Top five 2024 NHL Draft picks with huge steal potential

We’ve had about a week to ruminate on the 225 young men who had their dreams come true in Vegas.

There are the obvious winners – the San Jose Sharks, Chicago Blackhawks and Calgary Flames maximized their value every time they were called to the mic. But for the most part, with an influx of quality pick slots, those selections were easy.

Picking Macklin Celebrini is easy. Finding your own Henrik Zetterberg, Jamie Benn or Mattias Ekholm is how you earn your reputation as a scout. Realistically, we’re all projecting value at this point – not one player from the 2024 NHL Draft has played a meaningful hockey game since getting selected. But this is where you show your full support for your scouting staff – the people paid to watch these kids for two to three years at a time, at least – and hope they know best.

It’s still early, but which teams are betting high on a player with flaws but a solid pathway forward? Here’s a look at five selections from 2024 that could pay off in a big way

Terik Parascak, LW (Washington Capitals)

With a 105-point rookie season with Prince George, Parascak was one of the most productive players in this draft class. Still, many scouts had him outside the first round due to his skating and lack of play-driving. You can’t blame a guy for having good linemates, but it was hard to watch his game and not see his linemates do a lot of the heavy lifting. But you don’t score nearly 50 goals and over 100 points by accident. There are a lot of similarities in the way Parascak was viewed as Gabe Perreault last year, and the concerns were legitimate.

But, man, most players in this draft class would kill to finish plays like Parascak. He’s got that going for him. But can he add more speed? Can he be better in transition, learn to make plays more than just finishing them, and add a physical element to his game? There are a lot of works in progress in Parascak’s game, but we’re talking about someone who came along so much in his first WHL season. The Capitals are betting on skill and general upside and I can’t blame them for that. This can be a huge boom pick for a team that needs it.

Aron Kiviharju, LHD (Minnesota Wild)

Under no circumstances should Kiviharju have gone as late as he did. Before his leg injury in the fall, Kiviharju was destined to be a first-rounder, even as high as the top 10. For years, Kiviharju was viewed as one of the top prospects for the 2024 draft because of how well he played against older competition, even as a smaller defenseman. But after playing under 20 games total this year and finishing it off with an unspectacular showing at the U-18 World Championship, Kiviharju’s stock dropped significantly.

Sure, outside the first round, I get it. Fall to the third round? Maybe. Fourth? That felt way too long for a defender who can make things happen with the puck. There are definitely question marks about how he’ll bounce back after missing so much time, but I fully expect the dynamic, skilled blueliner to bounce back in a big way next year and show what he’s capable of while leading Finland’s World Junior team.

Adam Kleber, RHD (Buffalo Sabres)

Few defenders had as big of a second half as Kleber, who kept racking up ice time for a Lincoln Stars team that benefited from his presence in a big way. I watched him during the 2023 Hlinka Gretzky Camp and again this week at the Buffalo Sabres prospect camp – it felt like a completely different player out there. He’s more confident, showing real offensive instincts and using his 6-foot-6 frame to his advantage.

Kleber isn’t going to be an offensive defender in the NHL, but he’s much more than just a big body out there with the way he moves and skates with the puck. At 42nd overall, I think Kleber is going to be a better defenseman than a lot of the guys taken before him.

Justin Poirier, RW (Carolina Hurricanes)

The Hurricanes have a reputation for taking players the internet seems to like, and while not all of them end up panning out, they do tend to take chances on players with immense skill, regardless of their flaws. That’s part of why I love Poirier at No. 156 near the end of the fifth round – few players remaining could touch his skill, and he was the best goal-scorer still on the board at the time.

Poirier had a lovely season with Baie-Comeau, scoring 69 goals between the regular season and playoffs. He’s always been a goal-scorer dating back to his minor hockey days, although he’s becoming a better heads-up passer. But at 5-foot-8 and not a ton of muscle, there are concerns about how he’ll translate to the NHL. He clearly lacks size, but not skill. Will Poirier become Carolina’s Joshua Roy – a prospect who can decimate goalies, but might be vertically challenged and still carve a way into playing some NHL games early on? I think he will.

Christian Humphreys, C (Colorado Avalanche)

When surveying members of the USA Hockey National Team Development Program this year, Humphreys was the name that kept coming up when discussing the most underrated member of the team. They key takeaway was that they thought he didn’t get the numbers he deserved, despite still scoring 23 goals and 58 points in 52 games. When Humphreys was selected to represent the USNTDP, he was considered to be one of the top AAA players in the nation, and I feel like he’s taken his game many steps forward since then.

To see a playmaker as productive as him, and with the ability to be plugged in anywhere in a lineup and cause damage, fall to the seventh round doesn’t make much sense to me. He’s not overly physical, and his skating is still a work in progress, but he does so much in open space to be dangerous. The University of Michigan commit needs to develop more top speed if he’s going to take a step forward in his career. It was totally worth throwing a seventh-round pick Humphreys’ way to give Colorado a potential bottom-six forward with skill and the ability to play center and the wing.

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