With just two games left in the Memorial Cup tournament, every major junior league has finished its postseason and crowned its new champions. As for the prospects up for the 2024 NHL Entry Draft, that means that there isn’t any time left to impact their rankings.
Yet, for a select few, they showed off their skills until the very last minute and squeezed every last moment for a chance to improve where they fall on draft day. Of course, some succeeded at that much more than others, so here are eight names to watch for at the draft who could jump up above their projections.
Zeev Buium, Defenseman, University of Denver (NCAA)
The NCAA Frozen Four is an incredibly quick tournament. It’s single elimination and only has four rounds, so it can be difficult to stand out, especially if your team is eliminated early. It’s also not a great place for draft-eligible players, as few 18-year-olds play big roles on college teams if they make them at all. So, the fact Zeev Buium played such a prominent role for Denver all season long is a testament to why he was so highly ranked. He’s a fantastic offensive-minded defenceman and was named the NCHC Rookie of the Year, Best Offensive Defenceman, and made the conference’s First All-Star Team.
But in the Frozen Four, Buium emerged as a top defensive presence, too. He was one of Denver’s best d-men in all four games, recording two assists, three shots, and 6 blocked shots. He played all ends of the ice, and although he wasn’t as offensively impressive as Boston University’s Macklin Celebrini, Buium proved he wasn’t just a one-trick pony. Better yet, despite being a left-shot defenceman, he played on the right side all tournament, which will convince some NHL teams to consider him before riskier right-shot picks like Zayne Parekh and Carter Yakemchuk.
Mac Swanson, Center, Fargo Force (USHL)
While only a select few of the nation’s top prospects go straight to the NCAA in their draft year, most play in the United States Hockey League for a few seasons first, which has emerged as a top developmental league for players all over North America and Europe. First-round hopefuls like Michael Hage, Trevor Connelly, and Sacha Boisvert made big strides there this season before committing to a university for 2024-25.
In the playoffs, however, no one looked better than 5-foot-7 Mac Swanson, who dominated the scoring charts with the Fargo Force. In 12 games, he finished with five goals and 17 points, giving him a seven-point lead on the next-highest scorer and an eight-point lead on the next closest teammate. With him at the forefront, the Force took home the Clark Cup for the first time in six years. His teammate, Cole Knuble, called him “the best passer he has ever played with.” He’s ranked 152nd by NHL Central Scouting among North American skaters, but he may have turned a few heads after showcasing his dominant offensive abilities.
Stian Solberg, Defenseman, Vålerenga (Norway)
Stian Solberg has been on the 2024 draft radar for some time thanks to his old-school, hard-hitting style but he wasn’t ever considered more than a fringe first-round pick. Although he finished his season in Norway’s top hockey league with five goals and 15 points, he plays almost an entirely defensive game, using his size and physicality to ensure that no one can get by him if he’s in the defensive end. And he’s good at it, too; when one-on-one with an opponent, there weren’t too many times he lost. That made him a safe second-round pick with bottom-four NHL potential.
Related: THW’s 2024 NHL Draft Guide
Then came the 2024 World Championship. Scouts were already familiar with what he could do against his own age group after watching him at the World Juniors, but against men, he was just as effective. He threw big hits, scored big goals, and was a top-pairing defender for his country as they beat Denmark and Great Britain and went toe-to-toe with Czechia, Canada, and Switzerland. Now, scouts are talking about him as a sure-fire first-rounder, with some putting him within the lottery picks. He still lacks NHL-level offensive skills, but he does have some, and that combination of a booming shot and nasty physicality will be tough to pass up.
Justin Poirier, Right Wing, Baie-Comeau Drakkar (QMJHL)
There’s a chance the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League may not have a first-round pick in the 2024 Draft, making it the first time that the league has been unaccounted for on day one in back-to-back years. The few players who had the best shot — Maxim Masse, Spencer Gill, and Raoul Boilard — didn’t have fantastic playoff showings, which further hurt their chances of being early picks. However, Justin Poirier, who never was considered a first-round pick, may now be the front-runner.
Poirier was generally overlooked due to his diminutive 5-foot-8 frame, leaving him a third-round pick on most draft lists, but after the QMJHL playoffs, there’s no question that he’s one of the best goalscorers in the entire league. First of all, he scored 51 goals in the regular season, the highest total by an 18-year-old since Sidney Crosby. Then, in the playoffs, he scored another 18 goals in 17 games, the highest total of any player. His 27 points also led the playoffs and helped the Drakkar get to the Final against the Drummondville Voltigeurs, where they lost in four games. His shot is powerful and accurate and is arguably one of the best pure snipers available in the draft, just behind Cole Eiserman. That alone will cause him to jump up at least a round from his initial projections.
Beckett Sennecke, Right Wing, Oshawa Generals (OHL)
Beckett Sennecke had a fine regular season. In 63 games, the winger put up 27 goals and 67 points, placing him eighth among first-year draft-eligible players in the Ontario Hockey League. Scouts loved his combination of size and skill, with some calling him one of the best playmakers in the 2024 Draft, but he didn’t engage physically enough and tended to chase the puck a bit too much. Still, there were flashes of high-end offensive potential that made him an easy first-round pick.
