2024 NHL Draft: Mid-Late 1st Centers (Boisvert, Hage, Luchanko, Beaudoin)
The following group of centers are likely to go at the earliest around pick 15. This looks like an unpredictable draft, so anything could change, but they feel firmly outside of the first wave.
The first two are quite different players who both plied their trades in the USHL and will both be going to established NCAA programs this upcoming year.
At first blush, Boisvert looks like a dynamic center without weaknesses. He’s got balanced offense with excellent playmaking. In transition, he’s much better than his team at creating controlled transition (which could mean he’s set up in easier situations) and caps them off with successful cutbacks and delays.
He rounds that out with excellent defensive impacts and especially good forechecking. He’s highly involved in his teams offense, he upgrades possession routinely, gets off the wall and gives the puck to his teammates in good space.
In short, his actions on the ice look highly translatable. On tape, he’s going to have work to do to bring these actions to the NHL. His skating just isn’t quite there. The good part is that he’s found alternate ways to impact the game.
The other good thing is that his knowledge this past season could be legitimate and durable. Darryl Belfry joined as Vice President of Hockey Operations. Perhaps, then, Boisvert’s forechecking and spatial connecting impact can more easily translate to the NHL.
Where he may not have NHL caliber skating he may have “spider”-like tendencies that allow him to dictate actions without it. If this is the case, we could expect him to be an excellent F3 and play connector with some potential for more depending on development. Boisvert will have plenty of time to develop in an excellent program at North Dakota and the extended development curve could pay off.
For Hage, there are many ways where he’s the opposite of Boisvert. Hage trades efficiency for volume. Exits, Entries, Slot Passes all completed at a very high volume suggest that he was carrying a large burden for his team.
His abilities in transition, whether carrying (Advantages for Self), accessing the middle lane, delaying or moving the puck crosslane are quite excellent. As such, it makes sense that he’s primarily a rush creator.
The Chicago Steel did not have the surrounding talent that the Muskegon Lumberjacks had. Hage owned his domain as a primary puck-carrier so his increased volume and production off of the rush suggests that, even with minimal help, he’s able to produce.
Transition might be Hage’s tentpole skill.
Defensively, Hage brought solid results, but poor forechecking, but really shined for his capacity to improve possessions (xG Buildup) through solo efforts while creating space for his teammates. His off-puck assists suggest a player who is comfortable weaponizing his speed to drive shooting lanes for his teammates.
Hage, too, is going to a storied program at the University of Michigan.
These next two centers are significantly more defense oriented.
Jett Luchanko is diminuitive but doesn’t play like it. He’s absolutely tenacious and extremely competitive.
He doesn’t have a standout offensive ability but is in constant motion on the forecheck and tries to clean up pucks around the net. This isn’t your “post-up and take crosschecks” type of rebound play but someone who is more opportunistic.
Luchanko doesn’t have too much going on in terms of transition but he outperforms his team in terms of efficiency. Largely, he looks like an excellent backchecker who competes very well for the middle of the ice in the defensive zone.
While he’s decent at getting off the wall and creating advantages for teammates it’s most likely that his middle drives and body positioning carry him at the next level. He’ll have a lot of work to do against NHL athletes but if he carries over his competitiveness and learns to control bodies early he’ll have a great pathway to success.
Cole Beaudoin looks quite a lot like Boone Jenner on the ice, especially with his skating, but he’s a phenomenal athlete in incredible shape. I think that could be overselling some of Boone Jenner’s capabilities but it’s still notable that Jenner executes at the NHL level with his style of skating and strength.
Little offense from Beaudoin but still some intriguing standout skills. His capacity to drive zone exits could make him an incredibly appealing add to any NHL roster. The game is moving away from rigid positions which means predicting the future of the NHL can be quite hairy.
Still, it looks like there are a few directions. The game is somewhat separating into “defensive triangle” and wings but also asking defensemen to play more like wings as well.
In that sense, if Cole Beaudoin is a highly valuable defensive triangle player he could be a perfect “backfill” type candidate for a wing who wants to play like a center but who isn’t great in the triangle.
Similarly, if Beaudoin can win battles on the walls, defend the netfront, recover pucks and start zone exits he could also create a lot of space of eagerly activating defensemen.
Making sure he learns to protect the slot and find the finer body control techniques, not exclusively relying on strength, could be the difference between him becoming Boone Jenner or something more like a true matchup center.
If he continues to improve puck-moving alongside, he could be the ideal future defensive C.