The NHL Draft started off by answering the question that had become very prevalent over the last few weeks: Shane Wright or Juraj Slafkovsky? It seemed Wright was destined for the number-1 pick up until recently, but that's not how Montreal saw it as they took the Slovakian winger at first overall. I have written about this decision a couple times already this week, and our prior Ramblings can be viewed here.

I am not a prospect evaluator so I'll defer to the Habs. All I'll say is this is a franchise-defining moment that they can not get wrong. As a Habs fan, nothing would make me happier than seeing Slafkovsky on an All-Star team in three years. We'll cross our fingers.

The havoc continued as New Jersey, with the second overall pick, took defenceman Simon Nemec. The Devils definitely have a couple great centres but leaving Shane Wright on the board for #3 felt weird. All the same, a big day for Slovakian hockey as they have two players going at the very top of the draft.

Wright's slide continued as Logan Cooley, who seemed a consensus #3, went third overall to Arizona. This is not a knock on Cooley, as he's very highly regarded, but that Wright continued to slide was absolutely the story of the early part of the Draft.

The wait wouldn't continue further as Seattle would take Wright with the #4 pick. It's hard to imagine they thought they'd get him at this point and if he does turn out to be the best player in the draft, this could be a big steal for them. Adding him with Matty Beniers is a great 1-2 punch for the next decade-plus in Seattle. Quite the coup for them if both of those guys reach their ceilings.

Just before the selection of Wright, we had Montreal making a pair of trades that involved picks, sending Alexander Romanov to the New York Islanders, and getting Kirby Dach from Chicago. I had that breakdown here.

Columbus seemed to have themselves a pretty good draft. The Jackets had picks 6 and 12, going with a pair of defencemen in David Jiricek and Denton Mateychuk. Our own Dobber Prospects team had them ranked 6^th and 8^th, respectively, and it seems the Jackets were similarly high on this duo. With Zach Werenski around for a while at the age of 25, Jake Bean at 24, Adam Boqvist going into his age-22 season, and now these two, the blue line is shored up for years to come.   

The biggest slide, according to our Prospects team, was Frank Nazar. He ended up being drafted by Chicago 13^th overall, part of that trade package that they received along with Kirby Dach. He could be a great offensive player for them down the road, and could work out very well for them long-term.

For more coverage, our Dobber Prospects team and our podcasts are sure to be busy over the next week.

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Kris Letang has re-signed with the Pittsburgh Penguins for six years carrying an average annual value of $6.1M:

PENGUIN FOR LIFE!

The Penguins have agreed to terms with defenseman Kris Letang on a six-year, $36.6 million contract extension.

Details: https://t.co/QyYvtPAm3v pic.twitter.com/UeONaY63EN

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) July 7, 2022

This shaves about $1.1M a season off for those in cap leagues, so there are some savings to be had here. Of course, the big issue is signing any player at the age of 35 for six years, particularly one who had significant injury concerns his entire career (or at least up until the last couple seasons). I'll write more in depth on Letang in the next couple weeks once there is a bit less going on, but he should be worth it in the short-term, at least.

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Alexandar Georgiev was traded yesterday from New York to Colorado. I had a write-up about that here.

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There was also a trade between Ottawa and Chicago revolving around Alex DeBrincat heading to the Senators. I also had a breakdown of that trade and it can be found here.

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Minnesota has re-signed goalie Marc-André Fleury to a two-year deal worth $3.5M per season. It gives them a good tandem with Cam Talbot for at least one more year, and Fleury can be a starter for another. That affords prospect Jesper Wallstedt some more time to get his game where it needs to be to at least be an NHL backup a couple years down the road.

Fleury is likely the 1A in a 1A/1B situation with Talbot, though both guys are on the wrong side of 35. An injury or under-performance from either could see the other get a lot of starts in 2022-23.

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There are several big RFA names that are waiting for new contracts. Our own Jamie Molloy went through some of the more notable players in his recent 'Capped' column. We did have two signees of importance in the fantasy game a couple days ago. Let's talk about them.

Jacob Middleton

There aren't many players who raised their stock more in the 2021-22 season that Middleton. Here was a 26-year-old defenceman with 14 career NHL games heading into this campaign that, 66 games later, signs a three-year deal for just under $2.5M a season. A pretty good turn of events for him and if he does well, should be able to sign an even bigger contract a few years down the road.

