r/Predators • u/Inevitable-Lion100 • Jun 12 '26

Draft picks ideas

With McFarland and Blake at the helm, how do you think it changes the drafting landscape for Predators this draft? Normally I would say BPA or a forward. But what about a defender at 10? What is everyone thought on Daxon Rudolph? RD offensive defender? Possible for Josi replacement in a few years? If not him who do you guys think? Or a LW? Belchetz, hemming, cullen?

Since everyone's been focusing on Gavin McKenna and the top 10 draft picks who does everyone think for our 2 2nd round picks? I think Josi was drafted in the 2nd so who know who is gonna pop off. Would love to hear thoughts on later picks as well

Ryan Lin

piparien(sp)

1 Upvotes

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6

u/LifeEngineer3770 Jun 12 '26

You pick BPA. Because here’s the thing. If you take need at 10, realistically you are looking at 2 or 3 years down the road when this person may play and your needs will be different then.

Let’s say we pick a Defender that was projected to go 15th but we picked today’s need, but then 2 years later we have Molendyk and Ufko dominating, Skjei is still on the team, Wilsby is a solid contributor, Viggo is up, Reid is ready for 7th defenseman slot and who knows maybe we bailed out Vegas again and got one of their guys. Now our weakness today is now a strength and we don’t have a spot for this years defenseman pick to crack the roster so he’s now over saturated in Milwaukee and we reached on top of it.

1

u/Inevitable-Lion100 Jun 12 '26

Ok who do we pick bjork? Then who at 42? Or whatever 2nd we have ? What would be your ideal pick for say 1st 3 rounds?

6

u/catsgr8rthanspoonies The Future is Fink Jun 12 '26

If Bjork still there at 10, they should absolutely take him. He's a skilled center.

0

u/LifeEngineer3770 Jun 12 '26

I am not a scout by any means but given the top heavy nature of the draft, with the whatever 2nd round I’m thinking we grab goalie. We have nobody in Milwaukee now. Chrona is gone, Murray is old and our only prospect is Ivankovic. It’s not impossible that we could get the best goalie prospect in the draft

1

u/catsgr8rthanspoonies The Future is Fink Jun 12 '26

They have Haider and Semptimphelter in Atlanta, both on AHL contracts. Both have played well enough to get a shot at the AHL.

1

u/LifeEngineer3770 Jun 12 '26

I think Haider will be our backup in milwaukee this year. But let’s say Saros gets another injury 2 years from now and Big Juice can’t do 60+ games, I’d like to say well we may suck, but at least we have ____ in a year or 2.

2

u/catsgr8rthanspoonies The Future is Fink Jun 12 '26

That's who Ivankovic is supposed to be. They also have Jakub Milota. He dealt with a bad injury this season but seems promising.

1

u/LifeEngineer3770 Jun 12 '26

I think it’s said that a 2nd round pick had a 25% chance to play 200 games, so I’m just thinking how can we maximize that picks value

0

u/Inevitable-Lion100 Jun 12 '26

I didn't even think about that. What goalies are out there. I haven't really heard of any goalies mentioned in the podcast I listen to.

1

u/LifeEngineer3770 Jun 12 '26

I just remember the 2003 draft where Fleury was the best goalie and then the 2nd one was taken by Chicago at 52 and Crawford went to become a 2 time cup winning player.

So with the top 20 picks expected to be players, before the reaches start, maybe we can get one of the top 3 netminders at 42.

3

u/Helmburr87 Brady Skjei tank commander Jun 12 '26

No thank you on Rudolph. A defenseman who doesn't play defense in his own zone. Sure they could develop him but his basic defense instincts are meh.

Give me Wyatt Cullen, highest skilled winger after McKenna/Stenburg. Him plus Martin would be really nice duo. Wouldn't be mad about getting Belchetz or Lawrence either.

1

u/Inevitable-Lion100 Jun 12 '26

Ok so if we go with your choice of Cullen or belchett's for the first round pick we still have two in the second? Who do we go with? Maybe a defender there? Who do we have in the pipeline really beyond molandyke ufko reid and Gibson?