Then came the 2024 OHL playoffs, and suddenly, Sennecke wasn’t just showing flashes of high-end offensive potential. He was a primary play driver, making things consistently happen around him. In 16 games, he finished with 10 goals and 22 points, putting him among the most productive players in the league. But he also began to show a more well-rounded game, finishing with 21 penalty minutes, the 10th highest total in the playoffs, and a plus-9 rating, which led the Generals. Scouts were hopeful he could emerge as a power forward, and now he might be closer than ever, prompting more than a few rankings to push him up into the top-15.
Sam O’Reilly, Right Wing, London Knights (OHL)
If someone asked you about the best players on the London Knights during the 2023-24 season, chances are you’d need to get through 10 names before you mentioned Sam O’Reilly. It’s not that he had a bad season, as his 20 goals and 56 points in 68 games finished third in rookie scoring in the OHL. But his impact was always more subtle; he plays a solid two-way game that didn’t stand out among the likes of Easton Cowan, Sam Dickinson, Denver Barkey, and Oliver Bonk. That’s the problem of being a decent player on the Knights – there will always be someone better.
But the Memorial Cup tournament has been a bit of a different story. Rather than fading into the background, O’Reilly has emerged as a top scorer for the Knights, putting up a goal and four points in three games. That’s the same point total as both Barkey, Bonk, and Kasper Halttunen, putting him with some very talented company. Now, his 200-foot game is getting much more attention and is a big reason why London is undefeated in the tournament, which might make some teams consider him a late first-round pick.
Tij Iginla, Center, Kelowna Rockets (WHL)
No one has had quite the rise Tij Iginla has had this year. At the beginning of the season, he was an afterthought for the first round; now, some consider him a guaranteed top-five pick. A lot of that change is thanks to a very strong finish to his season, both in the playoffs and the U18s.
The Kelowna Rockets didn’t stick around in the playoffs for very long, but Iginla was still the team’s most important player. In 11 games, he scored nine goals and 15 points, tying Andrew Cristall for the team’s highest scorer while finishing sixth in goals despite getting eliminated in the second round. He then joined the Canadians at the U18 World Junior Championship, where he finished second with six goals and third with 12 points in seven games as Canada went on to claim the gold. While he may not be a true power forward like his dad, he might be a better scorer than him, and blended with a high motor, he will be taken off the board much earlier than initially expected.
Cole Hutson, Defenseman, U.S. U18 Team (United States National Team Development Program)
Cole Hutson has long been on the 2024 Draft radar thanks to his older brother’s — the Montreal Canadiens’ prospect Lane Huston’s — success. Initially considered a fringe first-round pick, he didn’t showcase the same offensive dominance his brother did in his draft year, which pushed him down somewhere into the second or third. His totals weren’t bad at all, scoring 51 points in 51 games for the U18 USNTDP, but Lane had 63 points in 60 games. Clearly, Lane was the better player and if he was considered a late-first-round pick in 2022, then Cole shouldn’t be ranked above him.
After the U18 World Junior Championships, though, I don’t think those assumptions hold up. Hutson was one of the best defencemen at the tournament, scoring four goals and 13 points in seven games, the fourth-best total from anyone competing. When his brother was there in 2022, he had just eight points in six games. Add in the fact that Cole is two inches taller than his brother was in his draft year and plays a more complete game and now more than a few scouts have started to come around on Cole being a first-round pick.
The Best of the Rest
There are, of course, several other players who could join these eight as potential risers on draft day. However, for one reason or another, I left them out of the top eight. Ruslan Gazizov, Dalyn Wakely, Ondrej Becher, Matyas Melovsky, and Peter Repcik have all done incredibly well in the playoffs and year-end tournaments, but being that they’re over-age prospects, they have been getting more opportunities to thrive. While I still think that they’ll still be solid selections, I don’t see them making a huge jump at the draft, since their production is more so expected for their age.
Then there’s Ivan Demidov, Cole Eiserman, Sam Dickinson, Zayne Parekh, Michael Hage, and Terik Parascak, who also had strong playoff performances, but I don’t think they took their game to another level from the regular season. They were consistently dominant, which means they would probably go where they were expected to go.
Finally, there’s the group that just missed the cut, such as Yegor Surin, Luke Mistelbacher, Chase Wutzke, Tarin Smith, Evan Gardner, Justin Gendron, Alexis Bernier, Lucas Ellinas, Kaden Shahan, and Xavier Veilleux, who all played above their regular season showings, but just weren’t as impactful as some of the others I found. Also, with them being lower-ranked prospects, they were always going to have a tougher time catching scouts’ eyes, so if their performance wasn’t astounding, it unfortunately might not move the dial all that much.
But, regardless of how much we want it to be, drafting teenagers is an inexact science. Every year, there’s one or two players who seemingly come out of nowhere and end up becoming a high pick. Could one of the players listed here be that prospect in 2024, or is there another name that you’ll be watching on draft day? Leave your thoughts down in the comments!
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