NHL Mock Draft 2.0: Predicting the Top-12

We are 16 days from the start of the NHL draft that will be held in Las Vegas. Derek and I released 1.0 of our mock draft on May 17th, and now it’s time for 2.0! I’ll take the first pick, and Derek will take the next. And so on. Let’s go!

A full NHL Mock Draft draft will be published on June 21st, a full week before the draft.

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1. SJS: Macklin Celebrini (C)

This is the easiest pick of the night. Everyone and their mothers know Celebrini is a Shark. I wouldn’t be surprised if he were already looking at condos in San Jose.

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2. CHI: Artyom Levshunov (D)

As more information comes in, it’s all but a foregone conclusion that Chicago will choose Levshunov with this pick. They’ve shown high interest in Artyom, and building a defense core around an offensive dynamo who showed legitimate defensive struggles like Connor Bedard only makes sense.

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3. ANA: Anton Silayev (D)

Pat Verbeek couldn’t stop talking about Leo Carlsson’s size and skill when he selected him last season. Although I’m not comparing Silayev and Carlsson’s skill level to any extent, I just find it hard to see a GM like Verbeek passing up on a 6’7 207 pound right-handed shot defenseman with shutdown abilities and glimpses of an offensive game as a teenager in the KHL.

Oh, and Silayev scored the most points for a u18 junior in the KHL.

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4. CBJ: Ivan Demidov (RW/C)

There’s been some talk of Demidov sliding because he’s an undersized winger whose skating is peculiar and oddly reliant on his inside edges.

While that may scare teams, I think Waddel continues drafting the way Draft Twitter expects and picks the extremely high-upside player who just happens to complement top center prospect Adam Fantilli very well.

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5. MTL: Cayden Lindstrom (C/LW)

Kent Hughes and company skip, hop, and dance to the podium to select the SUPER TALENTED 6’4 216 pound center from Medicine Hat of the WHL.

Considering the top prospects in Montreal’s pool are both defensemen (Lane Hutson and David Reinbacher), they need to infuse their pool with high-upside talent at the center position and Cayden is exactly that.

Whether it’s playing through contact, his elite hands, or his shot, this kid has it all. 27G-19A-46P in 32 games all while dealing with two separate injuries last season that saw him miss time in the middle and end of the season.

Montreal fans should be ecstatic with this pick.

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6. UTAH: Zayne Parekh (D)

Utha inherited the well-stocked forward core of the Coyotes and drafted a shutdown extraordinaire last summer.

The missing piece is a blueliner with the skin and upside of Parekh. I’d personally go with Buium, but I get the sense that NHL scouts hold the raw dynamism of Parekh in higher esteem.

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7. OTT: Berkly Catton (C/LW)

Ottawa’s prospect pool is completely barren. They need any type of high-end talent at any position. And what better way to add to that obsolete prospect pool than to add a player like Berkly Catton?

I’m not too worried about the lack of size when he has elite traits everywhere else. 54G-62A-116P in 68 games for the Spokane Chiefs of the WHL.

Catton is arguably the most skilled player in this draft. He possesses elite hands, IQ and is a far better skater than someone who reminds me a little of him in Zach Benson from last season’s draft. He’s an elite play-driver that any team should be salivating at the thought of drafting.

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8. SEA: Zeev Buium (D)

This has been mocked a few times, and I think Seattle has to love the fit. There’s proof of concept there for “Buium types” to work in Vince Dunn.

I see him as the best puck mover in the draft, and he should be a perfect fit for fueling the suffocating forecheck that propelled their 2023 playoff run.

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9. CGY: Tij Iginla (F)

Tij has sky-rocketed up the draft board since the beginning of the year. 47G-37A-84P in 64 games for the Kelowna Rockets of the WHL. He also had 12 points (6G-6A) in the WJC-18 last season.

This is a pretty simple pick for Calgary if he’s there. The closer we get to June 28th the more I get the feeling Tij might not be there at 9.

But if he is sitting there, like I said, easy pick for the Calgary front office.

You could argue that Tij is the hardest-working player in this draft. Ferocious on the forecheck, and has the skill to make you pay if you give the puck up to him.

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10. NJ: Sam Dickinson (D)

New Jersey was probably figuring to take a forward here (if they kept the pick) but the opportunity to select a seemingly surefire top 4 defenseman is too much to pass up on.

Dickinson may or may not surpass Nemec and/or Hughes as a future top pair guy for the Devils, but he doesn’t really need to in order to be valuable.

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11. BUF: Carter Yakemchuk (D)

Buffalo is loaded at forward. Zach Benson, Jiri Kulich, Matt Savoie, Tage Thompson, Dylan Cozens, Jack Quinn and John-Jason Peterka. They need a big, right-handed defenseman (already have Dahlin and Power locked up), and the fact that Carter Yakemchuk is still sitting there at 11 should have Buffalo extremely excited.

Yakemchuk is 6’3 193 pounds and skates extremely well for his size. He has one of the best shots in the draft class regardless of position, putting up 30 goals last season for the Calgary Hitmen of the WHL.

I’m a little skeptical about how his game fully translates over to the NHL. He’s not the best in his zone during cycles and initial entries, letting forwards get behind him pretty easily. He tends to get over-aggressive, leaving him in awful spots completely out of position. His gap control on rushes leaves more to be desired and I’m always weary of a guy who dangled through guys in junior as for translation to the big leagues.

He was also the 5th most penalized player in the WHL with 120 PIM in 66 games.

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12. PHI: Cole Eiserman (LW)

I believe in Cole Eiserman. That’s the heart of this pick. I also like Konsta Helenius a lot, and I don’t envy the Flyers when they have to make this choice. But I will stay true to myself and back the guy I’ve been backing for this entire draft cycle.

Eiserman is a goal-scoring machine, blessed with both the outlier shot and elite scoring instincts to score in bunches at the NHL level. He’s a very good passer, and I expect him to make even more plays as he gets out of the “mess around and try whatever” mentality that the NTDP generally cultivates in its best players.

His puck rushing was a hit-and-miss. It was largely bad to begin the year, but it was largely good to end it.

Ultimately, I think the right franchise coaxes the goal-scoring power winger out of him. And when I say “goal scoring”, I mean Rocket Richard winning.

The Flyers may very well opt for Helenius on Draft Day, and I wouldn’t be upset in the slightest.

Remaining players we like (not in order):

• Konsta Helenius
• Emil Hemming
• Michael Brandsegg-Nygard
• Andrew Basha
• Liam Greentree
• Aron Kiviharju

Mandatory Credit: Steve Ellis / DailyFaceoff