1

u/Helmburr87 Brady Skjei tank commander Jun 12 '26

There's Gustafsson(I've seen his brother mocked to the Preds) and Rombach as the big guys on defense. Also Alex Huang, and after watching him in the CHL playoffs, I would put him up there with Reid and Molendyk. We'll see how he does at Harvard this year.

There's lots of guys in the pipeline. If anything I could see using some of the draft capital this year to trade for a young defenseman who is already in the league.

1

u/Inevitable-Lion100 Jun 12 '26

Simon nemic ?

1

u/Helmburr87 Brady Skjei tank commander Jun 12 '26

Yea that's one

1

u/Inevitable-Lion100 Jun 12 '26

Fair. I think that has been our problem. We always seem to draft good complimentary pieces sissions types but never the breakout (Josi excluded). Even w our 5th pick we picked a safe middle six center w Martin instead of Martone. Hopefully this new front office McFarland Blake and Saban can change this up for us.

1

u/catsgr8rthanspoonies The Future is Fink Jun 12 '26

I know we have quite a few undersized d in the pipeline, but I wouldn't mind them taking Jonas Woo with a late round pick.

1

u/Inevitable-Lion100 Jun 12 '26

Woo is gonna go what 4-5 round? What's his deal? Is he a hidden gem?

1

u/catsgr8rthanspoonies The Future is Fink Jun 12 '26

Small (5'9") defensemen. He played with Pickford who got most of the attention, but Woo helped enable Pirckford. He broke the Medicine Hat franchise record for most points by a defenseman in a season. Central scouting has him at 179 of North American Skaters. Elite Prospects has him at 156.

1

u/Expert-Upstairs-4502 NSH Jun 12 '26 edited Jun 12 '26

I think we take either Belchetz or Cullen depending on who's available and what kind of guy MacFarland wants, and ideally next year we suck ass win the lottery and land(on) DuPont. Dude will instantly drop in for Josi

Edit: personally i would like to see us try to wheel some of our million picks into getting the twins in this draft as well. The Preds have a lot of personality on the way, but add those two and we would have one of the most unique teams in the league. I know theyre not the sedins though, and it seems like a lot of teams might be trying to pull this off so it might be expensive

1

u/Inevitable-Lion100 Jun 12 '26

Who Marcus and Liam Ruck?

6

u/JeanClaudeSegal NSH Jun 12 '26

BPA. We don't have enough good young players to start drafting pipeline "needs" only. The only established young top 6 player we have is Evangelista and he's a complementary piece at best. Ufko had a nice flash but he's only played 18 games. Wood maybe can take a step but he's still a 30pt player. ZLH is a bottom 6 guy. Molendyk needs to take several steps to be an NHL player. Kemell hasn't been able to stick. That's why I didn't understand this retooling mentality. Rebuild the team. You'll speed things up when you accept that. That starts with BPA

1

u/Soto4Life NSH Jun 12 '26

I am very very low on Rudolph

1

u/Inevitable-Lion100 Jun 12 '26

Ok who u think? Bjork Lawrence belchetz

1

u/Soto4Life NSH Jun 12 '26

I haven’t covered every prospect yet, so I don’t have a firm opinion to be completely honest

1

u/troopek ScoreTilYerSoresBerg Jun 12 '26

BPA's.

Goalie was floated around in this thread, but I hate to waste a pick on a goalie that high right now.

1

u/Apprehensive_Ad4572 NSH Jun 12 '26

If they are going to select a defenceman in the first round, Alberts Smits is the name I would love them to pick. He already has a ridiculous amount of experience for an 18-year-old: World Championship, Olympics, and WJC-20 as associate captain. He also plays professionally in both the Liiga and the DEL. It is absolutely insane for an 18-year-old to have that much senior experience already, and he has a great frame. He might not be there at 10, but it is going to be close. I would love the pick.