Nolan Patrick returned tonight, can he show enough to go #1. Or did Nico Hischier pull enough away with a strong world juniors?

https://www.capfriendly.com/players/nolan-patrick
https://www.capfriendly.com/players/nico-hischier

Probably still Patrick but don't sleep on Gabe Vilardi either

Even after injury, I think Patrick will still be #1. Most potential and skill

Him already having sports hernia surgery scares me off. I wouldnt take him #1. Many players has had their careers shattered by it already.

What young player has had their career shattered by sports hernia surgery? I don't remember reading that story anywhere. If it is a career threatening thing you gotta think theres no way he doesn't drop in the draft.

Do the blues 2 first round picks carry enough weight to get up to 5-7 and get Owen Tippett? And do the playoff teams pick# go by playoff finish or reg season?

What if STL traded their 1st rounders and something else for maybe 5th overall, then traded 5th and a bunch more for 1st?

Doug Armstrong tends to package picks to move up just a few spots, to get "their guy". That seems like a lot more then he'd be comfortable with. We do have some pieces to pull that sort of deal off, I doubt it though. Still unsure he'd pull the trigger on my type of move. Get the feeling he's looking to stick pile young talent, to make up for the last few yrs bad trades losing picks

And I think it'd take Nolan Patrick. At 6'3"and when he bulks up he'd be a force. But Nico on the right team will still produce. Vegas or Col, I'd take Nolan. Arz I'd take Nico, they are full of young fast players

Yeah, you're right. It would take a lot.

It should still be Patrick. But I will say that if Colorado or Arizona gets the first pick, they should strongly consider taking Liljegren given their need for defense

Patrick for sure. Hischier and Liljegren are nice consolation prizes, but it's been debated ad nauseum that you take the best player available.

Patrick - Hischier - Vilardi
Hoping the Canucks get the second overall pick so we don't have to decide.

As far as forwards go, people have been talking about Nolan Patrick for the longest time, so there's got to be something to all of that chatter and buzz, and he's top of the category for me. I think Nico Hischier's achievement's on the international stage as well as in major-junior trump Gabriel Vilardi's performance this year, even if the OHL is supposedly a better league than the QMJHL.

However, I'm still personally on the "Timothy Liljegren should be top 3" hype train. I know he's had mononucleosis for much of the year, and his numbers haven't been pretty, but my impression of him is that he's a skilled, mobile, puck-moving defender. RHDs are quite the commodity, and I think Liljegren would improve some of these lottery teams' prospect pools more than a forward would.

- I look at the Avalanche's forward depth chart, and I see some good, young forwards that can contribute to the team: Mikko Rantanen, Tyson Jost, J. T. Compher, and A. J. Greer, in addition to Nathan MacKinnon, Matt Duchene, and Gabriel Landeskog.
(This is mostly an aside, but I don't think they should trade Duchene away. It's difficult for me to make the argument of "he's not fitting in in the locker room" or arguments from chemistry as a fan, because I'm not there to see him interact with his teammates on and off the ice. I just look at his capability to produce points and shots and say, "y'know, he's pretty good, and a team that needs to get better could use good players to build around.")
Defensively, Nikita Zadorov, Erik Johnson, and Tyson Barrie seem to be (relatively speaking) pieces to build around, but Duncan Siemens and Chris Bigras are failing to live up to expectations, and Nicolas Meloche and Anton Lindholm look like their only worthwhile defensive prospects (especially since Joe Sakic is reportedly having trouble convincing Will Butcher to sign with the Avalanche).

- I'd buy the argument that the Canucks should draft a forward. They've got some strong defensive prospects in Jordan Subban, Olli Juolevi, and Guillaume Brisebois, but their forward group seems to be aging a little more. Of course, they have some good forward prospects; Brock Boeser and Nikolay Goldobin seem to be very good, and Alexandre Grenier's been fairly good in the AHL. Jake Virtanen's disappointed, though, and, overall, their forward crop is a little thinner.

- The Coyotes don't really need more forwards. They've already got a lot of good ones: Max Domi, Anthony Duclair (hypothetically), Brendan Perlini, Clayton Keller, Lawson Crouse, Dylan Strome, Nick Merkley, Ryan MacInnis, the list goes on and on. They really need RHDs, though; Kyle Wood's the only good one in the prospect pool.

- A lot of the Devils' defensive players are, frankly, mediocre, and they don't have any blue-chip defensive prospects to speak of. On the other hand, at forward, they've got the likes of Pavel Zacha, John Quenneville, Michael McLeod, and Nathan Bastian.

tl;dr: I don't think many of these teams can justify saying "we're going to go for the best player available" in selecting forwards in the early rounds, when that's what they've done in years past, and their defensive prospect pools are now lacking as a result. A lot of these teams *need* top-end defensive talent in their pipelines.

As of right now, it's Nolan Patrick. But the draft isn't happening right now, the draft is at the end of June. By then, the minds of scouts and GM's will change and they will believe that a player as dynamic as Hischier isn't someone they can pass up on. I do believe that in Nico vs Nolan, Nico will win. I don't see there being any way Vilardi takes the top spot. I'm a Windsor fan, and I'd love to see him do it, but it realistically won't happen.

I can see Vilardi going three if Vegas holds that spot. I could see a team like Arizona or Colorado taking a defenseman at 3 if that's where they are, whether that defenseman is Cale Makar, Timothy Liljegren, or Miro Heiskanen is a mystery. There are still some that believe Liljegren is a top 3 pick, but I'm not one of them. However, I do think Liljegren will become the elite puck moving defenseman he was thought to be at the beginning of the year. I made that mistake last year thinking that Chychrun was still going to be the first defenseman off the board, and he fell like crazy. But he then played an excellent second half with the Yotes, and I believe the same type of thing happens in the draft.

The players I'm most interested to see besides Nico, Nolan and Liljegren are Casey Mittelstadt, Callan Foote and Jake Oettinger. I think Mittelstadt is going to be an absolute stud, and he's worthy of a top 5 pick in my book. I would love to see Foote go to the Leafs, but I could also see the Bolts jumping on him. And I'm a firm believer that Arizona needs to take Oettinger with the pick they got from Minnesota. Even if it's considered to be an off-board pick, Arizona desperately needs a goalie of the future, and to me Oettinger is the best in the class

I come from the future Nico Hishier goes first

10 months later, this was a pretty solid evaluation. Nico went 1, Heiskanen went 3, Tampa took Foote and Liljegren fell. While Mittelstadt didn't end up going in the top 5, his WJC showed that he would've been a really solid option in the top 5.

I still think Arizona should've taken Oettinger over POJ. They need a long-term plan in net, and I think they wasted a great opportunity with the Minnesota pick.

unfortunately, all these other people and when they posted it come from the past instead.

hi fyi Nico went first and Patrick's out for the season lol

the best picks for this Draft were 3,4,5 not 1,2 it is funny how this stuff works out sometimes

Hischier still a beast tho. I hope Nolan Patrick can turn it around tho