Pre-Draft Lottery 1st Rd. Mock Draft

With 34 days still until the draft lottery and the season SLOWLY winding down, Blackhawks' fans are anxiously dreaming of whom they will be drafting in June. I wanted to give a quick rundown of whom "I" would take in the first round.

To make it fair I simulated the draft lottery 10 times and took the average (rounded) and this was the order of the lottery teams: 1. ANA 2. CHI 3. CBJ 4. SJS 5. MTL, with the rest being in order.

I have watched more NCAA, major junior (CHL), SHL / KHL, and USHL games this year than NHL games it seems. I know that some may see more anomalies on here than some scouts / mocks / expert run downs, however I am (just like most) projecting a prospects floor / ceiling / fit the way that I see it and potentially not that of a fanbase consensus.

1. Anaheim - C/RW Connor Bedard

2. Chicago - C Adam Fantilli

3. Columbus - C Leo Carlsson

4. San Jose - C Nate Danielson

5. Montreal - RW Zach Benson

6. Arizona - RW Matvei Michkov

7. Philadelphia - C Will Smith

8. Vancouver - LW Colby Barlow

9. Washington - C Oliver Moore

10. St. Louis - RW Matthew Wood

11. Detroit - C Dalibor Dvorsky

12. Arizona - RD David Reinbacher

13. Buffalo - RW Ryan Leonard

14. Montreal - RD Axel Sandin-Pellikka

15. Nashville - RD Lukas Dragicevic

16. Calgary - RW Brayden Yager

17. Detroit - LW Andrew Cristall

18. Pittsburgh - C Sam Honzek

19. Winnipeg - C Riley Heidt

20. Seattle - RW Gavin Brindley

21. Chicago - RW Gabe Perreault

22. Minnesota - LD Mikhail Gulyayev

23. New York Rangers - C Quentin Musty

24. Nashville - RW Eduard Sale

25. Columbus - RW Koehn Ziemmer

26. St. Louis - LW Brad Nadeau

27. St. Louis - LD Dimitri Simashev

28. San Jose - C Otto Stenberg

29. Colorado - RW Mathieu Cataford

30. Carolina - RD Oliver Bonk

31. Vegas - LW Danil But

32. Toronto - C Calum Ritchie

When I make a mock, it is important to note that I do not consider a current roster. I believe that is a mistake to take in current needs from an NHL roster perspective. There are 2 reasons; one is that most propsects will take 2-3 years to come up to the NHL level at which point most teams will look different than presently constructed and second being that you should always take the best player available regardless of position or need.

While I understand there are some noteworthy names missing from this 1st round, I assure you this is a deep top 50 prospect pool which thusly will push 1st round talents into the second round this year. It's an exciting time to be a fan of the NHL and of the Blackhawks with so many good talents entering the 2023 NHL Draft, did I draft two players you'd be happy with as a Hawks' fan?