NHL Draft Best Bets: Teams Start Draft Tonight for Future Stars

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00:00Oh, yeah. Hour number two. We're getting down to the basics in every single sport.

00:03You thought hockey season was done and we weren't going to talk hockey anymore.

00:07You were wrong. It's hot outside. Let's keep it cold in the studio.

00:11It's your boy, Donnie Wrightside, along with Joe Ranieri and a host of the Pro Baseball Today Show on Sunday.

00:16I can't remember the other guy that's with him, but here's Tom Vecchio.

00:19He's up on deck today on TEL. What's good, Tom?

00:22I'm good to be here. Here on a Friday, we have the NHL draft tonight.

00:26Things are kind of similar as the way we should see things shake out compared to what we just saw with the NBA.

00:33We know who's going first. We probably know who's going second.

00:35After that, that's where things get interesting.

00:38We're going to have some fun, Tom.

00:40And again, the NHL season just ended.

00:42Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers here. Team Cummins in second place.

00:45That's the Oilers for two straight years.

00:47Question marks on the future with some superstars here.

00:49But the superstars do begin today.

00:52So before we get into the players themselves, you see the draft positioning here.

00:55The Islanders with the number one overall pick followed by the Sharks, Blackhawks, Mammoth, Predators, Flyers, Bruins, Kraken, Sabres, and Ducks.

01:03Heading into the draft, like the chatter around, any moves on trading draft picks here or how the actual ping pong balls fell?

01:10Was it a surprise, Tom, that the Islanders got the number one overall pick?

01:13Was that an upset?

01:14What happened here in the top 10 so far to get this draft positioning?

01:18Yeah, so the Islanders did not have one of the best odds.

01:20They were 3.5% super low.

01:22It's, again, kind of similar to what we saw with Dallas winning, like super low.

01:26They were in the lottery.

01:27And again, you know, a low percentage, sub 5% is not zero.

01:30Like a lot of people think, oh, you have a 1% chance.

01:32You know, I would relate this to people who play poker.

01:34Like if you play poker, you know that 1% is not zero.

01:37You still have a chance to be in the mix.

01:39So they got it.

01:40They will be taking Matthew Schaefer, the number one pick, coming into the draft season.

01:45A lot of people are expecting James Higgins from Boston College to be the number one pick.

01:48And Higgins now is expected to go 5th, 6th, 7th.

01:51So things have changed significantly.

01:53Schaefer, defenseman, going number one to the Isles.

01:55That is set in stone.

01:56So why is everyone talking about James Higgins and being a lifelong Islander fan and there

02:05with some questions as far as did the Islanders mortgage everything else to move up and get

02:12like, what is the deal with him?

02:14And if Schaefer is that much of a lock, why are so many people hell bent on James Higgins

02:19going to the Islanders?

02:20So there's some rumors that the Islanders are trying to trade back into the top 10 with,

02:25you know, some combination to get a second pick to then take James Higgins.

02:28And he had a great season at BC, played a line with Ryan Leonard and Gabe Perreault, who

02:32are both now NHLers for the Capitals and the Rangers, respectively.

02:35He won a gold medal with Team USA at the World Junior.

02:38So he is a good player.

02:40He's a little, he's a little small.

02:41And that's kind of the thing where we could be seeing some of these other players go ahead

02:44of him just because it's like the same thing in the NFL or the NBA.

02:48Like NHL GMs prefer a center who's 6'1", 6'2", compared to a guy who's 5'10".

02:52And although he has some comps with a Jack Hughes, it's like, what's been the issue with

02:57Jack Hughes or a Mitch Marner?

02:59It's like, they're a little bit small.

03:00They're a little bit small and teams just prefer the bigger body players.

03:04We take a look here at the FanDuel Sportsbook because we do have odds up here on the draft

03:08tonight.

03:08And they are moving here.

03:09And rightfully so, it's what you get on draft day.

03:11Number two, Michael Misa listed here on the graphic at a minus 160 price to go number two

03:16overall.

03:17He's been updated here, Tom, to a minus 220 now.

03:20If you are a betting man, which you are, who do you think goes number two in the NHL

03:24draft today?

03:25It's probably Misa.

03:26This is why I said it's similar to the NBA.

03:28Like, we know it's going number one.

03:30Number two, it's like, eh, he's probably going there.

