You’ll often hear that a specific player is a building block, someone you can build your team around and who has a future with the team. These players can come from various places: free agency, trades, and, most importantly, the draft. Unlike the National Football League (NFL), where players are sometimes 24 years of age and jump into a starting position in year one, the NHL is unique with prospects being so young.
That’s also why drafting in the NHL can be so tricky. It can be challenging to predict how players will do next season and even beyond that because of their age and the nature of the sport of hockey. Understanding that it’s extremely common for drafted prospects not to pan out. Only 74% of first-round draft picks play in the NHL. Moreover, prospects drafted in the seventh round have a drastically lower number at 11%.
Related: Rise of Utah GM Bill Armstrong: The Quest for a Cup
Sometimes, it’s simply a game of luck. Of course, that doesn’t always apply, as in 2023, when the Chicago Blackhawks selected Connor Bedard, there was little doubt he’d be a bust. So, turning the page to the Utah Hockey Club/Arizona Coyotes, the amateur scouting department has been at it the past few years, drafting in the top ten four consecutive years. Diving even deeper, they’ve drafted 42 players in the past four drafts, which averages out to be a little over ten players, which is an absurd total.
Given the amount of draft capital that general manager Bill Armstrong has accumulated, it makes sense. That all being said, Utah/Arizona have been drafting all these players, and for some, we know they’ll be a vital part of the organization down the line. Look at guys like Josh Doan, Logan Cooley, and Dylan Guenther. So, how has Utah’s scouting department fared so far, and who are some stand-out draft picks?
2021 Saw Multiple Cornerstone Pieces Get Drafted
Entering the 2021 NHL Draft, there was plenty of intrigue and optimism within the Coyotes organization. Armstrong was now at the helm, and he had an array of problems on his desk. First and foremost, the team no longer had a first-round pick because it was forfeited as the result of a penalty due to violations of the NHL Combine Testing Policy under former GM John Chayka. That’s when Armstrong made a franchise-altering trade, wheeling and dealing captain Oliver Ekman-Larsson and fan favorite Conor Garland to the Vancouver Canucks.
This would result in multiple players being sent back, along with the Canucks 2021 first-rounder, which fell at ninth overall. Ultimately, after it was all said and done, Armstrong and the amateur scouting staff returned with plenty of players that Utah fans will hear for the coming seasons. The likes of Guenther, Doan, J.J. Moser, and Sam Lipkin were some of the major highlights.
Considering a player like Moser landed the franchise two-time Stanley Cup champion, Mikhail Sergachev, years later, it was indeed a successful draft. While there are still questions about a guy like Ilya Fedotov, who was taken in the second round, to come out with what they did is a significant win for the scouting staff and Armstrong.
Cooley Highlights a Jam-Packed 2022 NHL Draft
The 2021-22 season wasn’t one to remember for Coyotes fans as the tank was on, and for a large part of the season, the goal was Shane Wright. The Canadian, who was raved about since he was 15, seemed like a no-brainer if he fell to three. That was far from the truth, as the Coyotes took the American Cooley.
As mentioned earlier, picking at three allowed the scouting staff to draft an elite cornerstone player you can build around. It’s not every day a team can pick at three. Given the nature of the situation, Cooley headlined the 2022 NHL Draft for the Coyotes, but the depth taken in all rounds is truly remarkable. With two additional first-round picks, they took Conor Geekie and 6-foot-7 defenseman Maveric Lamoureux.
Following the conclusion of the first round, they also took Artyom Duda, Julian Lutz, Miko Matika, and Maksymilian Szber. All four listed players are expected to play this season in the American Hockey League (AHL) with the Tucson Roadrunners, which should be exciting.
2023 NHL Draft Still Has Plenty of Questions
The Coyotes once again saw themselves with a unique opportunity to draft at six in Nashville at the 2023 NHL Draft. Many analysts and fans agree that this draft class, which contained Bedard, Adam Fantilli, Leo Carlsson, Matvei Michkov, and plenty more, was the most stacked in recent memory.
Acknowledging that the Coyotes had a fantastic opportunity to come away with a true playmaker, the Jakob Chychrun trade gave them the Ottawa Senators first-round pick, which fell at 12. With Michkov on the board at six, the expectation was they’d take him, but they went the opposite way, taking Russian defenseman Dmitri Simashev, and then at 12, his teammate Daniil But.
It’s an understatement to say this was a shock to Coyotes fans and the entire league. No one saw this coming. While there are loads of questions about the two Russians, early results have been positive, so they’ll be worth watching during the 2024-25 season. Given how early we are, there are plenty of question marks for the rest of the draft, but some names that have impressed are, Michael Hrabal, Jonathan Castagna, and Tanner Ludtke.
It’ll be intriguing to see how this draft pans out, especially with the two surprises in the first round that’ll impact the team’s future.
Too Early to Tell With 2024 Class, But Early Results Are Promising
The most recent and maybe even the most significant draft, considering it was the first in Utah’s history, was a wild one. Entering the draft, the expectation out of Utah was defense, defense, defense. With names such as Sam Dickinson, Carter Yakemchuk, and more, there were endless options for how they could go. In the end, Armstrong and the scouting staff kept everyone guessing, drafting Tij Iginla, son of Calgary Flames legend Jarome Iginla.
It was a full circle moment, and Tij has high expectations after being taken sixth overall, but he’s overcome every challenge he’s faced thus far. Utah also traded with the New York Rangers, which involved multiple draft assets, moving up to take Cole Beaudoin in the latter half of the first round. While we don’t know what these two will look like in five years or even two, they have high hopes of adding lots of scoring to the offense.
Second-rounder Will Skahan was also an intriguing player drafted, who could someday see a role as a fifth or sixth defenseman. While they made 11 selections in total, we won’t have a solid idea of what kind of players they’ll become until a couple of years down the line. That being said, the 2024 NHL Draft for Utah has lots of upside and potential, but it’s simply too early to tell whether they hit on some of these prospects.
Utah Has One of the Top Prospect Pools in the NHL
Even with the aftermath of the blockbuster Sergachev-Geekie trade, Utah has one of the best prospect pools in the NHL. The amount of draft capital Armstrong acquired helped the scouting staff go at it and take some risks and gamble on some players. Of course, not every player will pan out, but having a handful make it and become impactful to the NHL team is what will be the scouting staff’s deciding factor in how their jobs are viewed in the next couple of years. Nonetheless, it’s an exciting time to be a Utah fan, and Oct. 8 couldn’t come sooner against the Blackhawks.
