Going into my first ever Entry Draft I felt both excited and apprehensive.
(Having played OOTP for several years and somewhere in the vicinity of 5,000 hours, the annual amateur draft is one of my favorite things in the game. But I also 1)have played OOTP long enough to have a pretty good sense of how these things work, and 2) understand the logic of an MLB draft far better than I do an NHL draft.)
The very first pick of the draft went to the Chicago Blackhawks, who moved up in the lottery after finishing in 5th place in the Central with a record of 33-36-13 for 79 points. They chose Center Santa Salh from the Guelph Storm in the OHL. The offensively gifted Salh played in 76 games for Chicago, who improved to an NHL-best 61-16-5, 127 points in 2021-2022, only to fall to the St. Louis Blues in a 7-game heartbreaker in the first round of the playoffs. Salh played in 76 games this season for Chicago, collecting 22 goals to add to 23 assists with a +12 goal difference and an average game rating of 65. An impressive enough start for the youngster though not exactly setting the world on fire. Although Salh has the potential to be a great player there are indications that he will be very injury prone, although obviously that didn't show up in his rookie season.
With the 23rd pick of the first round we drafted our very first player ever and it was 18-year old Center (I'm sure he spells it Centre)
Clark St. Croix from the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies in the QMJHL. St. Croix profiles as a 2-way forward with good shooting accuracy, excellent stamina, strong faceoff skills as well as an advanced defensive read ability, and he is a strong team player. When drafted he was seen as a 1-star player with 5-star potential.
Our second round pick was Defenceman (nearly equal skills on either side of the ice)
Craig Woodard, a Phoenix, Arizona native who was playing for the Oshawa Generals of the Ontario Hockey League. Woodard is considered an offensive defenceman with tremendous shooting range and good offensive read abilities as well as good passing skills. On defense his positioning and stickchecking are his greatest strengths.
With our 3rd pick we took a chance on a young Goalie named
J.T. Soronzonbold. He profiles as a standard Goalie who is a bit on the short (5'11") and stocky (206 lbs) side.
Soronzonbold's stamina is good and he has good reflexes and handles rebound situations well but still needs a lot of development before he will be near NHL-ready. Our scouting staff does see him as being good under pressure, so that's a plus.
With our next 2 picks we got a couple of defensive defencemen in
Gerald Murray and
Adam Martizes.
Murray has good positioning and shot blocking skills and his best physical trait is his acceleration on the ice. His shooting range and puckhandling are also strengths.
Martizes is a strong checking defenceman and has excellent stamina but needs a great deal of improvement in most areas and his mental ratings are not great.
Center
Matt Christian, our 6th round pick, also plays for the OHL's Oshawa Generals and he collected 49 points in 59 games with them this past season.
Christian's strength is his shooting accuracy but he is also a good puckhandler.
And finally, the Avs chose another defenceman in
Ash Naurato from the QMJHL. He profiles as a 2-way defenceman who plays well under pressure but at this point the consensus is that his ceiling is that of a fringe player in the NHL.
While how we really did won't be apparent for at least a few years, the initial reviews were not good, as we were considered to be among the three teams who had the worst drafts. And certainly our first two picks, in particular, were chosen by us earlier than they were expected to be taken.
On the other hand, both
St. Croix and
Woodard (the only two of the players drafted who have been signed to contracts by the Avs thus far) not only played well for the Colorado Eagles in the AHL this season but also ended up on the Avs active roster, where they remain for the playoffs.
St. Croix played 56 games as an Av this year, scoring 11 goals with 6 assists, was +7 with an average game rating of 61.
Woodard played in just 14 games but had 4 assists (no goals), was +11, and had an average game rating of 62.
So while it's not like either took the league by storm, they both held their own in the first taste of NHL play at age 18 and are both now considered 1.5 star players with 4.5 star potential.