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Kristen Shilton, ESPN NHL reporter
The 2024 NHL draft saw many teams select players who have instantly jumped to the top of their prospect pipelines. And for the San Jose Sharks, not only did they get a new top-six center in Macklin Celebrini, but a long-term power-play quarterback and minutes-eating defenseman in Sam Dickinson.
Meanwhile, the Utah Hockey Club brought in two new veteran defensemen in trades — Mikhail Sergachev and John Marino — while the goalie carousel continued spinning, with Logan Thompson and Akira Schmid finding new homes.
With free agency set to begin at noon ET on Monday, what else were executives and other NHL insiders discussing in Las Vegas? Here’s the latest buzz, setting up the next wave of trades and a pivotal free agent market:
The San Jose Sharks were locked in on taking Macklin Celebrini No. 1 overall with the franchise’s first-ever top draft selection. But even after landing Celebrini, there’s a question as to when he’ll actually join the NHL ranks. Celebrini just completed a dominant freshman season at Boston University that made him the youngest-ever winner of the Hobey Baker Award as the NCAA’s top skater. It’s possible Celebrini will return to BU for a sophomore stint given no one has said officially that a jump into the Sharks’ lineup is imminent.
Celebrini himself told reporters on Friday that he doesn’t have a timeline in mind to make a decision about going back to BU, either. And it would be a collaborative process with San Jose anyway in determining whether he’s ready to start what projects to be a successful NHL career.
One scout said it would be a “shock” though if Celebrini weren’t playing for San Jose next season. While there has been debate over Celebrini’s status as a “generational” talent or not, he’s still viewed at a similarly high level with potential to have an immediate impact.
“If [Celebrini] wants to be in the NHL, and the Sharks can see his development is there, it only makes sense to get going,” the scout said. “You picked him for a reason and it’s to build around him now.”
The key will be ensuring Celebrini is fully prepared for that transition. San Jose has a long road ahead getting back to contender status and the worst thing the Sharks could do is rush Celebrini along.
“He’s going to be a good player for a long time,” the scout continued. “There’s no reason he can’t start showing that at the NHL level now if that’s what he ultimately feels ready for.”
1:50
Macklin Celebrini on being taken No. 1: ‘A dream come true’
Macklin Celebrini reflects on being selected with the No. 1 pick by the Sharks in the 2024 NHL draft.
Latest on Stamkos, Guentzel, Trouba
There may not have been many fireworks at the draft itself (save for, you know, those created by Utah and Tampa Bay), but expectations are that free agency itself will be busy — and intriguing — from the start.
Jake Guentzel, Jacob Trouba and Steven Stamkos were hot topics in particular over the weekend, because of how unique each situation is. Even before Lightning GM Julien BriseBois confirmed as much to the media, it was clear Stamkos was going to wade into free agent waters come Monday. Where will the Bolts’ captain go, and what would a team be willing to offer the veteran — who even at 34 has shown he’s capable of being a difference-maker?
“Wouldn’t surprise me to see [Stamkos] get multiple offers he would actually consider,” one exec said. “Term is the thing there.”
Rumblings about whether Tampa Bay cleared the decks to try and reel in Guentzel — and what that deal might look like — kept on going throughout Day 2. The Lightning are also preparing to extend top-pairing defenseman Victor Hedman and will have other potential deals to make, which only adds to the curiosity around what they could offer Guentzel.
“If any team can somehow make it all work, it’ll be Tampa,” one agent joked.
The purported Trouba trade to Detroit never did come to fruition at the draft, despite reported interest on both sides to get it over the line. Trouba has until Monday to submit his 15-team no-trade list, and that could impact where GM Chris Drury can ship Trouba — and his $8 million cap hit over the next two seasons.
We won’t have all the answers until Monday (or beyond). But there was a sense that many teams wouldn’t be holding back going after the big fish on the board.
Teams feeling the NHL schedule crunch
Most years there’s some sort of buffer time between the end of the NHL playoffs and when the draft and free agency get rolling. That was not the case this season.
The Florida Panthers and Edmonton Oilers didn’t wrap up their Stanley Cup Final series until June 24. The draft in Las Vegas was on June 28-29, and then of course July 1 is a busy day on the calendar from there. Teams had to get strategic given their entire staffs would be convening in one location (Vegas) right before expecting to be back in their home cities to carry out free agency duties.
Some clubs simply opted to stay put in the desert and go back later in the week when the frenzy died down. And there was a definite weariness about how this year’s playoff schedule had dragged along more than others.
“I really think it has thrown some people off,” one general manager said. “Hard to explain exactly, but even the conversations you’d be having usually going into free agency haven’t been as wide-ranging yet, maybe just because everyone’s felt more disconnected this spring.”
He also thought a lack of conversation might have been why there weren’t more player trades made during the draft.
“Usually you’d expect more action, but it didn’t feel like [teams] were engaged as much in that way,” the GM continued. “I don’t know. Just a weird year in that respect.”
Contemplating the big decentralized draft questions
Sphere hosted what’s slated to be the final fully in-person draft for the NHL, as the league prepares to follow in the NFL’s footsteps with decentralized drafts from here. In this setup, the team execs will be making calls from their home cities which, given how this year has gone schedule-wise, would be a nice reprieve for some.
That has of course created conversations around where the NHL would hold its event that will, going forward, include only the prospects themselves along with fans.
One executive (jokingly?) suggested Walt Disney World as an ideal location (although logistically that would be … something). But regardless of where the event actually takes place, there was still palpable enthusiasm to see how successfully it might play out.
“There’s a lot fewer distractions, obviously,” the executive said. “Here you’ve got all the music and videos blasting, and tons of people sitting around because you want to bring everyone, but you wind up having [team personnel] just sitting around for a long time. They can do that at home.”
A decentralized draft would include just one or two representatives per club, provide prospects with a Gary Bettman photo opportunity and give them the chance to visit their new team’s facilities at a later time.
“We’ll see how the first one goes,” the exec continued. “But I think we’ll like it.”