Middleton was a solid multi-cat performer this year, posting just 14 points in 66 games but also combining for 242 hits+blocks. Skating just 18:41 a night, looking across the league, he was 1 of 11 defencemen to average at least 5.5 hits and 6.0 blocks per 60 minutes (from Natural Stat Trick). If he can play 75-80 games while skating 20 minutes a night, the upside he has for producing peripherals is very obvious.

The problem is that after his trade to Minnesota, he was fifth in TOI per game – under 18 minutes a night – and that was with Matt Dumba injured. We have seen rumblings of Minnesota possibly moving Dumba before, but it's not a done deal until we see Bob McKenzie tweet it. Until then, Middleton could very well be a third-pair guy for the Wild in 2022-23. He could get roughly the same minutes he did to finish last season. It would leave his value roughly the same it was last season.

He could move up to second-pair minutes, however. It isn't as if he needs to beat Norris Trophy candidates to get 20 minutes a night. He just needs to prove himself more valuable than guys like Dmitry Kulikov and Alex Goligoski. Whether it happens or not, we'll see when the season starts. He shouldn't be expensive at the draft table, at any rate. He is also only valuable in multi-cat leagues, as we shouldn't expect much more than 20 points from him in a good season.  

Adam Boqvist

The other guy that signed was Adam Boqvist in Columbus, earning a three-year deal at $2.6M a season. For some reason – maybe it's a sign of how much my sense of time has been screwed up by the last two years – it feels like he's been around forever. The blue liner is only going into his age-22 season, though, with under 130 regular season games to his name.

There have always been high expectations for Boqvist, being drafted eighth overall by Chicago in 2018, as part of what was once a heralded defence prospect pool. He was sent to Columbus in the Seth Jones trade, and posted 11 goals and 22 points across 52 games in his first year with the Jackets. We should point out that he shot a massive 17.2%, which is near-impossible for the vast majority of forwards to repeat, let alone defencemen. He might not reach that mark in 82 games in 2022-23.

Boqvist is an interesting case as far as some tracking stats are concerned. From Corey Sznajder's Patreon (he tracks games manually), here is his player card (in just a 150-minute sample) from 2021-22 in many regards from zone entries/exits, playmaking, zone-entry defence, and more:

The key here is that it doesn't look radically different from the 2021 COVID season back in Chicago. There, his defensive metrics looked much better, but the offence off the rush, the controlled zone entries, his shot rate, and the shot assist stats are all very similar. At this point, he appears to be a blue liner that thrives on rushing the puck (or joining the rush off clean zone exits), and a good playmaker, but very weak in his own end.

Rush offence is what we have to focus on here. From the same data set, here is where Boqvist measures across all defencemen in terms of controlled zone entries per minute and scoring chances created off those entries:

The only defenceman with a higher rate of scoring chances off controlled zone entries in 2021-22 was Thomas Chabot, while the only blue liners with a higher rate of controlled entries were mainly guys we consider elite (Miro Heiskanen, Victor Hedman, Cale Makar, Rasmus Dahlin, Roman Josi). It was an aberration from his last season in Chicago, but he's also just 21 years old (turns 22 in August) so he could just be getting more comfortable with his playmaking as he matures.

To be honest here, I'm not sure what to make of his fantasy value. He looks like he could be on the cusp of being an elite puck-moving defenceman, but the defensive issues persist. He reminds me of a young Shayne Gostisbehere in this sense, and we've seen how wildly Ghost's fantasy value has fluctuated with/without the trust of his coaching staff. There is also the issue of Zach Werenski, who should eat up all the prime power-play minutes. Columbus isn't a top-end offensive team yet and without that PPTOI, it could be hard to produce 40-point seasons on the regular. He may not be in their top-4, either, with all of Werenski, Vladislav Gavrikov, Jake Bean, and Andrew Peeke under contract for 2022-23.

The 21-year-old rearguard has the tools to be a top-end playmaker in this league, but putting all the pieces together is always the key. Unless he's an elite puck-mover like Quinn Hughes or Morgan Rielly, the coaching staff is likely to hesitate on giving him big minutes until he improves defensively. With modest TOI totals and a secondary PP role, big production seasons from Boqvist are still years down the road. Combine that with a lack of hits and blocks, and there's really not much here in the fantasy game.

On the flipside, if he does start putting the pieces together, he could be an excellent secondary puck mover for the Blue Jackets. He is far from a finished product, so he gets a few years of leeway here. There is still dynasty upside, absolutely, but I probably pass on him in one-year leagues, regardless of format.