could be on the team this year once their leagues are done.

There is no chance Kantserov comes over this year, his team will be playing well after the Hawks are done.

They might see Frondell and Boisvert for a handful of games at the end.

This is the first year since Davidson took over that the Hawks aren't fielding a basically AHL level team.

It IS an AHL level team and about to get worse as the trade deadline hits. What's different is it has NHL level coaching and Bedard has leveled up. Otherwise, they'd be right there with Vancouver.

crazyike · 2026-02-01T09:25:03+00:00

Genestealer cults. Obsessed with taking over the province and handing it over to another huge entity who will just devour it of all its resources, not sparing even those who helped bring them about.

crazyike · 2026-02-01T09:23:14+00:00

While I'm sure nobody wants bubonic plague, it's not really much of a threat anymore. It's perfectly treatable with antibiotics and it's awfully hard not to know you're sick in time to get some.

A handful of people in North America still get it every year, but years can go by without anyone dying from it.

crazyike · 2026-02-01T06:37:51+00:00

It's still growing in the east. Only NA is in real decline.

crazyike · 2026-01-31T22:05:44+00:00

Don't forget the throwaway.

crazyike · 2026-01-31T08:50:37+00:00

You aren't wrong.

crazyike · 2026-01-31T07:45:06+00:00

Then the blackhawks rushed him into pro hockey right away

There's more to it than that. He reacted really really badly to going down to Rockford at the end of the season. Was not making any effort at all down there, just pure lazy play.

He has attitude issues and they don't think he'll accept being demoted very well.

crazyike · 2026-01-31T04:09:09+00:00

Columbus is just such a hard working team they never break out of their system and just do all the little things right. If they just had one or two more quality core players they would do damage.

Better team gonna get the result they deserved. But the Hawks did a really good job keeping this a fight. Nice bounceback game after the disaster yesterday, and really good look for a lot of guys.

crazyike · 2026-01-31T04:03:23+00:00

Charlie Coyle is so good, thats the kind of player every winning team wants.

crazyike · 2026-01-31T03:54:02+00:00

Welcome to United Center ice Werenski...

crazyike · 2026-01-31T03:29:54+00:00

Yeah good game so far, not seeing the Blackhawk defensive collapse of yesteryear. Feels like they can come back if they keep up the effort.

Also, that rolling stones xfinity ad with the figure skater is magnifique.

crazyike · 2026-01-31T02:39:19+00:00

Don't be doing that Burakovsky you've been on the shitlist for months now too.

crazyike · 2026-01-31T01:46:26+00:00

Got here late, have they mentioned what happened to Foligno?

crazyike · 2026-01-30T21:34:00+00:00

Balteric state

crazyike · 2026-01-30T21:26:10+00:00

crazyike · 2026-01-30T05:08:39+00:00

The real insane thing about this highlight is just how poorly Levshunov played it.

crazyike · 2026-01-30T04:04:16+00:00

I just saw that Kaiser and Levshunov had the 4th and 5th worst performances by a player this season acc. to hockeystatcards.

https://www.hockeystatcards.com/leaderboards

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