The first round of the 2023 NHL Draft starts tonight, and Pro Hockey Rumors is your destination for draft coverage, trades, and rumors throughout the two-day event!
Last season saw a few big names moved at the draft, and we’re expected to see some more big moves over the coming days. Some big-time news has already come in, such as 2016 top-five pick Pierre-Luc Dubois heading to Los Angeles and the New Jersey Devils locking in Timo Meier on a massive extension.
The Chicago Blackhawks hold tonight’s first overall pick, and they’ll be the lucky team where the most coveted prospect in nearly a decade will start his career. Center Connor Bedard is in the conversation with Alex Ovechkin, Connor McDavid, Sidney Crosby, and Auston Matthews as a true generational talent.
The Anaheim Ducks hold the second pick and are expected to draft University of Michigan center Adam Fantilli, who became only the third freshman ever to win the Hobey Baker Award for the top player in college hockey. There’s some room for surprise, though, especially with Russian forward Matvei Michkov. Michkov is widely regarded to be the best prospect out of Russia since Ovechkin, but could fall out of the first few selections given his contract status overseas and the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine – potentially to Ovechkin’s Washington Capitals, who hold the eighth overall pick.
Pro Hockey Rumors will have coverage of all of the above, keeping track of draft selections as they come in while keeping you updated on trades, signings, and rumors. It’s the busiest time of the year for NHL fans, so keep up with Pro Hockey Rumors and follow @ProHockeyRumors on Twitter for instant analysis on every move!
Out of curiosity I decided to browse the other traderumors sites, and I’m a bit surprised that mlbtr has the most activity as far as the comments section is concerned. Supposedly football and basketball are more popular in the US than baseball, or so I’ve heard, but yet this site just has much more interaction.
Football and basketball? RUBBISH!!! That’s why less people follow it than baseball. Football games last 3+ hours. Wait til manfred finds out!
Mellon…I think part of that is that basketball and football (and maybe NASCAR?) has far more casual fans. The rumors sites as a whole are more geared more hardcore sports fans.
If you want to be bummed a bit about the number of hockey fans on the sister site, check out the hockey chats. It’s like a small handful of fans and the host. It’s a stark difference from the baseball chats.
It appears football fans don’t care in the off-season. They care when it involves their fantasy football team and when they can bet on the games