NEWSLETTER
Late last week, Corey Pronman (The Athletic) dropped a complete, 7-round 2022 NHL mock draft. Which, first of all, wow. It’s a fantastic undertaking to try to predict just ONE round of 32 picks, much less the entire draft from start to finish. So, I’m sending much respect to Corey for one helluvan effort on this one! Do yourself a favor, and click over for the full experience.
In the meantime, Pronman’s mock has a few names that caught our eye.
Here’s the list of who Pronman has heading to Chicago:
38. Elias Salomonsson, RHD
6-1, 183
2022-23 Team: Skellefteå AIK (SHL)
57. Seamus Casey, RHD
5-10, 172
2022-23 Team: University of Michigan
81. Josh Filmon, LW
6-2, 159
2021-22 Team: Swift Current (WHL)
90. Alexander Suzdalev, LW
6-2, 187
2021-22 Team: HV71 (HockeyAllsvenskan)
94. Hunter Haight, C
5-10, 174
2021-22 Team: Barrie (OHL)
167. Chase Coward, G
6-2, 163
2021-22 Team: Red Deer (WHL)
173. Ruslan Gazizov, LW
5-11, 187
2021-22 Team: London (OHL)
199. Liam Steele, RHD
6-6, 218
2022-23 Team: Chilliwack (BCHL)
Our Thoughts
It fascinates me that there we’ve seen a limited number of mock drafts go deep enough to include a second round (much less all seven!) and we’ve now seen a few with the Blackhawks going defense with their first and/or second pick. We’ve joked about it since the Blackhawks’ season ended, but the surplus on the blue line would figure to indicate the Hawks need to move bodies off the blue line…
But a new front office may still be in evaluation mode with some of the picks made by the previous regime, and we wouldn’t fault them for going best available player on their board through the entire process this year (and next year for that matter).
Filmon is an interesting name to start the forward selections. He scored 23 goals in 67 games in the WHL last year. Haight scored 22 goals in 63 games in the OHL last year as well. There’s a nice mix of size and scoring with the forwards Pronman has coming to Chicago.
Overall, nothing about this list really makes me want to buy futures on the Blackhawks. But that’s entirely possible in a draft class with lots of questions and no first round pick. And the new front office has said they’re committed to taking their time developing prospects, so projects are clearly not out of the question this week.
