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It's cool to see how much the rankings have changed in the pretty much wide open draft. Lysell and Eklund have risen a lot and this shows for it.
This was my first mock in October of last year:
1. Dylan Guenther
2. Owen Power
3. Aatu Raty
4. Brandt Clarke
5. Luke Hughes
6. Kent Johnson
7. Carson Lambos
8. Jesper Wallstedt
9. Fabian Lysell
10. Zachary L'Heureux

In this scenario, Detroit would 100% take Matthews Beniers over Kent Johnson.

Agreed. Matthew Beniers over Johnson. But Matthew Beniers should be gone by 5.

Flames won't be taking another LD IMO. They have enough

They have to take the best player available, regardless of position. Lots of people on here look at the NHL draft like the NFL draft where essentially every draft pick plays right away. That's just not the case.

If you take a look at the Flames, their top 2LHD are Gio and Hanifin. By the time the 12th overall pick is in the NHL, there's a very real possibility that Gio and Hanifin aren't on the Flames.

It's just something to consider when looking at drafts, a perceived strength may not be a strength two years down the road.

Depends on the team...for example the Wings have 23 year old RHD Filip Hronek (currently playing on their 1st pairing) and 20 year old RHD Moritz Seider (top 5 prospect) that should form their RHD on their top 2 pairs for a decade. Drafting Clarke (another RHD) would mean one of those three would have to play: on the 3rd pair, off-handed (to be on the top 2 pairings), or would have to be moved. Plus they also drafted Gustav Lindström(2017 2nd, 38), Seth Barton (2018 3rd, 81), and Antti Tuomisto (2019 2nd, 35). Next, add the recently signed NCAA free agent Wyatt Newpower. Finally, the Wings also have to decide on extending/protecting 27 yr old Troy Stecher.

Whereas, they also have LHD prospects with much more uncertainty:
2021 6th overall, 22nd overall, 37th, 47th, 52nd, 70th, 96th plus 2 4th rounders (7)
2020 William Wallinder R2#32, Donovan Sebrango R3#63, Eemil Viro R3#70 (6)
2019 Albert Johansson R2#60 (5)
2018 Jared McIsaac R2#36 (7)
2017 Kasper Kotkansalo R3#71 (6)
2016 Dennis Cholowski R1#20 (3)

so if it comes down to a slightly higher rated RHD or a LHD....there are some teams that would go with the LHD not best player available. Ottawa has similar positional jams. But I agree outside a team that has been in full rebuild mode for some time this is less of an issue.

This is a good post. I agree with you, I was more talking from a Flames standpoint as it is very likely their lineup looks entirely different 2 or 3 years from now. They have to take the best player they can, because they just don't have enough depth in their prospect pool to get "choosy".

A team like DET could definitely defer to handedness with their pick as they have so many prospects in the system. Although I would argue that if they were to take Clarke, it's not a bad thing as RHD are so hard to acquire