NHL Draft Grades 2023 By Team

A team's choice of a capable NHL entrant determines its win. However, their turn to choose a player and get them to agree to their contract under their terms and conditions, and the right pay brings a big difference.

Regarding the 2023 NHL Entry Draft, a draft lottery was held on May 8, 2023, undoubtedly making its winner the ultimate winner for the rest of the draft night.

With them being the absolute winner at the draft event, the following list sheds light on further clubs who became winners due to their picks:

• Chicago Blackhawks
• Anaheim Ducks
• Philadelphia Flyers
• Columbus Blue Jackets
• San Jose Sharks
• St. Louis Blues
• Washington Capitals
• Buffalo Sabres
• New York Rangers

The Blackhawks took home the real deal at the draft as they picked Connor Bedard, the No.1 prospect for the draft season. Along with the center-playing Connor, the team also picked another center Oliver Moore, the No.8 prospect in the first round.

On Day 2, they picked further impressive players, including Adam Gajan, Roman Kantserov, Martin Misiak, Nick Lardis, Jiri Felcman, Alex Pharand, Marcel Marcel, Milton Osxarson, and Janne Peltonen, to add value to their team.

Anaheim Ducks were second in line to choose a player, and they picked Leo Carlsson in the first round. Their second-day choices were Nico Myatovic, Carey Terrance, Damian Clara, Coulson Pitre, Yegor Sidorov, Konnor Smith, Rodwin Dionicio, and Vojtech Port.

Meanwhile, the following list includes the name of the losers of the 2023 NHL draft:

• Toronto Maple Leafs
• Arizona Coyotes
• Minnesota Wild
• Ottawa Senators

As mentioned above, the Maple Leafs could be named one of the unlucky teams this year. They were set to pick a player at the 28th position in the first round and went with Easton Cowan.

While Cowan has remained an impressive player at OHL, the Leafs were out of options in the 1st round to secure any top prospects this season.

In terms of the Arizona Coyotes, though, they were in the sixth position and had a fair chance to choose some top players; they went with Dmitri Simashev at No. 6 and Daniil But at No.12.

Chicago Blackhawks won the 2023 NHL Draft as they drafted Connor Bedard, a 17-year-old center rated highly as a generational prospect.

While the Blackhawks and Anaheim Ducks won the first and second picks overall in the draft lottery, the remaining teams picked from third to sixteenth. The teams' draft order is sorted by their season record; the worst-record team gets to choose first.

The Blackhawks won the lottery with an odd of 11.5% in comparison to the Ducks' 25.5%. Meanwhile, the Ducks had finally won the second-round lottery with 18.8% odds, the highest in the round.

While the lottery set the two team's place for the NHL draft, the Blue Jackets, San Jose Sharks, Canadiens, Coyotes, Flyers, Capitals, Wings, and Blues, followed from the third to the tenth choices in the first round.

A total of 224 ice hockey players were selected in the 2023 NHL Entry Draft event held between seven rounds in two days. 51 Canadians made it to the league, followed by 28 Americans per Round 4.

Adding to the same data from Round 4, 13 players from Sweden, ten from Russia, eight from Finland, seven from Slovakia, five from Czechia, three from Belarus, and each one from Austria, Denmark, and Italy, made history at the draft event. 

Hundreds of ice hockey prospects around North America and Europe aimed to be drafted in the 2023 NHL Draft. The teams heavily relied on these players' rankings to decide on draft day.

While Bedard led the chart from North America, Carlsson did the same from Europe. Thus, both became the first and second choices of the draft lottery winners on the fateful day.

NHL draft first round grades for the top 10 players are listed below:

• Connor Bedard
• Leo Carlsson
• Adam Fantilli
• Matvei Michkov
• William Smith
• Dalibor Dvorsky
• Matthew Wood
• Eduard Sale
• Ryan Leonard
• David Reinbacher

Adam Fantilli was selected 3rd overall by the Columbus Blue Jackets, while Philadelphia Flyers drafted Matvei Michkov as the 7th overall pick.

Meanwhile, William Smith became the 4th overall choice of the San Jose Sharks, while St. Louis Blues selected Dvorsky as the 10th overall pick.

Nashville Predators drafted Matthew Wood as the 15th overall selection while Eduard Sale became the 20th overall pick of the Seattle Kraken.

Leonard was booked as an eight-overall pick by the Capitals, while Reinbacher went home as the fifth-overall pick by the Montreal Canadiens.

NHL released the official 2023 Draft Prospect Rankings way before the draft. While all these ten players did their best to make it to the Top 10 rankings, the team's draft place put them much farther in position during the big day.

Now that all of them have found a place in the league, they look forward to making their NHL debut when the new season starts in October.