03:32The odds aren't as heavy as we saw for Dylan Harper going to the Spurs.

03:35But like, he should be going there.

03:37This is where it gets interesting at 3-4.

03:39Anton Frondell should be going to the Blackhawks.

03:42And again, there were conversations of, do they like someone like James Higgins?

03:45But again, they need a bigger body to play alongside Conor McDiard.

03:49So, the odds would suggest that he's going there.

03:513-4-5.

03:53Caleb Denoyer should be going fourth and minus 150 last time that I saw fourth overall.

03:59Porter Mertone at plus 170 is the betting favorite to go fifth.

04:02That's where I think he should be going.

04:03That's probably the best spot to have your first bet of the NHL draft.

04:07So, where are the surprises here, Tom?

04:13What do you think is going to happen?

04:14If we know the top, Schaefer and Mesa, let's say, any kind, you know, that's going to be

04:19your top two.

04:20Where does the, oh my, I can't believe this happened, where does that come in?

04:26I think it starts with James Higgins.

04:28And I like him over six and a half draft position.

04:31Over six and a half, it was plus 102 yesterday.

04:33It's up to minus 132.

04:35The issue is at 5-6 when we're looking at the Flyers potentially picking at 6, the Predators

04:41picking at 5.

04:42Roger McQueen, who could be taking in that spot, 5-6-7 between Higgins, Brady, Martin,

04:47and Roger McQueen.

04:48Roger McQueen had some back issues, a back injury.

04:51And again, he has that bigger body that the Flyers would prefer because Mitch Koff is a

04:54little bit smaller.

04:55But again, what are we dealing with?

04:57The size versus the back issue versus the overall skill.

05:00You need someone to compliment Mitch Koff.

05:02And I really do think that would be either Brady, Martin, if he's available, or Roger McQueen.

05:07So I will take Higgins falling despite being the presumptive number one pick coming into

05:10the season.

05:11I think he falls to 7 or 8.

05:13Yeah, we'll get to some of those prop bets for Tom in just a little bit here.

05:16But again, most people that I'm hearing from all throughout the NHL, like we get Pete come

05:20on here, you know, a couple other guys as well.

05:22And it's like, you know what?

05:23The draft really starts at number six.

05:26And that's what the Philadelphia Flyers, like nobody cares 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5.

05:29The Flyers are the epicenter of this draft.

05:31If I ask you right now, who are the Flyers going to pick tonight?

05:35Give me a name or two and who those type of players are for me.

05:39So this year is like defined.

05:42It's like the year of the center.

05:43There's so many centers and it's really good.

05:45Not a whole lot of wings.

05:46It's like centers and Ds as we see generally teams that's where they like to focus.

05:50So push comes to shove.

05:51I think it's going to be Brady, Martin for the Flyers or Roger McQueen.

05:55It's going to be that combination of Predators taking one of them.

05:58The Flyers will take the other.

06:00That's where James Higgins drops.

06:01Porter Matone, I think, could jump up into that mix if a team wants to value a winger.

06:06I don't think that would necessarily happen.

06:07And we're not going to see too many goalies near the top as we never often see them go that high.

06:14So how does it work with the NHL draft, Tom?

06:17Because we, you know, we saw in the NBA, anybody who passed the first round and the sixth is like,

06:24you know, okay.

06:24Like, how deep is this draft?

06:28It's okay overall.

06:29The thing that we see often is like a player that's projected to go like 8, 9, 10.

06:34Sometimes he falls into the later teens or early 20s because let's say he's a winger

06:38and everyone's prioritizing centers and defense.

06:41Just because from a skill perspective, he's ranked the 8th, 9th, 10th best player.

06:46If teams have positional needs, they will not draft him.

06:48It's like, we just got to take a center.

06:50Even though he's the 10th best center, the 10th best player overall, we will pass on a guy who's 7th

06:54just because we have positional needs.

06:55So Higgins could be that guy dropping to 8, 9, 10.

06:58That's what I really think is going to happen.

07:01You know what I want to happen tonight, gentlemen?

07:03I want to watch the New York Rangers draft pick have a Flyers jersey on tonight

07:07because there was a trade, but you can't announce it and have the guy in the Flyers jersey up there

07:12take pictures with the Rangers general manager and ownership group.

07:15That would be fantastic, but it won't happen because it's not the stupid NBA.

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