The 2024 NHL Draft is in the books and it’s consistently one of the most difficult drafts to try and parse. A mixture of extreme youth, paired with multi-national scouting, the majority of the players selected on Friday and Saturday won’t see the ice in the NHL for a few years — making it more of an exercise in strengthening a pipeline, rather than build a team directly.
While it can be difficult to evaluate classes immediately following a draft, the best we can do is look at a class based on how well each team did with its draft capital — and based on what scouting services through of these picks prior to the event itself. To this end we had some massive winners in 2024, and some absolute head-scratching picks.
Winner: San Jose Sharks
When you have the No. 1 pick and get the best player you’re going to be a winner by default, but there’s more to what the Sharks did than just Macklin Celebrini. This team got incredible value up and down their draft board, bolstering their defense with Sam Dickinson and nabbing Igor Chernyshov with the No. 33 pick (he was 17th on my big board).
This was a forward-heavy class for the Sharks who are in dire need of scoring. There’s a clear approach here to rebuild the team the right way, and we could very well be looking at this class as a turning point for the franchise that finally brings some teeth back to the shark tank.
Loser: Anaheim Ducks
Things weren’t so great for the Sharks’ northern neighbors, and yes a lot of this has to do with taking Beckett Sennecke with the No. 3 overall pick. It’s not that Sennecke is a bad player — in fact, he could be pretty good. The issue is a complete misunderstanding of draft capital and how to work the board.
Multiple teams wanted to move up into the Top 4 of this class where the elite NHL-ready players were. Not only did the Ducks manage to not take one of these top guys, but they also didn’t move back and get anything for it. When you shock everyone so much that even your top pick is stunned … well, it’s not a great sign.
Across their first three picks the Ducks were a -15 in their pick vs. consolidated rankings, meaning they consistently took players earlier than independent scouting projected. Now, this could mean they were right and everyone else is wrong — but that rarely plays out well.
Winner: Montreal Canadiens
The biggest benefactor of the Ducks going off script were the Canadiens, who got an absolute steal at No. 5 in Ivan Demidov. The No. 1 wing in this class, it wouldn’t have been surprising to see him go at No. 2 if the Blackhawks elected to go offense over defense.
Montreal really needed to find star-power in this class, and they did just that with both Demidov and Michael Hage. The Canadiens might need to wait a little while for Demidov to take the jump, but he’s going to be worth the weight. He’s been dominating the MHL as a true 18-year-old, finishing with 60 points in 30 games. If this can continue in the KHL we’re going to see a monster player in the pipeline who can finally turn this team’s fortunes around.
Winner: Carolina Hurricanes
The Canes consistently find a way to be competitive while also keeping their shelves stocked, and the 2024 NHL Draft was no different. While this will definitely be an offseason with a lot of change in Raleigh with Jake Guentzel set to sign with the Lightning, and Martin Necas being a wild card. Despite this the draft itself was a massive boon for the first test for the organizations since GM Don Waddell left to join the Blue Jackets.
Despite moving back in the draft multiple times, the Hurricanes still managed to be a +24 in their first three picks — getting massive value in their selections vs. consolidated rankings. This was really set up by selecting Nikita Artamonov with the No. 50 pick, despite being the 25th best player in ranking and the No. 29 on my board.
There was very real potential for Artamonov to be a Top 15 pick, and the Canes have the luxury to allow him to develop in Russia until it’s time to bring him over. A do-everything forward with legitimate 2nd line potential, we could see him being a future star.
Loser: TRADE ALERT
Having the NHL Draft in the Las Vegas Sphere made for some of the most incredible images in the history of the event. Unfortunately this also made for abject terror whenever a trade happened during the draft and the Sphere had a massive warning horn and the words “TRADE ALERT.”
It was enough to terrify everyone watching.
it was like aliens were invading with every trade. Please stop TRADE ALERT before it’s too late.