The Need to Knows
- The Time: 4pm PT
- The Place: NHL Studios in Seacaucus, NY
- Place to Watch: ESPN, SportsNet, TVA-S
The Odds, as they stand
The Kraken have at least a solid shot at a Top 10 pick; with a pretty solid chance to stay roughly where they are, a 15% chance of moving up in the draft…and a near 50% chance of moving down in said draft. But we’re not here to talk about that! There’s a pretty okay chance the Kraken could instead find themselves picking higher than 6th overall, and that’s pretty solid.
The Kraken will also, regardless of result, pick 26th overall; as the Tampa Bay Lightning lost to the Montreal Canadiens in the first round. They got this pick as a result of the Oliver Bjorkstrand trade, which netted them Michael Eyssimont as well as a conditional pick for 2027.
Who do the Draft Prognosticators like at this pick?
The Consolidated Ranking at EliteProspects has Tynan Lawrence at the 6th overall spot; a US Junior player who made a wild leap to play for the Boston University Terriers and appears to be quite a find for them…if they got a full season of him. This is an opinion FloHockey’s Chris Peters shares.
EliteProspects.com‘s own top 32 has defender Xavier Villeneuve from the QMJHL; a point-per-game defender who did lose a portion of his season to injury.
Daily Faceoff‘s Steve Ellis had Center Caleb Malholtra from the OHL at 6th, who picked up 84 points in 67 games.
And yes, if that name rings a bell, he is in fact related to longtime NHLer Manny Malholtra. While a major offensive threat, he also tends to make friends the old fashioned way in hockey; in that he hits like a freight train.
SportsNet’s Sam Cosentino meanwhile has Latvian defender Alberts Smits, who has been playing in the Finnish Liiga, who has made himself a significant name to keep an eye on due to his extremely mature defensive game at the young age of 18.
Of course, we won’t know where the Kraken are picking until it’s done on air. So let’s sit back, grit our teeth, and suffer through ESPN’s coverage of this to build a little hope for this team!