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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.
BUFFALO SABRES
THE NIGHT OWEN Power made his NHL debut, Buffalo dressed six defensemen, the oldest of whom was 25-year-old Casey Fitzgerald. If pro sports teams are indeed in the business of selling hope, business is very, very good for the Sabres at the moment. With five prospects in the top 50 of THN’s Future Watch’s list and three first-round picks in the 2022 draft, the Sabres are still stockpiling. IMMEDIATE NEEDS: Even though he’s been a freak of nature, Craig Anderson is 41 years old and has hinted at retirement. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen has had an up-and-mostly-down season in the minors and isn’t yet ready to take on the load of a No. 1 NHL goalie, so the Sabres will likely have to look for a veteran outside the organization. LONG-TERM NEEDS: It’s in…
EXCEPTIONAL TRAJECTORY
WHEN YOU BREAK a record set by Connor McDavid, people are going to take notice. So when 15-year-old center Michael Misa went off for a hat trick and five points in the final of the under-16 OHL Cup, speculation began to ramp up about whether he’d get exceptional status to join the OHL a year early. Sure enough, that’s exactly what happened in the wake of his Mississauga Senators claiming the Cup in a 6-2 win over the archrival Toronto Jr. Canadiens in early April. Misa ended the tournament with 20 points in seven games, one point more than McDavid had with the Toronto Marlboros back in 2012. The OHL has seen more exceptional status cases than the WHL and QMJHL combined, and the list includes McDavid, John Tavares and top 2022…
STOP THE COMPARISON SHOP
DRAFT PREVIEW IS MY favorite issue of the year. It’s the culmination of an entire season’s worth of work, one highlighted by copious interviews with scouts worldwide who work for a variety of NHL franchises. And sure, there is anxiety when it comes to making the final rankings - especially because the gossip and subterfuge only increase the closer we get to the actual event - but in the end, the list is like a fun puzzle to put together. However, I do have one gripe about my awesome job: I hate "comparables:" In Draft Preview, we've been calling these "best cases" in recentyears, and they've gone underneath the bios of our top 64 players in the draft. I understand the functionality of these comparables, as the average NHL fan watches very…
DAVID JIRICEK VS. SIMON NEMEC
IF SIMON NEMEC AND David Jiricek were baseball players, one would be a reliable and productive bat who hits for average and gets on base but almost never knocks it out of the park. The other would be the guy hitting clean-up who would swing for the fences to try to clear the bases, sometimes doing just that, other times striking out in spectacular fashion. Teams need both kinds of players, and each comes with his own advantages and shortcomings. Safe is good, but not if you think safe is death. Nemec and Jiricek will both be high first-round picks, likely the first and second D-men selected. Nemec was on Slovakia’s Olympic and World Championship teams, while Jiricek represented Czechia at the worlds. Here’s how they stack up in key areas. >…
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