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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.
CAROLINA HURRICANES
CAROLINA’S TENDENCIES will get tested this summer, as the Hurricanes have mined Russia for a lot of draft picks in previous classes. Will they roll the dice again, given current circumstances? They’ve also had success with Finns over the years, so perhaps that’s a safer path. GM Don Waddell has often given his scouts plenty to work with, snagging extra picks even as the team contends. Though the Canes don’t have a first-rounder, they do have eight picks overall. IMMEDIATE NEEDS: The Canes have veteran netminding in Frederik Andersen and Antti Raanta, and both have a lot of miles on the odometer. If one goes down, Carolina needs someone else to step up, since this is a team firmly in its Cup window. Is it too soon for 22-year-old Pyotr Kochetkov? LONG-TERM…
TOP 100 PROSPECTS: 45-48
45. FILIP BYSTEDT BORN Feb. 4, 2004, Linkoping, Swe. 2021-22 Linkoping Jr. POS C HT 6-4 WT 187 SHOOTS L CENTRAL SCOUTING No. 17 (Euro skaters) ALTHOUGH HE PLAYED center for his Linkoping junior team for most of this season, a good number of scouts think Bystedt is better suited to be a winger at the NHL level. If he stays in the middle, it would likely be as a third-line center, “but a good one,” said one scout, “because he’s got size and he can skate.” Linkoping did move Bystedt to the left side toward the end of the season, and scouts liked what they saw from him after the move. He also played 15 games this year with the men’s team, but like so many other teenagers in the Swedish League, Bystedt saw limited…
TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS
EVEN THOUGH THEY managed to keep their first-round pick, the Leafs lost almost all their others in 2022. They enter this year’s draft with only two of their own picks, their first- and seventh-rounders, along with a third-rounder from Winnipeg. And while the Leafs have hit a series of definitive home runs with their high picks, they’ve also managed to find some good prospects outside the first round in recent years. In fact, three of their top four prospects were drafted in the second and third rounds. IMMEDIATE NEEDS: The biggest priority is to figure out the goaltending position, something that has flummoxed the organization for years. Jack Campbell is a UFA, but after a dominating start to the season, the Leafs still aren’t completely sure what they have in him.…
BEHIND THE MASK
VILLE HUSSO >ST. LOUIS BLUES COLTON PARAYKO: DEFENSEMAN, ALTERNATE captain and…mask designer? Blues goaltender Ville Husso asked his teamates to help him in the creation of a new lid, and Parayko took a distinct “more is more” approach. Included in the design, which was brought to life by DaveArt’s David Gunnarsson, are Blues mascot Louie, a fierce ode to the MLB’s Cardinals, the St. Louis skyline and a pair of trumpets framing the cage.…
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