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Draft Preview 2022
It’s The Hockey News' highly anticipated Draft Preview 2022 edition! We run down our top 100 prospects with scouting reports on each player, plus NHL Team Reports for all 32 clubs. Also, the feature story on our top prospect Shane Wright, and a sneak peek at the 2023 and 2024 NHL drafts.
TAKE-TWO-O-METER
Sometimes the second time is the charm for prospects. This quintet of impact NHLers needed a draft redo before making the big-time.
NETFLIX AND THRILL
SIMON NEMEC IS NOT one for longwinded answers, not even for potential employers. Ask him if there’s anything he’d like to tell the NHL teams thinking of drafting him, he smirks and gives a curt “No.” No one can blame Nemec for taking such a cut-and-dried approach to his craft. As arguably the top defenseman in the 2022 draft, he admittedly prefers to let his play speak for itself, and it’s worked for him so far. During what turned out to be the most chaotic season of his young career, Nemec’s play spoke volumes, broadcasting his potential as a burgeoning star with a deafening force for all to see. The 2021-22 campaign was a transformative one for Nemec, both on and off the ice. Throughout all the COVID-19 complications, the draft-ranking anxiety…
TOP 100 PROSPECTS: 33-36
33. JULIAN LUTZ BORN Feb. 29, 2004, Weingarten, Ger. 2021-22 Munich POS LW HT 6-2 WT 179 SHOOTS L CENTRAL SCOUTING No. 30 (Euro skaters) LUTZ LOST MOST of his DEL season to a back injury, but once he returned to action, he showed why he is the best German prospect of the class. “It’s the skating, the athleticism and the puck protection,” said one scout. “He jumped right into the DEL after six months, and he did not look out of place.” Scouts also had the benefit of seeing Lutz suit up with his peer group at the world under-18s in Germany, and even though the home team was outgunned and overmatched for the most part, Lutz was still a point-per-gamer, leading the national side in scoring. That was good, because some NHL teams needed…
2022 NHL DRAFT RUSSIAN RISKS
GEOFF MOLSON, THE PART-OWNER and CEO of the Montreal Canadiens, whose team’s selection in the first round in last year’s draft was Logan Mailloux, which caused Gary Bettman to tell Steve Kouleas: “I was stunned. Surprised wouldn’t begin to explain my reaction. I’m a dad of two daughters, I have four granddaughters. What was done was horrific.” Had I been the chairman of the Montreal Canadiens, I would have asked Molson to resign as CEO, as the CEO is ultimately responsible for everything that goes on at a company whether or not he gave the green light on the pick. Molson and then-GM Marc Bergevin took a great deal of heat from the public for their seemingly careless regard for abuse of women by men. Molson the CEO is still there.…
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