The Athletic

Welcome to my mock of the 2022 NHL Draft’s first round. After completing my own draft work for this year’s class, I’ve spent recent weeks considering targets for each team and asking around about potential fits as the draft order has taken shape. This piece is a pivot away from the work that goes into building my own draft board. Instead of being a reflection of the players I would choose at each slot, it attempts to match my sense for the consensus about these players with the information I’ve gathered about specific interest in them, team needs and my understanding of each club’s amateur scouting preferences. It’s meant to be my best guess for how things will play out. I’ve also mapped out contingencies and other likely considerations listed wherever relevant (and wherever I feel comfortable enough to hypothesize).