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Future Watch 2022
Future Watch 2022 is packed with 320+ scouting reports, team grades, our top-100 ranking, and sneak peeks at the '22, '23 & '24 drafts. Plus features on Power, Byfield, Beniers, McTavish and more.
CAROLINA HURRICANES
Rank: 9th | A– THE HURRICANES’ RECENT SUCCESS has cost them the opportunity of drafting near the top of the first round – they don’t even have a first-rounder this year – but what they’ve lacked in quality they’ve made up in quantity, stockpiling picks to refresh a system that produced the core of a team now firmly in Stanley Cup contention. Carolina has made 33 picks in the past three drafts, with 2020 first-rounder Seth Jarvis already in the NHL. The question is how their seven second-round picks will fare, let alone the players chosen later in the draft. But they’ve given themselves no shortage of chances to hit. 1. SCOTT MORROW D, 19, 6-2, 192 UMass (HE) 34–13–19–32–10 2021 draft, 40th overall OVERALL 52 Morrow’s stock has skyrocketed since the draft thanks to a near-seamless transition…
“IVY’S SON” BEST TITLE IN THE WORLD
WHEN I MOVED TO Los Angeles in 1989 from Montreal, the very first thing I noticed was the way people introduced one another. I’d be at a party, and someone would come up and say, “Hi, I’m Bill, and I am a producer.” He would then introduce his entourage of “John, the actor; Peter, the agent; and Amanda, the attorney.” When they would ask my name, I’d say “Graeme,” which raised the follow-up question: “what do you do, Graeme?” At the time, I was working for a Wall Street firm, so that was it. From that point on, I was Graeme, the Wall Street guy, in many of these circles. I thought, “What happened to just being Graeme?” Over the years, the name has stayed consistent, but the title morphed based…
TURNING THE CALIFORNIA CORNER
IT WASN’T THAT LONG ago, a winter road trip to California was anything but sun and fun for visiting NHL teams. From 2009-10 through 2017-18, the Los Angeles Kings, Anaheim Ducks and San Jose Sharks were three of the top five teams in the Western Conference and among the league’s top nine teams overall. They combined for 1,163 wins and just 705 regulation-time losses in that nine-season span. The Kings won two Cups, the Sharks lost in the final one year, and the Ducks topped 100 points five straight seasons. Then the predictable happened. Rosters studded with stars aged out. Coaches got fired. Depleted and neglected development systems couldn’t keep up with the fast-closing windows of the California contenders. Anaheim and Los Angeles missed the playoffs in 2019. The next year,…
SEATTLE KRAKEN
Rank: 28th | C– WHEN KRAKEN GM RON Francis didn’t acquire any youngsters in expansion-draft side deals, it left the team thin on prospect depth. The pipeline is populated mostly with the No. 2 draft selection from last summer, Matty Beniers, and picks from early in the ensuing rounds – gained as a perk of the team’s record $650-million franchise fee. The two highest picks should make their pro debuts this spring. A strong focus on European scouting also sees some intriguing projects from overseas. But the lack of depth means most of the top 10 may end up topping out as AHL mainstays. 1. MATTY BENIERS C, 19, 6-1, 175 Michigan (Big Ten) 33–19–21–40–16 2021 draft, 2nd overall OVERALL 3 Beniers continued to impress in his return to Ann Arbor, ranking among top NCAA scorers before heading…