Jets expect elite talent to be available with 18th pick

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 28/06/2023 (860 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

THE Winnipeg Jets are very much focused on the present, especially after swinging the huge Pierre-Luc Dubois trade on Tuesday and having several other irons in the proverbial fire.

But the future will be front and centre for a few hours on Wednesday night and Thursday as the annual NHL draft goes down in Nashville.

Mark Hillier, the team’s director of amateur scouting, believes the Jets are going to get a highly-skilled prospect with their 18th-overall selection in the first round.

“You always hope to get a player higher on your list,” Hillier told reporters on the scene in Music City. “So if we can get a player in that nine, 10, 11 range in our list, we’d be super excited. I hope that falls that way.”

That last several first-round selections have all been players the Jets said they were surprised were still available when it was their turn to go to the podium, including Cole Perfetti (10th in 2020), Chaz Lucius (18th in 2021), Rutger McGroarty (14th in 2022) and Brad Lambert (30th in 2022).

In this draft, Hillier believes there’s elite talent to be found within the Top 20 before a bit of a drop-off occurs. But exactly how they get selected is a bit of a mystery, beyond a consensus No. 1 such as Connor Bedard.

“A lot of the names up to 20 are the names you hear on other boards. They’re kind of the same players, in different orders,” he said. “I think it changes a little bit after that, or spreads out. But we’ll have our favourite guys. I’m hoping if we stay at 18, we get the guy in the 10 range on our list. You always hope to hit a home run.”

As Hillier alluded, it’s possible some additional trades could alter Winnipeg’s course. At this point, they are also slated to have a third round pick, two fifth-round selections, and one in the seventh round. They previously traded away their second, fourth and sixth-rounders.

One common theme among those recent first-rounders is that they were all forwards. Hillier was asked if that means a defenceman might be on the docket this time around.

“I think we need good players in all positions, so I think we’re taking the best player that we feel is available,” he said.

“But if our first three picks we pick three forwards, we probably want to mix in a D into the mix. But only if it’s close. We’re not going to take a D that we don’t think is as good a player as the forward or vice versa.”

The Jets have also not dipped into Western Hockey League waters much in recent years, which Hillier suggested could change given that “there’s a few guys that could be right in our wheelhouse” this year.

“In a perfect world we’d like to draft lots of Canadians, lots of western players, lots of kids from Winnipeg, but it doesn’t always fall that way,” he said.

“We try to get the best player every pick. We used to think we had the Finnish slant. Then it was the American slant, then the Swedish slant. There’s been no slant. That’s just the way it falls. We try to get the best player, and we’ll continue that way.

Hillier said the organization will continue to put a high priority on character and “hockey sense.”

“I’m not going to mention names, but hockey sense is a key element, for sure. We want good character guys, we want guys that can skate and think the game well,” he said.

“All those ingredients we hope we get in a player in our first pick. And you hope you get some of those things as you move on later in the draft. You’re not going to get them all, or they would have been drafted earlier, but you hope to get some of those elements.”

There’s more emphasis than ever on speed and skill in the NHL. That’s demonstrated by a number of highly-ranked prospects this year who are well under 6-0.

“The game has changed a little bit to let smaller players into the game. Not as much hooking and holding and that type of thing,” said Hillier.

“But for the most part it still is a big man’s game. You watch the playoffs. So it’s all part of the risk-reward evaluating a player. You evaluate the size comparisons. Just like you do hockey sense and skating and competitiveness. If you think that smaller-statured player has all those elements and he plays bigger than his stature, then pull the trigger.”

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @mikemcintyrewpg